Reported past questions (-mış mı?)

Asking for Gossip: The Reported Past Question

When you want to ask if something supposedly happened or check on a rumor, use the reported past question form. It's the perfect tense for catching up on neighborhood gossip or engagement drama.

To build a reported past question, take the verb in the reported past tense (-mIş), leave a space, and add the question particle (mI). Both suffixes follow 4-way vowel harmony:

• Last vowel a, ı → add -mış mı? (kaçmak → kaçmış mı?)
• Last vowel e, i → add -miş mi? (gelmek → gelmiş mi?)
• Last vowel o, u → add -muş mu? (duymak → duymuş mu?)
• Last vowel ö, ü → add -müş mü? (gülmek → gülmüş mü?)

Negative Reported Past Questions

To ask if something apparently did not happen, combine the negative suffix (-mA) with the reported past and question particles.

Because the negative suffix only has two forms under 2-way vowel harmony (-ma or -me), the suffixes that follow simplify into just two combinations:

• -mamış mı? (last vowel a, ı, o, u)
• -memiş mi? (last vowel e, i, ö, ü)