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Questions & Answers about Çocuklar yorgun mu?
Why is the question particle mu here instead of mı or mi?
It follows 4-way vowel harmony based on the word right before it. The last word is yorgun (tired) and its final vowel is u. Under 4-way vowel harmony rules, if the last vowel is o or u, the question particle becomes mu.
Is the question particle mu attached to the word before it?
No, the yes/no question particle is always written as a separate word with a space before it. Even though it stands alone, it still looks back at the previous word (yorgun) to figure out its vowel harmony.
Where is the word for "are" in this sentence?
In Turkish, "to be" (am, is, are) is normally a suffix added to the end of a sentence rather than a separate word. However, for third-person subjects like çocuklar (the children), that suffix is often completely dropped. The question particle mu at the end simply turns the statement "The children are tired" into the question "Are the children tired?"
Why does çocuk (child) take the -lar ending for plural instead of -ler?
The plural suffix uses 2-way vowel harmony. You look at the last vowel of the word, which in çocuk is u. Because u is a "back" vowel, it takes the matching back-vowel suffix -lar.