Breakdown of Şu doksan adam yaşlı mı?
şu
that (pointed out)
adam
man
yaşlı
old (people)
doksan
ninety
mi
question particle (mı/mi/mu/mü)
Questions & Answers about Şu doksan adam yaşlı mı?
Why is it adam (man) instead of adamlar (men) if there are ninety of them?
In Turkish, nouns that come right after a number always stay in the singular form. Since the word doksan (ninety) already tells us there is more than one, adding the plural suffix -lar to adam is unnecessary.
Does the word doksan (ninety) come from the word for nine?
Yes! Just like 'nine' and 'ninety' in English, some Turkish numbers by tens are built on the base numbers. Dokuz is nine, and doksan is ninety. Another similar example is sekiz (eight) and seksen (eighty).
The English translation says 'those,' so why does the Turkish sentence use the singular şu instead of şunlar?
When demonstrative words like bu (this/these), şu (that/those), or o (that/those over there) are used as adjectives right in front of a noun, they never take a plural ending. They only become plural (bunlar, şunlar, onlar) when they stand alone to replace a noun.
Why does the yes/no question particle take the form mı in this sentence?
The question particle follows 4-way vowel harmony, meaning its vowel changes to match the last vowel of the word right before it. The last vowel in yaşlı (old) is ı, so the particle becomes mı.
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