Breakdown of Bardakta su var mı?
su
water
var
there is / existent
bardak
glass / cup
mi
question particle (mı/mi/mu/mü)
Questions & Answers about Bardakta su var mı?
How do we turn var (there is) into a question?
You simply add the question particle mı after it. In Turkish, yes/no questions are formed by adding this particle. Because var has the broad vowel 'a', vowel harmony dictates that we use mı rather than mi. So, var mı? means 'Is there?' or 'Are there?'.
Why does bardak (glass) take the ending -ta instead of -da for 'in'?
The suffix for 'in', 'on', or 'at' (the locative case) is normally -da or -de. However, bardak ends in a hard consonant ('k'). In Turkish, when you add a suffix starting with 'd' to a word ending in a hard consonant, the 'd' hardens into a 't' to match it. This rule is often called consonant mutation, and it gives us bardakta instead of bardakda.
Why does bardakta (in the glass) come at the very beginning of the sentence?
When stating or asking if something exists in a specific place, Turkish uses a very consistent word order: [Location] + [Object] + var (or yok for 'there is not'). Since we are asking about what is in the glass, the location (bardakta) goes first, followed by the object (su), and then the existence word and question particle (var mı).
There is no word for 'the' or 'any' in the Turkish sentence. How do we know it translates to 'in the glass'?