Breakdown of Biz şimdi oyun oynuyor muyuz?
biz
we
şimdi
now
oynamak
to play
oyun
game
mi
question particle (mı/mi/mu/mü)
Questions & Answers about Biz şimdi oyun oynuyor muyuz?
The dictionary form of the verb is oynamak (to play). Why is it spelled oynuyor instead of "oynayor"?
When a verb root ends in the wide vowels a or e (like oyna-), that vowel is dropped or "narrowed" into ı, i, u, or ü before adding the -yor suffix. Because of vowel harmony, the a changes to a u, giving us oynuyor.
Why is the question particle mu and not mı or mi?
The question particle changes its vowel to match the last vowel of the word right before it (4-way vowel harmony). The last vowel in oynuyor is o. The rule says if the last vowel is o or u, the question particle must be mu. In fact, because the present continuous tense always ends in -yor, the question word that follows it will always start as mu!
What is the y doing in muyuz?
The question particle is mu and the personal ending for "we" is -uz. In Turkish, you generally cannot put two vowels right next to each other. To connect them smoothly, we add the buffer letter y in between: mu + y + uz = muyuz.
In English, we can just ask "Are we playing now?". Why does the Turkish sentence include oyun (game)?
In Turkish, it is very common to pair the noun oyun (game) with the verb oynamak (to play) as a set phrase. While you can technically just say Biz şimdi oynuyor muyuz?, saying oyun oynamak sounds much more natural when you mean playing a game or playing in general.
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