Learn Turkish: Polis sokakta çocuk arıyor mu? - Is the police officer looking for a child in the street?

To ask a yes/no question in the present continuous tense for 'he/she/it', we take the verb with the continuous suffix (arıyor) and add the question word mu as a separate word. Because the suffix -yor always contains the vowel 'o', the question word that follows it for third-person subjects will always be mu.

The dictionary form of the verb is aramak (to look for). Why does it become arıyor?

When a verb root ends in a wide vowel like 'a' or 'e' (like the root ara-), and we add the -yor ending, that final vowel 'narrows' to fit the suffix. Here, the 'a' in ara- changes to an 'ı', making the word arıyor instead of arayor.

Why does 'in the street' use -ta in sokakta instead of -da?

The suffix for 'in', 'on', or 'at' is normally -da or -de. However, because the word sokak ends with a hard consonant ('k'), Turkish consonant harmony rules require the 'd' in the suffix to harden into a 't'. This changes it to sokakta making it easier to pronounce.

Why doesn't çocuk have a suffix here?