Learn Turkish: Adam para ödüyor mu? - Is the man paying money?

In Turkish, the yes/no question particle (mı/mi/mu/mü) is always written as a separate word, even though it follows vowel harmony rules based on the word right before it. Since the last vowel in ödüyor is 'o', the particle becomes mu.

The dictionary form of 'to pay' is ödemek. Why does it become ödüyor instead of ödeyor?

When a verb root ends in a vowel (like the 'e' in öde-), that vowel is dropped or narrowed when we add the present continuous suffix -yor. Because the preceding vowel in the root is 'ö', the dropped 'e' is replaced by an 'ü' to match vowel harmony, giving us ödüyor.

Does para mean 'money' or 'the money' here? Why doesn't it have a suffix?

Here, para just means 'money' in a general sense. Because it is an indefinite object (he is paying some money, not a specific sum already mentioned), it stays in its bare dictionary form. If we meant 'Is he paying the money?', we would use the specific object suffix and say parayı.

How do we know Adam means 'the man' and not just 'a man'?