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Questions & Answers about Çocuk nereye koşuyor?
Why do we use nereye instead of nerede here?
Nerede means "where" as in a fixed location. Because the child is moving towards a destination in this sentence, we must use the directional question word nereye, which translates to "where to".
How is the word nereye formed?
It takes the base nere- (what place) and adds the directional "to" suffix -e. Because nere- ends in a vowel, we need the buffer letter -y- to separate the vowels, resulting in nereye.
Why doesn't the question word go at the beginning of the sentence?
In Turkish, question words usually go directly in front of the verb. Since the verb (koşuyor) is at the end of the sentence, nereye goes right before it. A literal translation is "Child where-to is running?".
What is the -uyor suffix doing in koşuyor?
It is the present continuous tense, equivalent to "-ing" in English. Added to the verb root koş- (run), it shows that the child is currently in the middle of running.