Breakdown of Lütfen kediye aşı yapar mısınız?
kedi
cat
yapmak
to do / to make
lütfen
please
mi
question particle (also mı/mu/mü)
Questions & Answers about Lütfen kediye aşı yapar mısınız?
How does yapar mısınız translate to "Will you please..."?
In Turkish, polite requests are often made using the aorist tense (the "simple present" or "habitual" tense) in question form. Yapar is the aorist form of yapmak (to do). Adding the formal or plural question particle mısınız creates a polite "Would you do?" or "Will you do?".
Why do we use the dative case in kediye instead of the accusative case kediyi?
In English, you vaccinate a cat (making it the direct object). But in Turkish, the phrase for vaccinating is aşı yapmak, which literally translates as "to do a vaccine". Therefore, you are doing a vaccine to the cat, which requires the dative (direction) ending -e. Because kedi ends in a vowel, we add the buffer letter -y-, making it kediye.
Could I use the present continuous tense yapıyor musunuz instead to ask this?
You could, but it completely changes the meaning. Yapıyor musunuz? is a factual question meaning "Are you vaccinating the cat (right now)?" or "Do you generally vaccinate cats?". To make a polite request asking someone to actually do the action for you, you must use the aorist tense form yapar mısınız?.
Is Lütfen required to make this polite?