Learn Turkish: Kedi bu mamayı yemeyecek, onu sen besler misin? - The cat won't eat this food, will you feed it?

In Turkish, polite requests are usually made using the aorist (simple present) tense in question form. While the first part is a literal prediction about the future (yemeyecek - won't eat), the second part is a polite request asking "would you feed?" or "will you please feed?"

How is the polite request besler misin built?

It comes from the verb beslemek (to feed). We drop the -mek and add the aorist tense suffix -r (because the verb root ends in a vowel) to get besler. Then we add the question particle mi followed by the "you" personal ending -sin, making besler misin?

If misin already means "you", why is the word sen in the sentence?

Turkish often drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already tells us who is acting, but here sen is added for emphasis. Because the cat won't eat on its own, the speaker is contrasting the situation and asking, "will you feed it (instead)?"

What does the word onu refer to in this sentence, the cat or the food?