Breakdown of Köpek korkuyor. Tüylerini okşar mısın?
köpek
dog
korkmak
to fear
mi
question particle (mı/mi/mu/mü)
tüy
fur / feather
okşamak
to pet / to stroke
Questions & Answers about Köpek korkuyor. Tüylerini okşar mısın?
How does okşar mısın make this a polite request?
To make a polite request in Turkish, we often use the aorist tense as a question. The verb is okşamak (to stroke). We add the aorist ending -r to get okşar, followed by the question word and the informal 'you' ending: mısın. While it literally means 'Do you stroke?', it functions exactly like 'Will you stroke?' or 'Would you stroke?' in English.
Could I say okşuyor musun instead to ask someone to stroke the dog?
No, because okşuyor musun uses the present continuous tense (-üyor). That translates to 'Are you stroking?' and is just a factual question about what someone is doing right now. For asking someone to do a favor, you need the aorist form okşar mısın?.
What are all the suffixes at the end of tüylerini?
Let's break it down! The root is tüy (hair/fur). We add -ler to make it plural (tüyler). Next comes the possessive suffix -i to mean 'its' (tüyleri). Because the fur is the direct object receiving the action of the verb, it needs the accusative case ending. We use the buffer letter -n- to separate the vowels, and then add the accusative -i, resulting in tüylerini.
Doesn't tüy mean feather? Why is it used for a dog?
Yes, tüy means feather, but it is also the standard word used for the body hair or fur of animals like dogs and cats. For the hair on a human's head, you would use saç instead.
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