Learn Turkish: Damat büyük bir yüzük almış mı? - Did the groom supposedly buy a big ring?

Damat büyük bir yüzük almış mı?

Did the groom supposedly buy a big ring?

Breakdown of Damat büyük bir yüzük almış mı?

question particle (mı/mi/mu/mü)

Questions & Answers about Damat büyük bir yüzük almış mı?

Why do we use almış instead of the regular past tense aldı here?

The word almış uses the inferential or reported past tense (-mış). By asking almış mı?, you are asking to confirm a rumor or something you did not witness yourself. It carries the meaning of 'Did he supposedly buy...?' or 'I hear he bought... is that true?'. If you used aldı mı?, it would just be a standard, direct factual question.

Why is the word order büyük bir yüzük instead of bir büyük yüzük?

In Turkish, when you have an adjective (like büyük, big) and the indefinite article bir (a/an), the word bir goes right before the noun, squeezed between the adjective and the noun. So 'a big ring' naturally becomes büyük bir yüzük.

Doesn't the verb almak usually mean 'to take'? Why does the translation say 'buy'?

Yes, the root verb almak literally means 'to take' or 'to get', but it is also the most common verb used for 'to buy' in everyday Turkish. The context usually makes the meaning clear, very much like saying 'I got a big ring' in English.