Breakdown of Herkes düğünde dans etmiş mi?
herkes
everyone
dans etmek
to dance
mi
question particle (mı/mi/mu/mü)
düğün
wedding
Questions & Answers about Herkes düğünde dans etmiş mi?
Why are we using etmiş mi instead of etti mi?
The suffix -miş is the reported or inferential past tense. You use etmiş mi when you are asking about an event you didn't witness yourself. It translates to 'Did they supposedly dance?' or 'I heard they danced, is that true?'. If you were just asking a direct factual question without that 'supposedly' feeling, you would use etti mi.
Since herkes means 'everyone' (a lot of people), why doesn't the verb have the plural suffix -ler (etmişler mi)?
Just like in English where we say 'everyone is' rather than 'everyone are', the Turkish word herkes is treated as grammatically singular. Therefore, it takes the standard third-person singular verb form etmiş, not the plural etmişler.
What makes up the word düğünde?
It is the root word düğün (wedding) combined with the locative case suffix -de (at/in/on). Because the last vowel in düğün is ü, vowel harmony rules dictate that we use -de rather than -da.
Why is the question particle mi written as a separate word instead of being attached to the verb?