Learn Turkish: Baban kanepede horluyor muydu? - Was your father snoring on the couch?

We use the present continuous ending -yor on the verb, followed by the question word mu combined with the past tense ending -du. So horluyor means he is snoring, and adding muydu makes it was he snoring? Notice the buffer letter y in muydu that connects the two suffixes.

Why is the verb spelled horluyor instead of horlayor?

The dictionary form of the verb is horlamak (to snore). When adding the -yor ending to a verb root that ends in a or e (like horla-), that final vowel drops or changes. Here, the a narrows to a u to match the vowel harmony rules, giving us horluyor.

Why does the sentence use baban instead of just baba?

Baban means your father. It has the possessive ending -n attached to baba (father) to show that it belongs to you. If the sentence was just asking about the father, it would be Baba kanepede horluyor muydu?.

What does the -de ending do in kanepede?