Breakdown of O yorgun adam televizyon izliyor ve esniyor muydu?
o
that / he / she / it
adam
man
yorgun
tired
televizyon
television
ve
and
izlemek
to watch
mi
question particle (mı/mi/mu/mü)
esnemek
to yawn
Questions & Answers about O yorgun adam televizyon izliyor ve esniyor muydu?
How is the "was he...?" question formed in this sentence, and why is it exactly muydu?
The past continuous question is made of the continuous ending -iyor (doing) plus the question particle mu and the past tense marker -du (was). Because -iyor always ends with the vowel 'o', 4-way vowel harmony dictates that the question particle must take the 'u' form. The 'y' is a buffer letter to separate the vowels. Therefore, "was he doing?" is always -iyor muydu.
Why isn't there a muydu after izliyor as well?
In Turkish, when you list multiple actions happening in the exact same tense for the same subject and connect them with ve (and), you only need to put the final tense and question markers on the very last verb. The muydu at the end of esniyor applies backward to izliyor as well, saving you from repeating it.
The verb for "to watch" is izlemek. Why is it spelled izliyor here instead of izleyiyor?
When a verb stem ends in a vowel (like the 'e' in izle-), that vowel is dropped or narrowed when we add the continuous -iyor ending. So, izle- loses its 'e' and combines with -iyor to become izliyor. You can see the exact same rule happening with the second verb: esnemek (to yawn) loses its 'e' to become esniyor.
I learned that o means "he", "she", or "it". Why is it translated as "that" here?
You are correct that o is the personal pronoun for "he", "she", or "it" when used on its own. However, when it is placed directly in front of a noun phrase like yorgun adam (tired man), it acts as a demonstrative adjective meaning "that".
Learn O yorgun adam televizyon izliyor ve esniyor muydu and more in Turkish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free