Question 1

How do we form the "was watching" question in izliyor muydu?

Accepted Answer

It combines the present continuous verb izliyor ("is watching") with the question particle mu, a buffer letter y, and the past tense suffix -du ("was"). Whenever you want to ask "was someone doing something?", you take the -iyor form of the verb and add a separate muydu (or muydum, muydun, etc. depending on who you are asking about).

Question 2

The dictionary form of the verb "to watch" is izlemek. Why is it spelled izliyor and not izleyor here?

Accepted Answer

When a verb root ends in the vowels a or e (like izle-), that final vowel "narrows" to ı, i, u, or ü when you add the -iyor suffix. Because the vowel before the e in izle- is an i, the e turns into an i, resulting in izliyor.

Question 3

Why is there an -i at the end of filmi?

Accepted Answer

This is a noun compound. In English, we just put two nouns together ("comedy movie"). In Turkish, when you combine two nouns like this, the second noun gets a possessive suffix. So, komedi + film becomes komedi filmi. Because the sentence links two types of movies with veya (or), the suffix only needs to go on the very last word: komedi veya korku filmi.

Question 4

Since this is a question, shouldn't we use yoksa for "or" instead of veya?

Accepted Answer

You could, but it changes the meaning slightly. Using veya lumps them together as a single general idea: "Was he watching a movie of the comedy-or-horror variety?" If you wanted to ask which of the two specific options he was watching, you would usually use yoksa and repeat the question particle: Komedi filmi mi yoksa korku filmi mi izliyor muydu? (Was he watching a comedy movie, or a horror movie?).

Eşin komedi veya korku filmi izliyor muydu?

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