Breakdown of Dün akşam bebek için süt ısıtıyor muydu?
bebek
baby
süt
milk
akşam
evening
için
for
dün
yesterday
mi
question particle (mı/mi/mu/mü)
ısıtmak
to heat up
Questions & Answers about Dün akşam bebek için süt ısıtıyor muydu?
How does the past continuous question work in ısıtıyor muydu?
This tense combines the continuous suffix (-ıyor) with the past tense question word (muydu). First, we take the verb root ısıt- (to heat) and add -ıyor to make ısıtıyor (she is heating). Then, we add the question particle mu, a -y- buffer letter, and the past tense suffix -du. Together, ısıtıyor muydu means "was she heating?".
Where is the word for "she" in this sentence?
Turkish usually drops subject pronouns like o (he/she/it) because the verb ending already tells us who is doing the action. The word muydu doesn't have an extra personal suffix at the end (like the -m in muydum for "was I"), which tells us it's the 3rd person singular. Context determines whether it translates to he, she, or it.
Why is it just süt and not sütü?
Because the sentence is talking about heating "milk" in general, rather than a specific "the milk". In Turkish, direct objects only take the accusative case ending (which would make it sütü) if they are specific or definite.
Does the word bebek need any special ending before için?
No. When using için (for) with regular nouns like bebek (baby), the noun stays in its plain dictionary form: bebek için (for the baby). You only need to add genitive endings before için when you are using personal pronouns or demonstrative pronouns, such as benim için (for me) or bunun için (for this).
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