Breakdown of Çavuş gece nöbet tutmuş mu?
gece
night
mi
question particle (mı/mi/mu/mü)
tutmak
to catch / to hold
nöbet
guard duty
çavuş
sergeant
Questions & Answers about Çavuş gece nöbet tutmuş mu?
Why does the English translation include the word "reportedly"?
This comes from the suffix -muş on the verb tutmuş. In Turkish, the -miş past tense (which becomes -muş here due to vowel harmony) is used for things you didn't see yourself but heard about or inferred. It's often called the "hearsay" or "evidential" past tense. If the speaker had seen the sergeant on duty with their own eyes, they would have used the definite past tense: tuttu.
Why is the verb tutmak used for "keep watch"?
The verb tutmak generally means "to hold" or "to keep," but it forms many common pairings with nouns in Turkish. Nöbet tutmak (literally "to hold guard") is the fixed phrase used for "to keep watch," "to stand guard," or "to be on duty."
Why is it just gece and not gecede for "at night"?
Why is mu used instead of mı at the end of the sentence?
The yes/no question particle follows 4-way vowel harmony based on the word right before it. Since the last vowel in tutmuş is u, the particle becomes mu. Even though it harmonizes with the verb, it is always written as a separate word.
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