Learn Turkish: Çekmecedeki değerli yüzüğü gördün mü? - Did you see the valuable ring in the drawer?

It breaks down into çekmece (drawer), the locative suffix -de (in), and the adjective-forming suffix -ki. The -ki suffix turns the location into an adjective describing the ring, so çekmecedeki literally means "the-in-the-drawer".

Why does the word for ring, yüzük, change to yüzüğü here?

We add the specific direct object suffix (the accusative case) -ü because you are asking about a specific ring. When a vowel suffix is added to a word ending in k, the k softens into a ğ.

Could I drop the -ki and just say çekmecede?

If you said Çekmecede değerli yüzüğü gördün mü?, it would sound like "Did you see the valuable ring while you were in the drawer?" Adding -ki connects the location directly to the ring itself, making it "the ring that is in the drawer".

How is the word değerli (valuable) formed?

It comes from the noun değer (value). By adding the suffix -li (which means "with" or "having"), it turns into an adjective meaning "having value" or "valuable".

Why is the question particle instead of ?