Breakdown of Misafirin çay içip içmediğini belirtmediler.
çay
tea
içmek
to drink
misafir
guest
belirtmek
to state / to indicate
Questions & Answers about Misafirin çay içip içmediğini belirtmediler.
How does içip içmediğini translate to "whether or not [they] drank"?
This is the standard Turkish formula for indirect "yes/no" questions. You take the positive verb and add -(y)ıp (içip), then immediately follow it with the negative verb using the -DIK participle and a possessive ending (içmediği). Think of it literally as "their drinking and not-drinking".
Why does the sentence use misafirin (genitive case) instead of just misafir?
When you create an embedded clause in Turkish (like "whether the guest drank tea"), the subject of that clause takes the genitive case. This creates a possessive pair with the suffix -i on the verb phrase içmediğini. Grammatically, it functions like "the guest's drinking and not drinking".
Why does içmediğini end with -ni?
Let's break down the end of the word: -i (3rd person possessive, matching the guest) + -n- (buffer letter) + -i (accusative case). The accusative case marker is required here because the entire phrase "whether or not the guest drank tea" is the specific direct object of the main verb belirtmediler (they did not state).
Does içmediğini specifically mean past tense ("drank"), or could it be present tense?
It can be either! The -DIK suffix (which softens to -diğ here) handles both past and present embedded clauses. Depending on the broader context, this sentence could just as easily mean "They did not state whether or not the guest drinks tea." If it were specifically about the future ("whether the guest will drink tea"), you would use the future participle -ecek instead of -dik (içip içmeyeceğini).
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