Breakdown of Minibardan bir şey alıp almadığınızı kontrol ediyorlar.
bir
a / an
almak
to take, to buy
kontrol etmek
to check
şey
thing
Questions & Answers about Minibardan bir şey alıp almadığınızı kontrol ediyorlar.
How exactly does alıp almadığınızı translate to "whether or not you took"?
This is the standard Turkish formula for an indirect yes/no question. You take the verb root (al-), add the connecting suffix -ıp, and repeat the verb with the negative suffix (-ma-) and the object participle (-dık, softened to -dığ-). Finally, you add a possessive ending to show who did or didn't do it. Here, -ınız means "you" (formal/plural), so alıp almadığınız literally means "your taking or not taking".
Doesn't the -(y)ıp suffix normally mean "and then"?
Yes! In other contexts, -(y)ıp links two sequential actions together, acting like "and". However, when it directly connects a positive verb root to its own negative counterpart (like al-ıp al-ma-), it forms a fixed grammatical structure that means "whether or not".
Why is there an extra -ı at the very end of almadığınızı?
That final -ı is the accusative case suffix. The entire phrase bir şey alıp almadığınız (whether or not you took something) acts as the direct object of the main verb kontrol ediyorlar (they are checking). Because the phrase ends with a possessive suffix (-ınız), it is considered specific and must take the accusative case.
Why does the sentence use bir şey instead of hiçbir şey if the English translation says "anything"?