Questions & Answers about Karısı doktor muymuş?
Why is there a -muş on the question particle if the English translation is just present tense?
The -muş here shows that the speaker is asking about information they heard or learned from someone else. It is like asking, 'Did you hear if his wife is a doctor?' or 'Is it true what they say, that his wife is a doctor?' English often just uses the present tense 'Is...' for this, but Turkish specifies the secondhand source of the information.
What is the y doing in muymuş?
It is a buffer letter! The reported past suffix -miş was originally a separate word (imiş). When it attaches directly to a word ending in a vowel, like the question particle mu, the i drops and a y is inserted to keep the two vowels from clashing. Following 4-way vowel harmony, mu + imiş becomes muymuş.
How would the meaning change if I just asked Karısı doktor mu?
Karısı doktor mu? is a simple, direct question: 'Is his wife a doctor?' You would ask this if you just want to know a straightforward fact. By adding -muş to make Karısı doktor muymuş?, you are specifically asking about rumors, secondhand information, or confirming something you were told.
Let's review karısı. Which suffix is attached to karı?
The suffix -sı is the third-person singular possessive suffix. Karı means 'wife', so adding -sı makes it 'his wife'. Because karı ends in a vowel, it uses the s buffer before the possessive vowel ı.
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