Question Particle (mı, mi, mu, mü) in Turkish

The Turkish Question Particle (mı, mi, mu, mü) is the universal tool for creating yes/no questions. It follows Minor Vowel Harmony (4-way -I) to match the preceding word: a, ı → mı; e, i → mi; o, u → mu; ö, ü → mü.

Two crucial rules govern the question particle: 1. Orthography: The question particle is always written as a separate word from the preceding item (Geliyor musun?, Öğrenci misiniz?, Bu kitap mı?). Writing it attached (like geliyormusun) is a serious spelling error. 2. Personal Suffixes: Personal endings for the present continuous, future, aorist, and nominal predicates attach directly onto the question particle itself, using buffer y where needed: Gidiyor mu-y-um? (Am I going?), Gelecek mi-s-in? (Will you come?), Hazır mı-y-ız? (Are we ready?). In the definite past (-di) and conditional (-se), however, the person suffix remains on the verb stem and mi comes at the very end (Geldin mi?, Gelsek mi?).

Whichever constituent the particle follows becomes the specific focus of the question: Ahmet dün sinemaya gitti mi? asks whether he went, whereas Ahmet mi dün sinemaya gitti? asks whether it was Ahmet who went.