Turkish grammar · A1 · Lesson 21 of 29
Turkish Question Words: kim, ne, nerede
Soru Sözcükleri (kim, ne, nerede, nasıl)
Asking who, what, where, when, how and why, with the question word in the answer’s place: Nereye gidiyorsun?
A question word asks for one missing piece, and it stands where that piece stands in the answer: Ali nerede? Ali evde. Ne içiyorsun? Çay içiyorum. Nothing moves to the front of the sentence and no helper verb comes in; the answer simply takes the question word’s place.
The words: kim (who), ne (what), nerede (where), ne zaman (when), nasıl (how), neden or niye (why), kaç (how many), hangi (which) and ne kadar (how much). kaç and hangi go before a noun, the way a number or an adjective does: kaç öğrenci, hangi otobüs. After kaç the noun stays singular, as after any number.
The question word wears the ending the answer will wear. Kime yazıyorsun? has -e because the answer does: Ali’ye yazıyorum. So kim takes every case like any noun (kimi, kime, kimde, kimden, kiminle), ne takes them too, with a y after its vowel (neyi, neye, neyle), and nere never appears without an ending: nerede, nereye, nereden (see Burası, Şurası, Orası).
Examples
Bu akşam ne yapıyorsun?
What are you doing this evening?
Otobüs durağı nerede?
Where is the bus stop?
First speaker:Kime mesaj yazıyorsun?
Second speaker:Ali’ye yazıyorum.
Who are you texting? I’m writing to Ali.