Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns (soru zamirleri) are used to ask questions. They stand in for the answer, and the word order of the sentence does not change: Ali'yi gördüm → Kimi gördün? (Whom did you see?)

• Kim: Who? (people)
• Ne: What? (things, ideas, actions)
• Hangisi: Which one? (choosing from a group)
• Neresi: What place? / Which part? (Burası neresi? – What place is this?)
• Kaçı: How many of them?

Plurals ask for a list: Kimler geldi? (Who (all) came?), Neler aldın? (What (things) did you buy?)

Declension:

Kim (Who)

• Nominative: kim (who)
• Genitive: kimin (whose)
• Accusative: kimi (whom)
• Dative: kime (to whom)
• Locative: kimde (on/with whom)
• Ablative: kimden (from whom)
• With: kiminle (with whom)

Ne (What)

• Nominative: ne (what)
• Genitive: neyin (of what) – note the buffer y
• Accusative: neyi (what – specific object)
• Dative: neye (to what)
• Locative: nede / neyde (in/on what; neyde is common in speech)
• Ablative: neden (from what; also "why")
• With: neyle / ne ile (with what, by what)

Hangisi already contains the possessive -si, so case endings follow it with an n: hangisinin, hangisini, hangisine, hangisinde, hangisinden.
Neresi: neresinin, neresini, neresine, neresinde, neresinden.
Kaçı: kaçının, kaçını, kaçına, kaçında, kaçından.

Other Question Words:

Words like nasıl (how), ne zaman (when), niçin / neden / niye (why), kaç (how many) and nerede, nereye, nereden (where, to where, from where – case forms of nere) are adverbs or adjectives rather than pronouns, but they work the same way in questions.

Common Mistakes:

• ✗ Kim kitabı? → ✓ Kimin kitabı? (Whose book?)
• ✗ Ne istiyor musun? → ✓ Ne istiyorsun? (no mi with a question word)
• ✗ Kime gördün? → ✓ Kimi gördün? (görmek takes the accusative)