Mastering Turkish Question Words: Who, What, Where, When, and Why

The Keys to Conversation

If you want to survive your first trip to Turkey, you need to know how to ask questions. While the English language relies heavily on reversing sentence order to form a question, Turkish keeps the sentence structure relatively stable and relies on specific Question Words (Soru Kelimeleri) or the question particle mı/mi/mu/mü.

1. Ne? (What?)

This is the most fundamental question word. It is used exactly like "what" in English.

Bu ne? (What is this?)
Ne yapıyorsun? (What are you doing?)
Ne zaman? (What time / When?)

Because Turkish is agglutinative, you can add cases to "Ne" to change its meaning:

Neye bakıyorsun? (What are you looking at?) - Dative case added.
Neyi istiyorsun? (What [specific thing] do you want?) - Accusative case added.

2. Kim? (Who?)

Used to ask about people. Just like "Ne", it takes case endings to express whose, to whom, or from whom.

O kim? (Who is that?)
Kimin arabası? (Whose car?) - Genitive case.
Kime söyledin? (To whom did you tell?) - Dative case.
Kimi arıyorsun? (Who are you looking for / calling?) - Accusative case.
Kiminle gidiyorsun? (With whom are you going?) - Instrumental case.

3. Nerede? (Where?)

This word is actually built from "Ne" + "Ara" (what place) + "da" (locative case). It specifically asks about location.

Tuvalet nerede? (Where is the toilet?)
Neredesin? (Where are you?)

You must change the case ending depending on direction!

Nereye gidiyorsun? (Where are you going to?) - Dative case.
Nereden geliyorsun? (Where are you coming from?) - Ablative case.

4. Nasıl? (How?)

Used to ask about the condition, quality, or method of something.

Nasılsın? (How are you?)
Nasıl gidebilirim? (How can I go?)
Nasıl bir araba? (What kind of car is it?)

5. Neden? / Niye? / Niçin? (Why?)

Turkish gives you three different ways to ask "Why?". They are mostly interchangeable, though they have slightly different literal origins.

Neden: Literally means "from what." The most common and standard way to ask why. (Neden gelmedin? - Why didn't you come?)
Niye: Very common in spoken Turkish. (Niye ağlıyorsun? - Why are you crying?)
Niçin: A contraction of "Ne için" (For what). Slightly more formal or emphatic.

6. Hangi? (Which?)

Used when asking to specify between multiple options.

Hangi kitap senin? (Which book is yours?)
Hangisini istiyorsun? (Which one do you want?) - With possessive and accusative suffixes.

7. Kaç? (How many? / How much?)

Used to ask for a number or quantity.

Saat kaç? (What time is it?)
Kaç yaşındasın? (How old are you?)
Kaç tane elma var? (How many apples are there?)

Note: For prices, we usually use Ne kadar? (How much? / What amount?) instead of Kaç.

Practice writing down five questions you would want to ask a local on your first day in Turkey. Getting these words ingrained in your memory is the best return on investment for your study time!