Indirect questions: where, when and whether

The idea

Keep the question word inside the embedded clause: Ece'nin nereye gittiğini bilmiyorum. In this pattern, an expressed subject takes the genitive; the verb takes -dik for present or past situations, or -ecek for future ones, then a possessive ending matching that subject. The whole clause takes the accusative with bilmek or merak etmek. For whether, pair a positive -ip form with a negative nominalised verb: katılıp katılmayacağını. With a location or adjective, use olmak: evde olup olmadığını. These pairs leave both answers possible. A separate question with acaba, such as Acaba anahtar nerede?, can also express “I wonder”; it does not need nominalisation.

Examples

• Ece'nin nereye gittiğini bilmiyorum.I don't know where Ece went.
• Otobüsün ne zaman geleceğini biliyor musun?Do you know when the bus will arrive?
• Senin nerede çalıştığını merak ediyorum.I wonder where you work.
• Komşunun evde olup olmadığını bilmiyoruz.We don't know whether the neighbour is at home.
• Ece'nin bize katılıp katılmayacağını merak ediyorum.I wonder whether Ece will join us.
• Ece'nin dün arayıp aramadığını hatırlamıyorum.I don't remember whether Ece called yesterday.
• Acaba anahtar nerede?I wonder where the key is.

Watch out

Do not insert mi into the nominalised whether-pattern: gelip gelmediğini means whether someone came, whereas gelmediğini alone means that someone did not come. In ne zaman geleceğini biliyor musun?, musun asks whether you know; it belongs to the main question, not to the embedded arrival time.

Try it yourself

1. Complete with gitmek: I don't know where Ece went yesterday.

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   gittiğini

   gittiğini: Ece is the person who went, so the embedded verb refers to her. The prompt places the journey yesterday; nereye keeps the destination unknown, and the final -i makes the clause the object of bilmiyorum.

2. Complete with gelmek: do you know when the bus will arrive?

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   geleceğini

   geleceğini: the arrival is still ahead, so the clause uses the future form. The bus is its subject. Ne zaman asks for the time, while biliyor musun asks the listener whether they know it.

3. Use two words with olmak: we don't know whether the neighbour is at home.

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   olup olmadığını

   olup olmadığını: there is no action verb in the original location question, so olmak supplies one. The pair preserves both possibilities: the neighbour may be home or away. A negative form alone would report absence.

4. Complete with çalışmak: I wonder where you work.

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   çalıştığını

   çalıştığını: the worker is “you”, made explicit by senin, even though the speaker doing the wondering is “I”. The present job shows why the embedded -dik form is not automatically past tense.

Use it today

Write two things you wonder about a friend: one with a question word and one with a whether-pair. Then turn a direct question into a sentence with bilmiyorum. Identify the subject inside each clause.