My teacher is away at the minute and i'm curious to know if i did it correctly.

I had to translate the sentences and questions into Turkish:

1) Ali is listening to music
Ali müzik dinlemek

İs Ali listening to music?
Ali müzik mi dinliyor?


2) Benan is cooking food
Benan yiyerek yemek yapmak

Is Benan cooking food?
Benan yemek mi yapiyor?


3) The dog is playing football
Körek futbol oynamak

İs the dog playing football?
Kopek futbol mu oyruyor?


4) Ali is saying "goodbye"
Ali "hoşÃ§akal" söylüyorusun

Is Ali saying "goodbye"?
Ali "hoşÃ§akal" mi diyor?

Interesting Q:

Is Ali playing football?
We normally translate as:

Ali futbol oynuyor mu?

This is like "Is Ali playing football, or is he doing something else completely different?"

When we move the "mu" up to being after futbol it changes the Q slightly. This time we are not in doubt about whether he is playing, but as to whether it is football or some other game he is playing.

Ali futbol mu oynuyor?

This is more like "Is Ali playing football or is he playing basketball, squash or some other sport?"

Both Trudy and the original are right!

What is the difference in meaning? Any guesses?

Ali futbol oynuyor mu?
Ali futbol mu oynuyor?

Sorry...Redundant question.

so, Mu is the only suffix added? and at the END of the questıon?
............ Not "-Mü" "mi" or any of the others dependıng on the end of the object?

Spot on Trudy!

I really don't mean to confuse or bore anyone, but I believe that some Turkish etymology may shed light on this issue better than the rules of vowel harmony in modern Turkish.

The verb form "oynamak" is related to the root word "oy". This "oy" in old Turkish was conceptually related to things that one did in his idle/free time. Things, such as playing an instrument, dancing, singing, playing games etc were expressed through derivatives of the root word "oy".

Here are some examples of this "oy" in modern Turkish:

oy+un / game, play-thing

oy+un+a / to the play/game

oy+un+a eventually morphed into "oy+na!" / play!, which is the imperative form in modern Turkish.

The same oy+un+a that dropped its "u" and morphed itself into oy+na also took the infinitive ending of -mak from which we get the verbal form oy+(u)n+a+mak / oynamak, meaning "to play". So, oynamak is actually oyunamak. Hence, "oyun oynamak" is a type of repetition in modern Turkish, and it actually comes from oy+un oy+un+a+mak, which means "to play a game". The primary reason why we say oynamak instead of oyUnamak is simply because it must have felt easier to pronounce it that way.

In a similar way, oy+un+ak became oynak, meaning lively, frisky, active, mobile, flickering etc. while oy+un+ash became oynash, and oynashmak came to mean something like having a lover or making love outside marriage.

Later on, oynamak attached itself to most games, such as soccer, basketball, tennis etc. Futbol/Basketbol/Tenis/Bilardo oynamak...

As a result, oy(u)namak conjugates as oy(u)n+u+yor, just as soyunmak / to undress, to strip conjugates as soyun+u+yor.

Sormak / to ask becomes sor+u+yor.

This -yor that we use in modern Turkish to indicate the general present progressive tense also comes from another verb, which you may already be familiar with, namely yurumek, which means "to walk". But, that would be a completely different story of Turkish etymology.

If you find the above etymology confusing, it is because I have not been able to word it properly, and I apologize for causing any confusion.