1. ,Hugo's Simplified System
Turkish in
Three Months
Hugo's Language Books Limited'
"
,Hugo's Simplified System
Turkish in
Three Months
Hugo's Language Books Limited'
"
4. Preface
'Turkish in Three Months' is a straightforward introduction to the
essentials of the hinguage and is primarily intended for those working
on their own, or with a teacher for one or two hours a week. It could
also serve as the textbook for a 15 or 20-session class course. The author
is an experienced teacher ofTurkish as a foreign language, now
lecturing at SOAS, University of London. She's also Moderator in
Turkish for GCE 'N level and GCSE, London and E. Anglian Group.
The book begins with an explanation ofTurkish pronunciation, as far as
this is possible in print. Turkish spelling is much more regular than
English and you will quh;:kly learn to associate the written words with
their sound. Using the book together with our audio cassettes is an ideal
combination and provides another cf:imension to the course.
It has always been a principle of the Hugo method to teach only what is
really essential. We assume that the student wants to learn Thrkish from
a practical angle, sO the lessons contain those rules ofgrammar that will
be of most use in this respect. Constructions are clearly explained and·
the vocabulary is both practical and up-to-date. Each lesson includes
exercises to check your understanding, and the order in which
everything is presented takes into account the need for rapid progress.
The Conversation and Reading passages offer examples ofeveryday
Turkish, covering topics such as shoppinl;, sightseeing and booking a
hotel room. Translations ofthese passages, together with answers to the
exercises, are given at the end of the book.
Ideally, you should spend about an hour a day on your work (slightly
less, maybe, ifyou've not bought the audio cassettes), although there is
no hard and fast rule on this. Do as much as you feel capable ofdoing;
don't rorce yourself, but learn well a little at a time. Before beginning a
new section or lesson, spend ten minutes revising what you learned the
day before.
When the course is completed, you should have a very. good
understanding of the language - more than sufficient for holiday or
business needs, and enough to lead quickly into an examination syllabus
ifrequired. We hope you enjoy 'Turkish in Three Months~ and we wish
you success in your studies.
3
Preface
'Turkish in Three Months' is a straightforward introduction to the
essentials of the hinguage and is primarily intended for those working
on their own, or with a teacher for one or two hours a week. It could
also serve as the textbook for a 15 or 20-session class course. The author
is an experienced teacher ofTurkish as a foreign language, now
lecturing at SOAS, University of London. She's also Moderator in
Turkish for GCE 'N level and GCSE, London and E. Anglian Group.
The book begins with an explanation ofTurkish pronunciation, as far as
this is possible in print. Turkish spelling is much more regular than
English and you will quh;:kly learn to associate the written words with
their sound. Using the book together with our audio cassettes is an ideal
combination and provides another cf:imension to the course.
It has always been a principle of the Hugo method to teach only what is
really essential. We assume that the student wants to learn Thrkish from
a practical angle, sO the lessons contain those rules ofgrammar that will
be of most use in this respect. Constructions are clearly explained and·
the vocabulary is both practical and up-to-date. Each lesson includes
exercises to check your understanding, and the order in which
everything is presented takes into account the need for rapid progress.
The Conversation and Reading passages offer examples ofeveryday
Turkish, covering topics such as shoppinl;, sightseeing and booking a
hotel room. Translations ofthese passages, together with answers to the
exercises, are given at the end of the book.
Ideally, you should spend about an hour a day on your work (slightly
less, maybe, ifyou've not bought the audio cassettes), although there is
no hard and fast rule on this. Do as much as you feel capable ofdoing;
don't rorce yourself, but learn well a little at a time. Before beginning a
new section or lesson, spend ten minutes revising what you learned the
day before.
When the course is completed, you should have a very. good
understanding of the language - more than sufficient for holiday or
business needs, and enough to lead quickly into an examination syllabus
ifrequired. We hope you enjoy 'Turkish in Three Months~ and we wish
you success in your studies.
3
5. Contents
Preface 3
Lesson 1 7
.The Turkish alphabet
Pronunciation of vowels
Pronunciation of consonants
Vowel length and vowel loss
Vowel harmony
Consonant changes
Stress
Some phrases and basic greetings
Lesson 2 19
Nouns and adjectives
bir: indefinite article/numeral
Plural ofnouns: -LER
Personal suffixes
personal pronouns
Demonstratives
Negafives: nbn-verbal
YeslNo questions
Non-verbal negative questions
Interrogatives: kim, ne, nasl1
'and', 'but~ 'or'
Lesson 3 33
-DE: locational suffix (locative
case)
var: there is/there are
yok: there isn't/there aren't
Questions with var and yok
Numerals: cardinal
~ok, bir ~ok, bir kali=, hili=
Measurements
In~errogatives: kimde, nerede, ka~
-LI: Iwith~ 'having~ 'containing'
-siz: 'without~ 'not having~ lnot
containing'
4
Lesson 4 42
Verbs
The past tense
Negative with -Di
Questions with -Di
-(y)i: defmite object (accusative
case)
Interrogatives: kimi, neyi, nereyi,
ne zaman
-(Y)E: directional SuffIX (dative
case)
Pronouns in the dative .
Interrogatives in the dative
Compound verbs
Lesson 5 53
-DEN: from (ablative case)
Interrogatives: hangi 'which'and
ni~in 'why'
-NiN: of(genitive case)
The possessive
Possessive compounds
f to have' (possessive + var: has/
have)
Interrogatives: kimin, neyin
'whose', 'of what'
trunkii and onun ili=in: 'beca·use'
and ISO'
Adjectives with the possessive
Lesson 6 64
Adverbs
bazl,' her, hepsi: 'some', 'every~ 'all
of it/them'
iDiI-(y)Di: the past form of Ito be'
Question forms with -(Y)Di
Negatives with -(Y)Di
Negative questions with -(Y)Di
Days of the week
Months
Seasons
6. Lesson 7 75
The present continuous tense:
-(i)YOR
Negative with -(i)YOR
Questions with -(i)YOR
Negative questions with -(i)YOR
The past continuous tense
iLE: with, by, by means of,
through
Numerals: ordinal
Numerals: distributive
-DEN BERi: since
-DiR: for
-(Y)E KADAR: up to, until
-DEN ONCE: before
-DEN SONRA: after
Forms of address
Lesson 8 90
Imperatives
The optative
-Ki
The future tense: -(Y)ECEK
Questions with -(y)ECEK
Negative with -(y)ECEK
Negative questions with -(Y)ECEK
The future-past
gibi: as, like
i'rin: for
Derivational suffIX: -LiK
hakkmda: about, concerning
Lesson 9 101
The aorist tense
Negative of the aorist
Question form of the aorist
Negative questions with the aorist
Uses of the aorist
'as soon as·
'used to', 'would have'
iKEN/-(y)KEN: while
Telling the time
5
Lesson 10 110
Comparatives
Superlatives
Uses of'daha'
The reported past: -Mi~
iMi$I-(Y)Mi$: reported form of
'to be'
Derivational suffIXes: -ci and
-(Y)iCi
Lesson 11 119
ya ya : either or ...
ne ne : neither nor .
hem hem ...: both and .
gerek gerek ...: both ... and ...
when: -(Y)iNCE
by ...ing, -ing: -(Y)EREK
-ing: -(Y)E
without: -MEDEN
since: -(Y)ELi
and: -(y)ip
rather than: -MEKTENSE
as, whenever, the more: -DiKc;E
Lesson 12 126
Verbal nouns
-MEK: the infinitive
-ME: short infmitive
-(Y)i$
lazlm: necessary
-MELi: the necessitative
Lesson 13 136
Participles
-(Y)EN: present participle
-Mi~: past participle
-(Y)ECEK: future participle
The aorist participle
Subject participles from possessives
Derivational suffIXes: -LE~ and
-LE
7. 6
Lesson 14 145
Object participles
-DiK + possessive: past/present
object participle
-(Y)ECEK + possessive: future
participle .
Object participles from possessives
'when' with object participles
Object participles as nouns
Indirect speech
whether ... or not
Combinations with -DiKl
-(Y)ECEK + possessive
Lesson 16 164
The conditional: -SE
lSE/-(Y)SE: conditional of 'to be'
. Some derivational su.fflXes
Lesson 17 171
The passive
The reflexive
The reflexive pronoun
Lesson 18 177
The causative
Uses ofthe causative
The reciprocal
The reciprocal pronoun .
Lesson 15 159
-(y)EBiL: can, to be able to, may
-(Y)EME: cannot, unable to
-MEYEBiL: may not
Countries, languages, people
Uses of-CE
Key 184
Answers to exercises
Translations
Mini-dictionary
Index 204
196
8. Lesson 1
1 The Turkish alphabet
The Turkish alphabet has 29 letters: 8 vowels and 21 consonants. It is
the vowels which differ most froni English sounds.
A 3, B b, C c, <; 'r, D d, E e, F f, G g, G~, H h, I 1, i i, J ;, K k, L 1,
M m, N n, 0 0, 00, P p, R r, S s, ~ §, T t, U u, Uil, V v, Y y, Z z
2 Pronunciation of vowels
"-
(The English words cited as a guide to pronunciation are as in the
Standard English ofSouthern England!)
a as the 'u' in 'bun': bak 'look~~'man~ at 'horse'
e as in 'test': kes 'cut~ ev 'house~ et 'meat'
as in 'sit': bin 'thous'and~ iki 'two', it 'push'
roughly like the -er combination in some English words, ego 'letter~
'speaker': klZ 'girl~ III 'heat~ kit 'scarce'
o . like the vowel in 'bird' or 'dirt' but short: dirt 'four~ goz 'eye'
o as in 'pond': en 'ten~ oda 'room~ ot 'grass'
ii as in the name of the German town 'Lubeck'; to produce this
sound, the position of the jaw and the tongue is the same as for the
articulation of the I sound" but the lips are rounded and pushed
well forward: un 'fame~ giil (rose~ biiyiik 'big'
/ as in 'pull': IU Iwater~ bul'fmd'
3 Pronunciation of consonants
b as in 'big~ cbad': ben cI~ bak 'look~ buz 'ice~ biz cwe'
c like the T in 'jam': aCI (bitter~ can 'life, soul'
9. 8
rr
d
f
g
~
h
j
k
m
like the 'cht
in 'church': ii~ 'three', a~ 'hungry', sa~ 'hair'
as in 'did', 'do': dun 'yesterday~ dokuz 'nine'
as in 'fat~ 'effort': fil'elephant~ fark 'd~fference'
as in 'get', 'goose': git 'go~ gen~ 'young'
this letter (called yumu§ak g or 'soft g') has no distinct
pronunciation; it generally serves to lengthen the vowel before it:
ag 'nef' is pronounced just as a long a, dogru 'correct' is d +
long 0 + r + u. It does not occur at the beginning ofa word.
as in 'how': hi~ 'none', hasta 'ill~ hot 'pleasane
like the '5' in 'measure~ 'leisure': ruj 'lipstick~ garaj 'garage'
as in 'kitten': kent 'city', ilk 'first~ kan 'blood~ kuzu 'lamb' _,,...,
, ~~
as in '1ily~ 'lorry', 'all': bi! 'know~ el 'hand~ bulbiil 'nightingale~
gol 'Iake~ al 'take~ ulus 'nation~ kol 'arm~ Ihk 'warm'
. ~W~
as in 'mant
: masa 'table~ mum 'candle', gam 'bury~ miizik
'music'
n
p
r
s
as in 'no': ne 'what', ni~in 'why', anla 'understand~ on 'ten'
as in 'pen': perde 'curtain~ pul 'stamp~ kiipe 'ear-ring~ kapi 'door'
The r is rolled between two vowels: ara 'interval~ arl 'bee', kuru
'dry~ suru 'herd~ iri 'big'. At the beginning ofa word it is less
prominent: resim 'picture~ renk 'colour~ ruh 'spirit'. At the end
ofa word it is always fully pronounced, with the exception ofa few
words that are frequently used, like bir 'one~ where, in colloquial
speech, it may not be heard at all. When fully pronounced at the
end ofa word, it has slight friction: kar 'snow', duvar 'wall~ vur
'hit' ver 'give', . O~~
as in 'sea~ 'decide': eski 'old~ son 'final~ sis 'fog', iist 'top~ a~r~
'hangert
like the 'sht
in 'sheep~ 'ash': §u 'that~ tal 'stone', i§ .'work~ kl§
'winter'
~t::>
as in 'vision': var 'there is/are~ ver 'give~ kova 'bucket'
as in 'tea': at 'horse~ et 'meat~ Tiirk~e 'Turkish' (language), katii
'bad'
v
10. 9
z
y as in 'yes': yd 'year~ yol'road~ uYltu 'sleep', kay 'village'
~""l<!& ~
as in 'horizon': zit 'bell', bez cloth~ ~az 'solve~ toz 'dust', uzun
'long'
The English letters q, x and ware not found in the Turkish alphabet.
The x sound is written as ks in some words taken from other languages:
taksi 'taxi' and ekspres 'express'.
Rules for punctuation are much as in English. When a proper noun
takes a case suffix, an apostrophe is put before the sufftx: istanbul'a 'to
Istanbul~ Londra'da 'in London'.
The circumflex accent is now very sparingly used. It makes the vowel
on which it sits more front (see section 5 below) and the preceding
consonant palatal. In writ.ing it is retained in only a few words like kar
'profit' as opposed to kar 'snow~ and bekar 'single, unmarried'. It
causes the k sound in kar to be palatalised - that is, to be followed by a
slight y sound: bekar is pronounced 'bekYar'.
4 Vowel length and vowel loss
Turkish vowels are short, except
1 when, in writing, a vowel is followed by g. EXamples:
dag, yagmur, aga~, sag, Slg
In all these examples the vowel before g(yumu§ak g) is pronounced
long.
2 in some words which are not Turkish in origin and still retain their
long vowels. Examples:
tesir (e is long) 'influence'; beraber (a is long) 'together'
A very limited number ofwords ending in consonants drop the vowel in
the last syllable when they take a suffIx (see section 5 below) that begins
with a voweL If the sufftx begins with a consonant, there is no change·
to the basic word:
resim 'picture':
§ehir'town':
resme 'to the picture~ (the vowel i is dropped)
resimler 'pictures' (the vowel i is retained)
§ehre 'to the town'
§ehirden 'from the town'
11. 10
ogul'son':
burun 'nose':
I!1Vowel harmony
ogl~ 'his son'
oguilarl 'his sons'
burnu 'his nose'
burundan 'from the nose'
In Turkish, words and grammatical features are built up by means of
sufflXes (endings which are added to words). Some ofthese (inflectional
sufflXes) have a purely grammatical function; others (derivational
sufflXes) help to build up the vocabulary ofthe language by deriving
new words from existing ones. For example, in English, 'I did not work'
is a sentence consisting offour words. But it is expressed in Turkish by
just one word: ~ah,madlm.
Vah§ is the verb meaning 'work'; -rna puts the verb into the negative
('not'); -dl indicates that it is in the past tense ('did'), and -m shows that
the subject of the verb is the first person, 'I'.
Similarly, II did not see' is °gormedim: gor Isee~ -me 'not~ -di ldid' and
-m 'I'. An extreme example ofadding a string ofsufflXes to a word is
Degi§tiremediklerimizden misiniz?
Are you one of~hose whom we were unable to change?
Another such example is
Avrupabla§uramadlklarlmudan mls1nlz?
°Are you one ofthose whom we could not Europeanise?
In these examples, you will have noticed that the first has a succession
of e and i vowels, and that the second consists mostly of a and 1vowels.
This is because the base of the first example, degi§ ('change'), contains
e and i sounds (front vowels), an~ the last vowel, i, determines that the
vowel in the first suffIX which follows is of the same type: i rather than
1. And the vowel in the first suffix determines the vowel in the next
sufflX, and so on. The vowel ofeach sufflX is determined by the vowel
which precedes it.
The base word of the second example, Avrupa ('Europe'), contains a
°and u sounds (back vowels). The last ofthese vowels, a, determines that
the vowel in the first sufflX is also a back vowel: 1 rather than 1. And
this back vowel in its turn determines that the subsequent vowel is again
12. 11
a back vowel: a rather than e.
This feature is called vowel harmony. It is basically a stringing together
ofvowels ofsimilar quality, so that there is a sound harmony extending
over the whole word. Vowel harmony operates on two qualities of the
vowels: whether they are back or front and whether they are round or
non-round.
Back andfronc 'Vowels
Turkish has eight vowels. Four ofthem are front vowels: e, i, 0, ii.
These front vowels are produced with the tongue forward in the mouth:
the middle-to-front portion ofthe tongue is raised towards the front of
the roof ofthe mouth (although it does not touch the roofofthe
mouth).
The other four are back yowels: a, 1, 0, u. The back vowels are
produced with the front part ofthe tongue held low in the front ofthe
mouth, while the back part ofthe tongue is raised towards the back of
the roof ofthe mouth. When you make these sounds, it feels rather as if
the front vowels are produced in the front ofthe mouth, and as ifthe
back vowels are produced in the back ofthe mouth.
If the last vowel ofthe base (the main part) ofthe word is a front vowel,
then the vowel in a SuffIX addeg to it will also be frontz the vowel in
each subsequent SuffIX being governed by the vowel ofthe syllable that
precedes it: .
!l hand. ell!r!nd! in his hands
But ifthe last vowel ofthe base is a back vowel, then the vowel in the
suffix which follows it wi1J also be back. and the vowel in each
subsequent SUffIX will again be determined by the vowel preceding it:
oda room odalarlmlZdan from our rooms
- - - -
There are some suffIXes which are non-harmonic - that is, they always
have the same vowel, regardless ofthe vowel in the preceding syllable.
Round and non-round 'Vowels
The same eight vowels can also be grouped differently as round and
nOll-round vowels. The round vowels are those we say with the lips
rounded and slightly fonvard: 0, 0, u, ii. The other four vowels are non-
round: a, e, I, i.
13. 12
If the last vowel of the base of the word is a non-round vowel, then the
vowels in the suffIX which follows will also be non-round:
zengin rich zenginlik richness (Le. wealth)
If, however, the last vowel ofthe base is round, the inherent nature of
the vowel in the suffix determines whether or not it 'harmonises with the
round vowel in the base.
As far as vowel harmony is concerned, there are three kinds ofsuffIX:
a) those in which the vowel is either a or e, and therefore can never be
round, 'regardless ofwhether or not the vowel ofthe preceding
syllable is round;
b) those in which the vowel can be i, .; u or ii. If the suffIX is of this
type, the vowel will be i or • if the preceding vowel is non-round, and
u or ii ifthe preceding vowel is round;
c) those that do not harmonise at all with the final vowel of the
preceding syllable (non-harmonic suffIXes).
Some examples:
-DE is a suffIX meaning 'in', 'on' or 'at'. The vowel in this suffIX can be
either a or e (ale type, as in (a) above), so it can never be round.
ev house ev + -de: evde in the house
The only vowel in the base is e. It is a front vowel, so the vowel in the
suffIX -DE is also a front vowel: e, giving the word evde.
kutu box kutuda
The last vowel in the base is u, a back vowel, so the vowel in the suffIX',
-DE will also be back. As the only two possibilities for this particular
suffIX are e (front vowel) and a (back vowel), the suffIX for kutu is -da:
kutuda
-Lt is a suffIX meaning 'with~ 'containing~ 'having in it'. This suffIX
belongs to category (b) above: its vowel can be i, ., u or ii. Thus:
biber 'pepper': The last vowel in biber, e, is a from vowel - and it is
also non-round. So the vowel in the -LI suffIX will also be a front, non-
round vowel when it is added to biber: biberli 'with pepper'.
aga~ 'tree': The last vowel in aga~, a, is a back non-round vowel. So
the vowel in the -Li sufflX will be the one vowel out of the four
possibilities (1, i, u, ii) which is also a back, non-round vowel -
14. 13
1: agayh 'with trees', 'wooded'.
siit'milk': ii is a front, round vowel, so the vowel in the sufflX will
also be a front, round vowel: siitlii 'with milk'.
yagmur 'rain': The final vowel u is a back, round vowel, so the suffIX
vowel will also be a back, round vowel: yagmurlu 'rainy'.
Vowel harmony looks a little complicated at first, but you will find it
quickly becomes instinctive. The chart below may help to summarise it:
SufflX
type (a) type (b)
Final vowel in the base
a or 1
e or i
o or u
oor ii
a
e
a
e
1
i
u
ii
These are the descriptive labels for the eight Turkish vowels:
a: i back, non-round
e: front, non-round
1: back, non-round
i: front, non-round
6 Consonant changes
0: back, round
0: front, round
u: back, round
ii: front, round
The process· whereby a Turkish word is built up by adding suffixes with
particular meanings or grammatical functions to the base ofthe word
also brings about changes in the consonants. These occur at the point
where the base and the SUffIX meet, or where one SUffIX is added to
another.
1 When the base ends inane of the voiceless consonants
p, t, k, !r, 5, §, f, h
.and it is followed by aSUffIX beginning with the letters d, g or c, then
these three consonants become t, k or ~ respectively. In other words, the
initial consonant ofthe suffIX also becomes voiceless when it follows
one'ofthe voiceless consonants.
¥.orrexample, the -DE SuffIX we saw earlier (meaning 'in~ 'on' or 'at': see
i~bti~n 5) will begin with either t or d, depending on the final
15. 14
consonant of the base:
ipte on the rope but
sokakta in the street
yama~ta on the slope
he§te at five
cepte in the pocket
evde in the house
odada in the room
duvarda on the wall
~ayda in the tea
2 With very few exceptions, Turkish words do not end in the voiced
consonants h, d, g or c. But Turkish does have a large number ofwords
that are not verbs ofwhich the base ends with h, d or c. Some of these
words are Turkish in origin: many are borrowed from other languages
(particularly Arabic and Persian).
These voiced consonants appear when a suffIX beginning with a vowel
is attached to the base. The Turkish for 'my' (the first person possessive
SuffIX: see section 43) is -(I)M (-m after a vowel: -im, -1m, -iim or
-um after a consonant). Thus:
hesablm my bill armudum my pear
yurdum my homeland senedim my voucher
agaclm my tree ihtiyaclm my need
But when these words do not have a SuffIX, or are followed by a suffIX
beginning with a consonant, then the final voiced consonant ofthe base
chimges to p, t or ~ - that is, it becomes unvoiced. Thus:
hesap bill
yurt homeland
aga~ tree
armut pear
senet voucher
ihtiya~ need
hesaplar bills
yurtlar homelands
aga~lar trees
annutlar pears
senetler vouchers
ihtiya~lar needs
3 A number of words have a base ending with the voiced consonant g
following another consonant. The g appears when a SuffIX beginning
with a vowel is added, but changes to the unvoiced consonant k when
the word has no SUffIX, or when a suffIX beginning with a consonant is
added. Thus:
rengim my colour but ren~ colour
ren~ler colours
When a word of more than one syllable which is not a verb ends with a
16. vowel followed by the unvoiced consonant k, the k is changed to g
when a suffix beginning with a vowel is added:
ayak foot but ayaglm iny foot
ayakta on foot
·sokak street sokaglm my street
sokakta in the street
Although this k to g change does also occur in some one-syllable words,
like
~ok much/many. ~ogu most of it
most retain the k, regardless ofthe fact that a vowel follows:
yiik load
ok arrow
7 Stress
yokiim my load
<!kum my arrow
yiikler loads
oklar arrows
Turkish words are often lightly stressed on the last syllable.
a~ik
Most place names, however, are stressed on the first syllable:
Bodrum
Marmaris
Edlrne
Kastamonu
.. Amasya
but there are some exceptions:
istanbul
Diyarbaklr
Antakya
Antalya
(Note the stress on istanbul is different from the stress normally used
by English speakers.)
Some grammatical fonns push the stress to the syllable preceding them.
The syllable b~fore the negative suffIX -ME (s~e section 32), for
instance, is usually stressed:
bekleyemiyorum I cannot wait
konu§muyor she is not speaking
When these grammatical forms are introduced, listen carefully to their
pronunciation on the cass~ttes ifyou have them.
17. 16
Exercise 1
Practise pronouncing the following words:
deniz sea
otel hotel
araba car (originally a cart)
u~ak aeroplane
otc!biis bus
tren train
ogrenci student
ogretmen teacher
§arap wine
kahve coffee
Exercise 2
~ay tea
hah carpet
arkada§ friend
biiyiik big
kii~iik small
a~lk open
kapah closed
dolu full
bot empty
koku smell, scent Iu
para money ,I
telefon telephone JLJ
numara number {,
kum sand Iv
---
Put the -DE suffix after the following words.
For example: deniz (sea) - denizde
otel, araba, u~ak, otobiis, tren, 'ray, kahve, hall, §arap
Exercise 3
Put the ..Lisuffix after the following words.
Example: sOt (milk) - siitlii
§eker sugar I~
limon lemon 'tJ
tuz salt 1;.,)
biber pepper I:
et meat I ~
8 Some greetings and basic phrases
The following list ofcommonly used greetings and basic phrases will
help you to consolidate your pronunciation. Ifyou have the cassettes,
first listen to them, then read them out aloud, then listen again.
Giinaydln. Good morning.
tyi ak,amlar. Good evening.
iyi geceler. Good night.
18. 17
There is no set expression for 'good afternoon~ but you can say: tyi
giinler. Good day(s). This is an all-purpose greeting which can be used
at any time during the day as a greeting, and also when taking leave of
someone.
Allahalsmarladtk. (colloquial pronunciation is 'alaasmaldlk')
Goodbye. (said by the person who is leaving)
Giile giile. Goodbye. (said by the person who stays behind)
Te§ekkiir ederim. Thank you.
Te§ekkiirler. Thanks.
C;ok te§ekkiir ederim. Thank you very much.
C;ok te§ekkiirler. Many thanks.
Response: Bir fey degil. It is nothing. Or Rica ederim. Not at all.
(lit. 'I request, beg'.)
It is not unusual for people to use these two expressions together:
Bir fey degil, rica ederim. or Rica ederim, bir fey deA'll.
SagoI. Thank you.. (more informal than te§ekkiir ederlm)
Liitfen. Please.
NaSllSlnlZ? How are you?
Response: iyiyim, te§ekkdr ederim. I am fine, thank you.
And you immediately follow this up by asking in turn:
Siz oaslls101Z? (And) how are YQ!!?
Response:
Ben de iyiyim, te§ekkiir ederim. I too am well, thank you.
Oziir dilerim. I am sorry. (lit. 'I apologise'.)
Response: Rica ederim. Not at all.
AfTedersiniz. Excuse me.
This is mostly used to begin a request:
AfTedersiniz, miize oerede? Excuse me, where is the museum?
Miisaade eder misiniz! Excuse me (used mostly when you are trymg
to make your way through a crowd; lit. 'Would you allow (me)?')
Buyurun (often pronounced 'buyrun') is a very common expression.
It has several meanings:
1 'Yes?' as a response to Affedersiniz, ifthe person pauses for your
response;
2 In shops and restaurants, to ask customers what they want;
19. 18
3 'Come in' when there is a knock on the dOOf;
4 'Here you are' when you are handing oy~r something;
5 'Go ahead' when you give way to someone at a door, or in response to
a request to take something.
evet yes
haylr no
peki OK, all right
tamam OK, that's it, that's right, that's fine'
vok giizel! Very nice! Lovely!
tabU ofcourse
Ge~mi§ olsun. May it pass. (to indicate your sympathy when someone
is ill or has an accident)
Ba§lnlz sagolsun. (lit. 'May your head be alivelhealthy': to
commiserate with someone over a death)
Yazlkl What a pity! What a shame!
Elinize sagltk. Health to your hands. (to praise someone's cooking)
Response~
Afiyet olsun. May it be good for you.
Apart from being the set response when one's cooking is praised, this is
said at the beginning ofa meal to indicate that people can start eating,
Of when the meal is over.
~erefe! Cheers!·I '. '.. ~<'"
,,,"'0.,''·...···
Hesap liitfen. The bill, please.
Ustii kalsln. Keep the change.
Response: ~erefel Cheers!
Efendim is a very frequently used expression with several meanings:
1 It is a form of address for people ofeither sex, rather like ·sir/madam':
Peki efendim. 'Yes sir/madam'..'
2 With a questioning intonation it means 'I beg your pardon?'
3 When answering when one's name has been called or answering the
telephone, it means 'yes'.
in§allah, 'God willing', is an expression used when you hope
something will happen, as ifthis expression will prevent things from
going wrong.
20. Lesson 2
9 Nouns and adjectives
Turkish nouns, like English ones, do not have any gender distinction -
that is, they do not fall into the masculine, feminine and neuter
categories seen in some languages. There are no rules of agreement
between an adjective and the noun it describes. Adjectives come before
nouns.
uzun long, tall (person)
sa~ hair
klsa short
ders lesson
temiz clean
ortii cloth, cover
klrrmzl red
pal,to coat
uzun sa~ long hair
klsa ders short lesson
temiz ortii clean cloth
klrmlZl palto red coat
Most adjectives can be used as nouns, when they indicate a person or
thing possessing the quality ofthe adjective.
Ktrmlzl temiz. The red one is clean.
Kii~iik UCUZ, biiyiik p~hah. The smaU ,one is cheap, the big one is
expensive. •
Gen~ ~ab,kan. The young person is hard-working.
10 bir: indefinite article/numeral
The numeral bir 'one' is also the indefinite article 'a~ 'an' in Thrkish:
bir masa 'one table' or 'a table', lJir palto 'one coat' or 'a coat'. When
there is an adjective before the noun, bir can come either before the
adjective or between the adjective and the noun:
1 bir klrmlzl palto one red coat
2 klrmlzl bir palto a red coat
19
21. 20
When bir comes after the adjective and before the noun, it generally
stands for the indefinite article, as in example 2 above. Other examples:
~iiyiik bir otel a large hotel
temiz blr araba a clean car
k1sa bir hah a short carpet
There is no definite article in Turkish: ev means 'house' or 'the house'
depending on the context (but see section 34: -(Y)i, definite object).
11 Plural of nouns: -LER
The plural ending in Turkish is -ler or -lar. Ifthe last vowel in the
base (the main part of the word) is a front vowel:: e, i, 0 or Ii - then the
plural suffix is -Ier:
ev house
kedi cat
goz eye
giil rose
evler houses
kediler cats
gozler eyes
gilller roses
If the last vowel in the base is a back vowel - a, 1, 0 or u, then the
plural SUffIX is -lar:
kova bucket
bahk fish
sabun soap
kovalar buckets
bahklar fish (plural)
sabunlar soaps
Almost all concrete nouns in Turkish have plurals. Examples:
para money
toz dust
paralar money(s)
tozlar dust(s) ~.l~~j
However, when..mupbers are used, the noun is always in the singular:
iki oda two rooms
on giin ten days
dort biiyiik otel four large hotels
When an adjective takes the plural SUffIX, it means that the adjective is
being used as a noun:
Ktsalar giizel degil. The short ones are not nice.
22. Ya§ldar evde. The old ones (the old folks) are at home.
Kii~i1kler bah~ede. The little ones (the children) are in the garden.
Vocabulary
doktor doctor
miihendis engineer
avukat lawyer
polis police, policeman
kapi door.
pencere window
duvar wall
oda room
ev house
adam man'"
kadln woman, female
erkek male person ~
klZ girl
oglan boy ..
~eny young
ya§h
. ihtiyar ~ old (in age)
t;Sk~ old
en1 new
renk colour
beyaz white
siyah black
sari yellow
mavi blue
~§ll
green
. iyi good
kotu
bad
na
~cuz cheap
ahah expensive
~zel beautiful, nice
irkin ugly
hengin .rich ~
fakir poor ~
~lcak hot
sag-uk cold
21
23. 22
[
, ~ah§kan
tembel
Turk
ingiliz
yorgun
~ocuk
giin
sabah
ak§am
hava
12 Personal su.trIXes
hard-working
lazy
Turkish (person)
English (person)
tired
child
day
morning
evening
weather
These suffixes show the person and number ofthe subject, and have the
function of the verb 'to be' in English. They are used where in English
you would say '[ am wel1~ 'He is .a doctor~ etc. The set below indicates
present time.
-(Y)iM
-SiN
-DIR
-(Y)iZ
-siNiz
-DiRLER
:1 am
you are (singular, informal)
he/she/it is
we are
you are (plural/formal singular)
they are
(Parts of the suffIXes are enclosed above in brackets: this means that
under certain conditions these pans are not used.)
-(Y)iM: I am
In Turkish, two vowels do not come together in the word (except in
some words ofnon~urkishorigin). So when the base of a word ends in
a vowel and the SuffIX also begins with a vowel, a buffer is n~d
between these two vowels. With most SUffIXes, this buffer i~
The vowel in this suffix has four possible ways ofharmonising: it can
be i, 1, ii or u, depending on the previous vowel. There are thus eight
possibilities - variants - for the SuffIX -(Y)iM, depending on whether
the -y- buffer is needed:
24. 23
After bases ending in vowelsJ the variants are -yim, -ylm, -yum,
-yum. Examples:
ya§hYlm
iyiyim
kotiiyiim
mutluyum
I am old
I am well
I am bad/unwell
I am happy
I am British
I am hard-working
I am Turkish
I am a doctor
After bases ending in consonants, the variants are -im, -1m, -iim, -
urn. Examples:
tngilizim
~ab§kanlm
Tiirkiim
doktorum
-SiN: you are (singular, infor:mal)
This second person singular suffIX is used when addressing people with
whom one is on informal terms. Its variants are -sin, -SID, -sun, -sun.
Examples:
gen~sin
yathsln
kotusun
doktorsun
-DiR: he/she/it is
you are young
you are old
you are bad
you are a doctor
In colloquial speech, this ending is usually omitted:
gen~
slcak
he is young'
it is hot
The gender ofthe subject is understood from the context. But the suffIX
is used when the speaker wants to emphasise something or make a
generalisation that is valid for all cases.
Doktordur. He is a doctor.
Gelen polistir. It must be the police who came.
Plrlanta pahahdlr. Diamonds are expensive.
The suffIX indicates shades ofmeaning which become clear if the whole
context is known. It has eight variants: -dir, -dlr, -diir, -dur and -dr,
-t1r, -tur, -tur. Examples:
25. 24
muhendistir he is an engineer
slcaktlr it is hot
soguktur it is cold
Tiirktiir she is Turkish
ye§ildir it is green
sarldlr it is yellow
kotiidiir it is bad
uzundur she is tall
The -DiR suffIx can also be added to other personal suffIxes, to
indicate an assumption, a certainty, about that person on the part ofthe
speaker:
HastaslOdlr. You must be ill.
AkI1hYlmdlr: I certainly am clever.
-(Y)iz: we are
The variants are:
after vowels -yiz, -ylZ, -yiiz, -yuz
after consonants -iz, -IZ, -"iiz, -uz
iyiyiz we are well
hastaYlz we are ill
iizguniiz we are sad
nlutluyuz we are happy
tngiliziz we are British
kadlDlz we are women
Tiirkiiz we are Turkish
doktoruz we are doctors
-SiNiz: you are (plural andformal singular)
The variants are -siniz, "SlnlZ, -siinuz, -sunuz
zenginsiniz
fakirsiniz
yorgunsunuz
Tiirksiiniiz
-DiRLER: they are
The variants are
you are rich
"you are poor
you are tired
you are Turkish
..drIer, -tlrlar, -tiirler, -turlar and -dirler, -dlrlar, -diirler,
-durlar
iyidirler
yorgundurlar
biiyiiktiirler
~ah§kandlrlar
they are well
they are tired
they are big
they are hard-working
26. 25
It is also possible to omit ·dir and just have ·ler to indicate the plural
person, ifthere is no separate word for the subject:
iyiler they are well
yorgunlar they are tired
When the subject has the plural SUffLX, the ·LER part of this ending (or
often the whole of it) is usually omitted:
Odalar kii~iiktiir. The rooms are small.
Oteller pahah. Hotels are expensive.
Adamlar ya§h. The men are old.
90cuklar tembeldir. The children are lazy..
13 Personal pronouns
ben I biz
sen you (sing. informal) siz
o he/she/it onlar
we
you (plu~l and formal singular)
they
There is no distinction between 'he~ 'she' and 'it' in Turkish. The
context gives the clue to the gender ofthe person involved~
Sen is the singular, informal 'you~ rather like the French tu or the
German duo Sen is used when speaking to close friends, family and
children. Siz is used for acquaintances, people with whom you have
only a formal relationship. In rural areas, however, this distinction
breaks down, and sen is used for anyone. Ifyou are worried about
giving offence, keep to siz, but do not be put out ifyou are addressed as
sen.
As the personal suffixes give the person and number of the subject,
personal pronouns are generally not used as the subject of a sentence in
colloquial speech. They are used to put special emphasis on the person,
or to make comparisons or contrasts between people, Examples:
Siz gen~siniz, ben ya§hYlm. You are young, I arnold.
Biz Tiirkiiz, onlar tngiliz. We are Turkish, they are British.
In colloquial speech, the plural SUffLX ·LER is sometimes added to the
plural pronouns biz and siz, giving us bizler and sizler. The meaning
is not affected by this addition.
27. 26
14 Demonstratives
There are three demonstratives in Turkish: bu 'this', lU 'thatlthis', 0
'that'. They can be either adjectives (qualifying a noun) or pronouns
(standing in place of a noun) and are used like the English .
demonstratives, but §u h!ls certain features peculiar to it.
a) The use of §u is usually accompanied by a gesture towards the thing
referred to, which should be so located that it is possible to make .
such a gesture.
b) It is also used to refer to something which is going to be mentioned;
in this use §u can be translated as 'the following':
~u renkler giizel: mavi, yelU, sari.
These (The following) colours are nice: blue, green, yellow.
Bu soguk. This is cold.
o kii~iik. That is small.
~u ucuz. That is cheap.
Like adjectives, the demonstratives can precede nouns:
Bu oda biiyiik. This room is big.
o focuk klZ. That child is (a) girl.
~u duvar beyaz, lU duvar sari. That wall is white, that wall is yellow.
If there is an adjective before the noun, the demonstrative precedes the
adjective:
Bu klrm1Z1 palto giizel. This red coat is nice.
~u ya§h adam hasta. That old man is ill.
Unlike English, ifthe noun is plural, the demonstrative, when used as
an adjective, stays in the singular:
o arabalar pahah. Those (lit. that) cars are expensive.
As pronouns, however, the demonstratives can take the plural ending,
and n is then added to the base: bu!!lar 'these~ §u!!lar 'those/these~
o,!!lar 'those'. Again, n is added to the base whenever demonstratives
take a sufftx.
Exercise 4
Translate the following into English:
1 losa sa~
28. 2 gen~ bir avukat
3 klrmlZl biT" palto
4 mavi gazler
5 biiyiik oteHer
6 kii~iik evler
7 Ben Tlirkiim, siz ingilizsiniz.
8 Kadm hasta.
9 Tembelsin. '1crv ~ lo..~
10 Kii~i1k 90cuklar yorgun.
15 Negatives: non-verbal
In sentences where there is no full verb, but one ofthe different forms
of Ito be' is used (see section 12), the negative is formed with the word
degil 'not'. nbJ'SQnalsuff~esareattachedto degU.
Hasta degilim. I am not ill.
Turk degilsiniz. You are not Turkish.
Oda buyuk degil. The room is not big.
Deniz sleak degil. The sea is not warm (lit. hot).
Yorgun degiliz. We are not tired.
16 Yes/N0 questions
The question marker Mt is used to make questions which require yeslno
answers. In non-verbal sentences Mi comes before the personal suffIXes.
It has the variants mi, ml, mu, mu. In writing, the question marker is
separated from the previous part ofthe word by a space, but it still
. harmonises with the preceding vowel.
Ouzel miyim? Am I nice?
Yorgun musun? Are you tired?
Oda temiz mi? Is the room clean?
Otel pahab mldlr? Is the hotel expensive?
f;ab§kan mlY1Z? Are we hard-working?
tyi misiniz? Are you well?
Ucuzlar ml? Are they cheap?
Evler ucuz mu? Are the houses cheap?
29. 28
The answers to these questions can be: 1-(Y)iM .(Y)iz
Yes, __ + person: Evet, __ + .SiN .SiNiz
.DiR .DiRLER
or
No, _._ + degil + person Haylr, __. + degil + person
Hava soguk mu? Haylr, soguk degil.
Is the weather cold? No, it is not cold.
iyi misiniz? Evet, iyiyiz.
Are you well? Yes, we are well..
The question marker is quite mobile in the sentence, and always follows
the word which is being questioned:
Ya§h doktor Turk mii? Is the old doctor Turkish?
Ya§h doktor mu Turk? Is it the old doctor wno is Turkish?
The question marker is not used if there is an interrogative (a' question
word like 'what~ 'why) 'who' etc.) in the sentence (see section 18)..
When the question involves a choice, then the question marker Mi is
used twice:
Deniz slcak ml soguk mu? Is the sea hot or cold?
Otel ucuz mu pahah rol? Is the hotel cheap or expensive?
Ev bilyiik mil kii~iik mil? Is the house big or small?
Mt is also used with degil in questions like:
Yorgun musun, degil misin? Are you tired or not?
Sari ml, degil mi? Is it yellow or not?
17 Non-verbal negative questions
The sequence here is:
base + negative + question + person
Yorgun degil mi yim
Yorgun degil miyim? Am I not tired?
Zengin degil misiniz? Are you not rich?
Ucuz degil mi(dir)? Isn't it cheap?
30. 29
But note the third person plural (with the third person plural, the
personal suffIX comes before the question marker):
Zengin degiller mi? Aren't they rich?
Adamlar zengin degil(ler) mi? Aren't the men rich?
18 Interrogatives: kim, ne, nasll ('who', 'what', 'how')
kim means 'who' - plural kimler
Kim yorgun(dur)? Who is tired?
Kim doktor? Who is (a) doctor?
Kimler ingiliz? Who is (Which people are) British?
Kimler Turk? Who is (Which people are) Turkish?
In the questions above, kim 'who' is the subject. These are non-verbal
sentences; the third person singular"form of 'to be' -niR occupies the
position ofa verb. However, as we explained in section 12, this SuffIX is
generally omitted, so the absence ofa personal SuffIX here indicates the
third person: 'is' in English. Except when we make changes for reasons
ofstyle, a Turkish sentence normally begins with the subject and ends
with the verb (or what stands for a verb) and the personal SuffIX
indicating the subject is added to this. So the question Kim
yorgun(dur)? is translated literally 'Who tired is?'(Who is tired?) and
Kim doktor? lit. 'Who doctor is?' (Who is (a) doctor?).
Ifwe change the order ofthese words in the question we have: Yorgun
kim? lit. 'Tired who is?' Yorgun is now the subject, meaning 'the one
who is tired~ and the question now translates 'The one who is tired (he)
is who?' In normal English it is 'Who is tired?' As you see, the two
questions Kim yorgun? and Yorgun kim? are translated in the same
way: the word order makes them function differently, but the essential
meaning is not very different.
In answering such questions you just replace the interrogative (the
question word) with the answer word - or words:
Kim doktor? Ahmet doktor.
Ahffiet is a doctor. (Ahmet: male first name)
Kim yorgun? Ay§e yorgun.
Ay§e is tired. (Ay§e: female first name)
31. 30
When an interrogative like kim is no~ the subject ofthe sentence it can
take the personal suffIxes:
Ben kimim? Who am I? (the subject is ben cI')
Kimsiniz? Who are you? (the subject is siz cyou' - omitted)
Nesiniz? What are you? (the subject is siz cyou' - omitted)
Nasdlm? How am I? (How do I look?) (the subject is ben '1'-
omitted)
ne means 'what' - plural neler
Ne klrm1Zl? What is red?
Answer: Hah klrmlZl. The carpet is red.
o KIrm1Z1 ne? Red is what?
Answer: KInnlZl bir renk. Red is a colour.
Ben neyim? What am I?
Answer: Siz ingilizslniz. You are British.
Siz doktorsunuz. You are a doctor.
nasd means chow'
Nasdsln1Z?/Siz nasI1sln1Z? How are you? (remember that the
personal pronoun is not necessary unless there is special emphasis on it)
C;ocuklar nasl1? How are the children?
"liava nasd? How is the weather? (Le. What is the weather like?)
Nasll hava? What sort ofweather?
The question marker Mi is not used when there is an interrogative in
the same sentence. The only exception is when a question is quoted and
then put to someone as a question, for example:
Hava nasd ml? How is the weather, is this the question?
Ben neyim mi? What am I, is this the question (is this what is asked)?
19 'and', 'but', 'or'
ve means 'and'
Otel temiz ve ucuz(dur). The hotel is clean and cheap.
Zengin adam ya§h ve hasta. The rich man is old and ill.
Uzun ve klrmlzl palto giizel. The long (and) red coat is nice.
Hah ye§i1, sari ve mavl(dir). The carpet is green, yellow and blue.
ye§i1, sari ve mavi hah the green, yellow and blue carpet
32. T~e carpet is nice but expensive.
31
In Turkish there are three words for 'but', all currently used: ama,.
fakat, ancak. This is not unusual in Turkish, where we have a large
'number of words taken from Arabic and Persian used side by side with
words which are Turkish in origin.
Hah gilzel fakat pahah. JHah giizel ama p ahab.
Hah giizel ancak pahab.
Ancak also has another meaning, Cjust~ 'only':
ancak 'but' Yorgunum, ancak mutluyum.
I am tired but happy.
ancak Cjust, only' Ancak bir kii~iik hab alabildik.
We managed to buy only one small carpet.
There are several words for Cor' in Turkish: veya, ya da, yabut, yahut
tao All are currently used; which to use is mostly a matter of personal
preference and style, but veya and ya da enjoy greater popularity now
and are also the preferredforms in formal written Turkish.
Ogretmen veya ogrenci degil, doktor.
He is not a teacher or a student, he is a doctor.
CONVERSATION
- Giinaydm.
- Giinaydm.
- NasllslDlZ?
- iyiyim, te§ekkiir ederim. Siz nasl1smlZ?
- Ben de iyiyirn, te§ekkiir ederim.
- Bu sahah ~p!l~el.
- Eve~~~~i? ~
- Haylr, soguk degil, ama han sQ&!!!.
- Evet. iyi gilnler. ~ w ~ "'..IJi'-.f' ~.
- iyi gUnler. '(
Note: Ben de iyiyim 'I too am well': de, which means 'too~ 'also~
harmonises with the base - variants are c:1~,da -but it is always writt~n
separa~ly•.Ircan also ~ used to mean 'and) 'as well'.
Adam da yorgun(dur). The man too/also is tired. (various people are
tired, so is the man)
33. 32
Adam yorgun(dur) da. The man is tired as well. (as well as being
various other things he is also tired)
Oda biiyiik, giizel de. The room is big, and it is nice. (it is also nice)
Exercise 5
I
1"V."""')"'~... J? U.Y~d:':~':'r-
>.;~;:'~·l!
:.... '. l:
A Translate into English:
1 Gen~ kadm yorgun deg-il. iCC '..'00('i:(/C '.0.
2 Biiyiik otel ucuz mu? U r-,lC(,. ~ ,:) ('-
3 Hava nasd, sog-llk mu? C~i'"''t~, .
4 Adam kim? t:~. (2 t.. ,_,C,.' •.~
5 Hah mavi mi, ye§il mi?
6 Siyah araba ~ni deg-il mi? .~~,
7 KaPl kapah ama pencere a~lk. v.'"
B Translate into Turkish: A HJ{' oJJ~ I
1 The young ~an is not a policeman. tX...Y'c.) ~I('.. ( S (
2 What colour 15 the house? fiI--.f:.) ~ '("(...(....~ I
3 The blue and red carpet is big and beautiful, but it is exr.ensive too.
4 Isn't the room small? 11~J IlL- b~ r'. "0.., b:.i ~;jl:::
i.H a u ~I ~ P ...""h~,
5 How are you? v I dA
6 How is the old mao, is he well?
7 Green and yellow colours are nice.
34. Lesson 3
20 -DE: locational SUfI"IX (locative case)
This suffIx indicates where an action takes place or where a person or
thing is located. It means lin~ lon~ lat'. It has four variants: -de, -da and
..te, ..ta (see section 6):
evde at home i§te at work
sinemada in the cinema masada on -the table
KlrmlZl ortii masada. The red cloth is on the table.
<;ocuklar okulda ml? Are the children at school?
Ya§h kadtn evde degil. The old woman is not at home.
Personal pronouns and demonstratives can also take this SUfflX:
bende on me, in me
sende on you, in you
21 var: there is/there are
bunda in this, on this
onda in that, on that
Var means 'there is', Ithere are~ and 'there exists'. It is mostly used with
the third person, but can also take all the other personal endings.
Sokakta arabalar yare There are cars in the street.
Odada iki pencere ve bir kapl yare There are two windows aqd one
door in the room. .'
With first and second person sufflXes, the sense conveyed is that of
being included in something.
ToplaDtlda varlm. I am included in the meeting.
Yemekte varSlDlZ. You are included in the dinner (meal)fYou are
going to be present at dinner (meal)..,
22 yok: there isn't/there aren't
Yok shows the absence ofsomething, that it does not exist.
33
35. 34
Sokakta araba yoke There are no cars in the street. (lit. is no car)
Ankara'da deniz yok. There is no sea in Ankara. (after the proper
noun Ankara an apostrophe separates the sufflX, but harmony
continues as usual).
Televizyonda iyi bir film yoke There isn't a good film on TV.
Bu ak§am evde yokuz. We are not at home this evening.
Yok is also used to mean 'no':
Hasta mlsln? Yoke Are you ill? No.
As yok acts as a negative for var, degll is not normally used with var.
In very limited contexts dei'll can be used with either var or yok to
mean roughly lit is not that ...', for example:
~ok i§ var degH, ama ben yorgunum. It isn't that there is much
work, but I am tired.
Para yak degH, ama az. It isn't that there isn't any money, but
there's not much (lit. it is little). .
23 Questions with var and yok
The question marker Mi is placed after var and yok to form questions.
Sokakta klrmlzl bir araba var ml? Is there a red car in the street?
Okulda ogrenci var ml? Are there students in the school?
Evde ii~ oda yok mu? Aren't there three rooms in the house?
Sensk, para var mt? Is there any money on you?
Haylr, bende para yok, sende de yok mu? No, there isn't (any) on
me, isn't there (any) on you either (lit. too)?
With interrogatives:
Telefonda kim var? Who is on the phone?
Sokakta ne var? What's in the street?
Yemekte ne var? What's for lunch/dinner (lit. at the meal)?
24 Numerals: cardinal
SUlr
bir
iki
zero
one
two
ii~
dort
be,
three
four
five
36. 35
fifty
sixty
seventy
eighty
ninety
hundred
thousand
million
billion (1000 million)
elli
altml§
yetmi§
seksen
doksan
yiiz
bin
milyon
milyar
altl six
yedi seven
sekiz eight
dokuz nine
on ten
on bir eleven
on sekiz eighteen
yirmi twenty
otuz thirty
kirk forty
yiiz elli (a) hundred and fifty
iki yiiz seksen yedi two hundred and eighty-seven
bin altl yiiz kIrk iki 1642
yirmi bin be, yiiz 20500
Where there is a compou~d number Turkish'does not have 'and'
between the component numbers. And remember, when there is a
number the following noun is always in the singular.
yarlm means 'half, 'halfa ...':
yarlm kilo elma half a kilo ofapples
yarlm finean kahve halfa cup ofcoffee
yarlm saat half an hour '-
bu~uk means I,.. and a half and follows a number:
bir bu~uk'kilo elma one and a halfkilos ofapples
bir bu~uk fmean kahve one and a halfcups of coffee
bir bu~uk saat an hour and a half
bel bu~uk giin five and a half days
~eyrek means la quarter'; it is mostly used for talking about time:
~eyrek saat a quarter of an hour .
bir saat bir ~eyrek an hour and a quarter
Fractions are usually expressed as Inumber + de + number':
dortte bir one in four (one fourth)
onda iki two in ten (two tenths)
ii~te iki two in three (two thirds)
yiizde an ten percent (the percentage sign precedes the numeral: %90)
Servis iiered Ezde o?bettir.jervice charge is fifteen percent.
Vocabulary
masa table
37. 36
iskemle
sandalye
tavan
yer
lamba
dolap
koltuk
fincan
tepsi
arkada,
misafir
insan
hayvan
.. resim
'-kalem~ken l"'YL9
k
' k.u,.~~~r"1
ltap
defter
~anta
perde
pembe
kahverengi
yol
metro
~
:::~V~~
...ge~
4erken
~
::k
dar
geni§
rag1r
~haf1f
)ince
~abn
saat
yasttk
cadde
bah~e
chair
ceiling
floor, seat, ground, place
lamp
cupboard
armchair
cup
tray
friend
guest
person, human being
animal
picture
pen/pencil
book
notebook
bag
curtain
pink
brown
way, path
underground train
clever
stupid
1atel I (used for things and time)
ear y ~ -
hungry
full
narrow
wide
heavy
light
slim, thin
thick
clock, watch, time, hour
cushion
road, avenue (a main road)
garden
38. 37
Exercise 6
i-. ~
A Translate into English: e, d---"'<'
1 Bu odada iki pelte~~~kapl, bir biiyiik masa, be§ i~ ve bir
k~var. oO"t~,C"" .
2 Kahverengi koltukta iki ye§il yastlk var.
3 Yerde ne renk halt var?
4 Bahgede kim var?
5 Odada dolap yok mu?
6 Pencerede perde yoke
7 Evde misafir var.
E Translate into Turkish: ~~r/o.f: ~~w v'-- c/.J.of i::""-</
1 There are books, pens and n~'60okso~the table..~~
2 There is no money on me. 2.) ~ i~o... ~ k.. .
3 There aren't (any) animals in the small garde~':£,~ne,~ ~a.n.l
4 Isn't there a car in the street? ~b..kh ¥:~l( "'O:.i '00.. Q/e..
5 In the room, what colrgur. a!e the walls andthe curtatn~Ccl~ :::.
6 What is in the heavy.!o'ittj Ie _~$'" clt>Yo.,,;'~~ ~e("~,
7 Is. there a ~ood film at the cine~a?~ . bn..~~ ~t-f' ~
~ ~, ~a-. ,.~, •..:, l"" .Jo-t'l
25 ~ok, bir ~ok, bir ka~, hi~
yak is a yord you will hear a lot. Before adjectives it translates as Ivery',
before nouns as 'many, much, a lot'..
yok giizel. Very nice.
yok iyiyim. I am very well.
Bir ~ok means 'very many, a lot of, a number of'.
Bu kitapta bir ~ok resim var. There are many pictures in this book.
Bir ka~ means 'several' and also la few'.
Kutuda bir ka~ kalem var. There are a few pens in the box.
Bir ka~ saat bekledik. We waited several hours.
fli~ means several things depending on the context.
[t can mean 'any', 'any ... at all':
~ende hi~ para varml? Have you any money at all?
39. 38
('Any' is often omitted when translating into Turkish: 'Have you any
money?' is Paran var ml? But when there is a meaning conveying 'at
all~ then hi~ is used: Hi~ paran var ml? Have you any money at all?)
With negatives hi~ means 'none~ 'none at all~ 'not at all':
Hi~ giizel degil. It is not nice at all.
Hi~ yak. There is nonelThere is none at all.
26 Measurements
gram gramme
kilo kilo
iki yiiz gram p eynir two hundred grammes of cheese
Remember, with numbers the noun is used in the singular in Turkish:
Ud kilo et two kilos of meat
metre metre
santimetre or santim centimetre
kilometre kilometre
mil mile (nautical mile)
Plaj iki kilometre uzakta. The beach is two kilometres away.
litre litre
on litre benzin ten titres ofpetrol
27 Interrogatives: kimde, nerede, ka~ ('on whom',
'where', 'how many')
Kimde means 'on whom' (kim 'who' + de 'on~ 'at~ 'in').
Kimde be§ yiiz lira var? (lit. On whom is there 500 lira?) Who has
got 500 lira?
Kitap kimde? (lit. On whom is the book?) Who has got the book?
Nerede means 'where~ or more specifically 'at where~ 'in where~ 'on
where (Le. on what)'. It is formed with nere (location) + de.
Kitap nerede? Where is the book?
Masada. (It's) on the table.
40. 39
Araba nerede? Where is the car?
Sokakta. In the street.
Ka~ means 'how many?' or 'how much?' The answer to questions with
ka~ always includes a number or a word indicating an amount.
Bu okulda ka9 ogrenci var? How many students are there in this
school?
<;ok ogrenci 'yare There are many students.
Bu palto ka~ lira? How much is this coat? (lit. How many lira is this
coat?)
Seksen bin lira. It's eighty thousand lira.
CONVERSATION
- Giinaydm. Buyurun efendim.
- Giinaydm. Dziim var ml?
- Var efendim.
- Bir kilo lutfen.
- Peki.
- Ka~ lira?
- Bir kilo seki~ yiiz elli lira.
- Buyurun, te§ekkiir ederirn.
- iyi giinler.
- iyi giinter.
28 -Li: 'with', 'having', 'containing'
The suffIx .Li is used to indicate that something has a certain quality or
contains something. It is added to nouns to form adjectives. It has four
variants: .Ii, .It, .Iii, -Iu.
siit milk siitlii with milk, milky
Bir siitlii kahve liitfen. A coffee with milk please.
§eker sugar
hlz speed
kuvvet l.. strength
gu~
yagmur rain
p~ra money
§ekerli with sugar, containing sugar
hlzIt speedy
kuvvetli ~
gii~lii ~ strong
yagmurlu rainy
parah with money; rich
41. 40
Giri§ parahdlr. Entry is with money (with a fee: Le. you pay to enter).
parah bir adam a rich man
banyo bath banyolu with a bath
banyolu ada room with bath
be§ odah bir ev a five-roomed house
§apkah kadln woman with a hat
klrmlzl paltolu ~ocuk child in a red coat (lit. red-coated child)
Used with colours it means 'in those colours~ for example:
sarlh kadln woman in yellow
klrmlZlh, ye§illi bir elbise a dress in red and green
renkli multi-coloured
Similarly with flavours:
lezzetli delicious, tasty (offood) lezzet taste (offood)
tuzlu salty
biberli peppery
With the interrogative ne, neli means 'with what flavour?':
Dondurma neli? What flavour ice-cream?
~ikolatab ve ~i1ekli. Chocolate and strawberry flavours.
The SUfflX .Li is also used with place names to indicate a person from
that area:
istanbullu person from Istanbul
Londrah Londoner
Uskiidarb person from Uskiidar, a district ofIstanbul
kaylii villager
§ehirli ~ .
k I
· city/town dweller
ent 1
With names ofcountries it refers to citizens of those countries:
Amerikah an American MlSlrh an Egyptian
but we do not say ingiltereli or Tiirkiyeli, because some countries
have special terms for denoting citizens; for instance, an Englishman is
ingiliz, a Turk is Tiirk, a German is Alman. (See 'section 136.)
42. B Translate into Turkish:
1 A coffee with milk please. 3(- k.o-.""'v~-s~t:../~/ut;;~~ .
2 I am not from Ankara, I am a Londoner. 'b., ...... ~"",,-/.c.-. o...a~11 C-~
3 Where is the book with pictures? l-PV.o" ro... " ..- 6
4 How much is a room with bath?
5 The blue carpet is small but expensive.
41
29 -siz: 'without', 'not having', 'not containing'
-siz is added to nouns to form adjectives meaning 'without'. Variants
are -siz, -SlZ, -siiz, -SllZ.
siitsiiz without milk
§ekersiz without sugar
kuvvetsiz without any strength, weak
banyosuz without a bath
yagmursuz without rain
renksiz colourless
Iezzetsiz bland, without taste
paraslZ without money, poor; free
Miizeye giri§ paraslzdlr. Entry to the museum is free.
t~ki1er paraSlZ. The drinks are free.
Exercise 7
A Translate into English: ~~ ,ttl';;'"
1 Bugiin hava soguk de~i1J fakat yagmurlu. 'G.d.o.u..-lJ..,a..
2 Banyolu iki oda liitfen....,...~o ~!a AI b~~~b..t.,,).'= ('U.~
3 Cikolatall dondurma var ml? -:t'-.; ~y... c.1Aoc:.otc...~ i~ (.~o.'t'n
4 Bu ev ka~ odah? H-o~ ~~ ~~ eto<.'i -tj.-l S ""~~ ~I-
5 Sokakta mavi paltolu ii~ ~ocuk yare b~ ~ e:;t::.V"-'et ~, ~
~ c..h~d.K.V'- 1""'- tJ u(. (c:p:1
~~
43. Lesson 4
30 Verbs
Verbs are generally given with a -mek or -mak suffix. This is how you
find verbs in most dictionaries, and this form is called the infmitive.
The suffix is left out when a verb is used in a sentence, except when
you want to use the infinitive fonnj for example, gelmek means 'to
come~ gel- is the base rcome', and -mek is the infmitive suffix rto'. All
the suffIXes that a verb can take are added to the base after removing the
-mek or -mak suffIX.
31 The past tense
The past tense is used to express things done and actions completed in
the past. It translates the English forms 'I have seen~ 'I did see' and 'I
saw'.
The -01 SuffIX is used to form the past in the following way:
a) The infinitive -mek, -mak is removed and -0i is added to the
base; gelmek 'to come~ gel'come~ gel + 01 = geldi rcame'.
b) Persona1.sufflxes, that is endings which indicate the person doing
the action, are placed after the past SuffIX -ni.
Here are some examples:
yemek to eat yedi ate
i~mek to drink i~ti drank
asmak to hang ash hung
kalmak to stay kaldl stayed
gormek to see gordil saw
iirtmek to cover orttii covered
koymak to put koydu put
ko§mak to run kOltu ran
The past tense SuffIX has eight variants:
-di, -dl, -dii, -du,
-ti, -tl, -tu, -tu.
42
44. 43
(For the harmony rules that bring about these changes, look back at
section 5.)
Personal suffixes that are added to the past tense SUffIX .ni to indicate
the subject of the verb are as follows:
·M
·N
-K
-Niz
(·LER)
I
you (familiar, singular)
he, she, it
we
you (plural or formal); variants -niz, ·nlZ, .niiz, ·nuz
they; variants ..ler, ·Jar
There is no personal SUffIX for the third person.
The order of the sufflXes is as follows:
verb + past + person
oku du m okudum I read
geldim I came baktlm I looked
geldin you came bakttn you looked
geldl he/she/it came baktl he/she/it looked
g~ldik we came bakttk we looked
geldiniz you came bakttnlz you looked
geldiler they came baktdar they looked
gordiim I saw ko§tum I ran
gordiin you saw kOftun you ran
gordii he/she/it saw ko§tu he/she/it ran
gordiik we saw ko§tuk we ran
gordiiniiz you saw ko§tunuz 'You ran
gordiiler they saw ko§tular they ran
As discussed in lesson 2, you do not need to use a subject pronoun like
ben, sen etc.: the subject is contained in the verb.
Giizel bir otelde kaldlm. I stayed at a nice hotel.
90k yemek yed!. He ate a lot offood.
Bir bardak su i~tin. You drank a glass ofwater.
Televizyonda giizel bir film gordiik. We saw a good film on
television.
Plajda oturdular, konu§tular. They sat and talked on the beach.
90k kitap aldlnlZ. You bought a lot of books.
45. 44
Only when you want to give special emphasis or contrast persons do
you use a subject pronoun:
Ben giizel bir otelde kaldlm. I stayed at a nice hotel. (not you, not
him, but I)
Vocabulary
yazmak
okumak
ballamak
~ah§mak
anlamak
oturmak
yuzmek
a~mak
kapamak
knlmak
gitmek
Exercise 8
to write
to read
to begin, to start
to work, study
to understand
to sit, reside
to swim
to open, turn on
to close, turn off
to stay
to go
yemek
i~mek
almak
vermek
bltirmek
bitmek
uyumak
binmek
inmek
gormek
dun
to eat
to drink
to take, get, buy
to give
to finish (something)
to come to an end
t? sleep
to get on
to get ofT
to see
yesterday
A Translate z'nto English:
1 istanbul'da on be§ giin kaldun.
2 iki saat ~ah~tlm.
3 Bodrum'da denizde yilzdfim, plajda oturdum.
4 Guzel bir yemek yedik ve §arap i~tik.
5 Odada oturdum ve mektup yazdlm.
B Translate z'nto Turkz'sh:
1 I read two books.
2 He worked.
3 Yesterday we swam a lot.
4 The child stayed at home.
5 You (pI.) understood.
46. 45
32 Negative with -Di
The sufflX -ME is added to verbs to form the negative. When you want
to say that a given action has not been done, you put the -ME negative
suffIX after the verb base. It has two different forms, -me and -ma, and
is followed by the past and personal suffIXes:
verb + negative + past + person
gel me di m gelmedim I did not come
okumadlm
gelmedin
gormedi
anlamadlk
a~madlnlz
yiizmediler
Exercise 9
I did not read
you did not come
he did not see
we did not understand
you did not open
they did not swim
geldik mi? have we arrived?
yiizduniiz mii? did you swim?
okudular ml? did they read?
bakU ml? did he look?
Trans/ate into Turkish:
1 I did not stay in a hotel.
2 He did not understand.
3 It did not begin.
4 You (pI.) did not see.
5 They did not sit on the beach.
33 Questions with .Di
In questions in the past tense which require a yes or no answer, the
question marker Mi is placed after all the suffIXes, and it hannonises
like all the other suffixes (see section 5) although it is written separately.
verb + past + person + Mi (question)
gel di k mi?
yiiz dii niiz mii?
oku du lar ml?
bak tl ml?
Ifthe question is in the negative, the negative suffIX is placed before all
;the other suffIXes:
47. 46
verb + negative + past + person + Mt
gel me di k mi gelmedik mi? did we not
come?
yuzmediniz mi? did you not swim?
okumadlnlZ ml? did you not read?
bakmadl1ar ml? did they not look?
When you want to question some other point in the sentence, rather
than simply asking whether an action has or has not been done, Mt is
placed after the point you wish to question:
Ali dun istanbul'a gitd. Yesterday Ali went to Istanbul.
Ali dun istanbul'a gitti mi? Did Ali go to Istanbul yesterday?
Ali diin istanbul'a ml gitd? Did Ali go to Istanbul yesterday?
Ali dun mii istanbul'a gitd? Did Ali go to Istanbul yesterday?
Ali mi dun tstanbul'a gitd? Did Ali go to Istanbul yesterday?
When a question word like 'who' or 'what' is used, the question marker
Mi is not used:
Kim geldi? Who came?
Dun ak§am nerede yedlniz? Where did you e~t last night?
Adam ka~ lira verdi? How many lira (i.e. how much money) did the
man give?
Exercise 10
Answer the following questions both in the affirmative and in the negative:
Example: istanbul'da kaldln nu?
Evet, istanbul'da kaldlm./Haytr, tstanbul'da
kalmadlm.
1 Elma yediniz mi?
2 Otelde ~ay i~tiniz mi (pl.)?
3 Gazete aldm mt?
4 Sinemada uyudum mu?
5 <;ok ~ah§t1k fit?
48. 47
34 -(Y)i: definite object (accusative case)
This suffIx translates in English as the defmite article 'the~ but it is
used only when a specific, definite thing or person is the object ofthe
verb. A person or thing is specific or definite ifit is described in some
detail, or ifthere has been a reference to it previously. So if the object of
the verb is orthis kind, it must take the -(Y)t SuffIX, but ifthe object is
non-specific, then this SuffIX is not used. For example, in the sentence 'I
bought a coat~ II' is the subject (the person who has done the action of
buying), and 'a coat' is the object (the thing that has been affected by
the action ofbuying) and it is non-specific: la' coat. The Turkish
translation is:
Bir palto aldlm. I bought a (or one) coat.
or
Palto aldlm. I bought (~) coat.
(in a broad sense it could also be coat,!, although there is no plural
marker)
In the sentence II bought the coat~ by using the definite article Ithe' you
have specified the coat: it is not any coat, but that particular one
(perhaps the one that was mentioned to you). As the object is defmite,
in Turkish it must take the -(y)t suffIX:
Paltoyu aldlm. I bought the coat.
Gazete okudu. He read (a) newspaper.
Gazeteyi okudu. He read the newspaper.
Yemek yedik. We ate food (a meal).
Yemegi yedik. We ate the food (the meal).
Two vowels do not come together in Turkish. When a suffIX is
essentially a vowel, a buffer is needed between that vowel and the fmal
vowel ofthe base. This buffer is usually -y-: kapl- kaplyl, oda - odaYI,
artii - ortiiyii, etc. The SufflX -(Y)t therefore has eight variants: -i, -I,
-ii, -u after consonants and -yi, -yl, -yil, -yu after vowels.
Proper nouns, because they are always specific, will always take the
-(Y)i suffIX ifthey are in the object position:
Ali'yi gordiim. I saw Ali.
Ankara'yl begendim. I liked Ankara.
49. 48
you
them
usbizi
sizi
onlarl
you
him, her, it
Similarly, ifthe object is a pronoun, it must take the definite object
suffix -(y)t:
beni me
seni
onu
Seni sinemada gordiim. I saw you in the cinema.
Bizi beklediniz mi? Did you wait for us?
The definite object forms ofbu, lU and 0 are bunu, §unu and onu:
Onu i~tin mi? Did you drink it?
Bunu okumadtm. I did not read this.
~unu a~maddar. They did not open that.
35 Interrogatives: kimi, n~yi, nereyi, ne zaman
The interrogatives kim 'who~ ne 'what' and nere 'where' take the
definite object case ending when they are the direct object ofa verb:
kimi whom
Sokakta kimi gordun? Whom did you see in the street?
neyi what
Neyi okudun? What (specific, definite thing) did you read?
Neyi okudun, kitabt ml, gazeteyi mi? What did you read, the book
or the newspaper? (indefinite: Ne okudun, kitap ml, gazete tnl?
What did you read, a book or a newspaper?).
nereyi which place, what place
istanbul'da nereyl gordiiniiz? Which place did you see in
Istanbul?
ne zaman when
Ali ne zaman gitd? When did Ali go?
Kitabt ne zaman okudunuz? When did you read the book?
Ne zaman ~ah§tlk? When did we work?
Vocabulary
meyve fruit durak bus stop
sebze vegetable havlu towel
~i~ek flower su water
istasyon station sabun soap
50. :'sigara
;'sigara i~mek
!blrakmak
"dolap
j.~dyo
'i~ievizyon
postane
eczane
hastane
girmek
gostermek
~lkmak
dinlemek
duymak
bakmak
Exercise 11
cigarette
to smoke
to leave
cupboard
radio
TV
post office
chemist
hospital
to go in, enter
to show, point out
to come out
to listen
to hear
to look
yatmak
kalkmak
aramak
yapmak
getirmek
gotiirmek
bilmek
konu§mak
anlamak
gostermek
satmak
ge~mek
istemek
49
to lie down, go to bed
to get up; to depart
(of planes, trains
etc)
to look for
to do
to bring (along)
to take (away, along)
to know
to speak
to understand
to show, point out
to sell "
to pass, cross
to want
A Trans/ate into English:
1 Dolabl a~t1m ve buyiik ~antaYl aldIm.
2 . Bunu kim yapt1?
3 MasaYl gormedim.
4 Hava ~ok kotti, u~aklar kalkmadl.
5 Radyoyu a~tlm, televizyonu kapadlm.
B Trans/ate into Turkish:
1 "I left the car in the street.
2 Did you eat the apple?
3 I did not show him the post office.
4 I did not see London.
S Did you (pI.) understand this?
36 -(Y)E: directional SUfI"IX (dative case)
This suffix stands for Ito' and lfor' in English. It indicates a direction:
either a movement towards something or some place, or an action
d.irected towards a person or thing.
Sinemaya gittik. We went to the cinema.
51. 50
Ali Ankara'ya gitti. Ali went to Ankara.
Kitabl ona verdim. I gave the book to her.
Bunu size aldlm. I bought this for you.
Bize ne getirdiniz? What did you bring for us?
Cenain verbs always take the -(Y)E suffIx: for example, Duvara bakum
literally means f1 looked to the wall~ but the English translat~on is fat': f1
looked at the wall'. Similarly, ba§lamak always goes with -(Y)E:
Derse ba§ladlm. I began the lesson.
Kitaba ba§ladlk. We started the book..
The verb koymak fto put' also takes -(Y)E, because the action denoted
by this verb is a movement from one position to another:
c;i~ekleri vazoya koydum. I put the flowers in (lit. to) the vase.
Kitabl masaya koydun mu? Did you put the book on (lit. to) the
table?
iskemleye oturdum. I sat down on the chair. (indicates the motion of
lowering oneselfon to the chair)
iskemlede oturdum. I sat on the chair. (no motion implied)
3.7 Pronouns in the dative
The vowel in the pronouns ben and sen changes when they take the
dative SuffIX.
bana to me buna to this
sana to you ,una to that
ona to himlher/it ona to that
bize to us
size to you
onlara to them
Bunu sana vermediler mi? Didn't they give this to you?
~una bakttm, ama buna bakmadlm. I 10~ked at that, but I didn't
look at this.
38 Interrogatives in the dative
kime to whom - pI. kimlere
c;i~egi kime verdiniz? To whom did you give the flowers?
52. 51
Kitaplarl kimlere verdi? To whom (pI.) did he give the books?
neye to what - pi. nelere
Neye baktln? What did you look at? (lit. To what did you look?)
(neye can also mean 'why~ and can also be written as niye, where the
meaning is rather like 'what for?')
nereye to where - pI. nerelere to which places
Dun nereye gittiniz? Where (To where) did you go yesterday?
~antaYl nereye blraktln? Where (To where) did you leave the bag?
(meaning: Where did you put it?)
Ay§e'yi nerelere gotiirdiiniiz? To which places did you take AY§e?
39 Compound verbs
Quite a large number ofTurkish verbs are formed by adding the verb
etmek to nouns:
te§ekkiir thanks
yardlm help
seyahat travel
hiicum attack
telefoD telephone
dikkat attention
te§ekkiir etmek to thank
yardlm etmek to help
seyahat etmek to travel
hiicum etmek to attack
telefon etmek to telephone
dikkat etmek to pay attention
The nouns used in these compound forms are mostly not Turkish in
origin but borrowed from Persian, Arabic or a European language.
Som~ ofthese nouns undergo a change when used in a compound, and
in such cases the compound verb is written as a single word.
af forgiveness
his feeling
kaylp loss
affetmek to forgive
hissetmek to feel
kaybetmek to lose
Some nouns are combined with the verb olmak 'to become~ Ito be':
kaybetmek to lose
memnun etmek to please
ziyan etmek to waste
kaybolmak to be lost, get lost
memnun olmak to be pleased
ziyan olmak to be wasted
53. ~
effective
to render
ineffective
52
The verb kdrnak meaning Ito do', Ito make' also has a restricted use in
forming compounds:
miimkiin kl1mak to make possible
etklli ~ kdmak
etkisiz
The verb eylemek Ito make' is now restricted to a few expressions,
having been replaced by etmek, and is mo~tly heard in the set
expression Allah rahmet eylesin, IMay God have mercy on himlher~
with reference to the dead.
Vocabulary
i§
~ar'l
~ar§lya ~Ikmak
ah§veri§
donmek
seyretmek
yatak
sonra
READING
work, job
shopping area, bazaar
to go shopping
(to go out to the shops)
shopping
to go back, return
to watch
bed
later
Diin sabah ge~ kalktlm, i§e gitmedim; ~ar§lya ~lktlm, ah§veri§ yaptlm.
Beyaz, biiyiik bir ~anta aleUm, 80nra eve dondilm. Ekmek, peynir,
meyve yedim. Televizyonda gUzel bir film seyrettirn ve yattlm. Yat~kta
kitap okudum, sonra uyudum.
Exercise 12
Translate into English:
1 <;ocu~ hastaneye goturdiim.
2 Pencereleri kapaclJ., kaplyl a~t1.
3 Biz siidd ~ay i~tik, onlar meyveli dondurma yedi.
4 Klrmlzl ~antaYl Ay§e'ye verdim, 0 da bana bu kitabl verdi.
5 Kime telefon ettiniz?
6 A~lf kitaplan masaya koymadlm, yere koydum.
54. Lesson 5
40 -DEN: from (ablative case)
L
"l...
This suffIx corresponds to the English 'from', 'out or, 'off'. It has four
variants: -den, -dan, -ten, -tan.
U~ak izmir'den geldi. The plane came from Izmir.
Trende~ indik, otobiise bindik. We got offthe train and got on the bus.
Evden ~lkmadlm. I did not go out of the house.
Kitabl Cemil'den aldlm. I got the book from Cemil.
Some verbs go with the ablative:
o adamdan korkmuyorum. I am not afraid ofthat man.
Interrogatives also take the -DEN suffIx:
kimden from whom
Mektup kimden geldi? From whom did the letter come?
neden from what (but .generally used in the sense of 'why')
Neden gittiler? Why did they go? .
Neden para almadln? Why didn't you take (any) money?
nereden from where
Tren nereden geldi? Where did the train come from?
Bu paltoyu nereden aldlnlZ? From where did you buy this coat?
Similarly, pronouns take the -DEN suffIx quite regularly:
Benden para istedi. He wanted money offme.
Kitaplarl bizden aldl, onlara verdi. He took the books from us,
.and gave them to them.
~undan da yediniz mi? Did you eat some ofthat too?
41 Interrogatives: hangi 'which' and ni~in 'why'
Hang! means 'which':
Hangi ~ocuk basta? Which child is ill?
Hangi ak§am geldiler? Which evening did they arrive (come)?
Hangi odada oturdunuz? In which room did you sit?
53
55. 54
Ni~in means 'why'. It is a contraction of ne + i~in: 'what for'.
Tren ni~in durdu? Why did the train stop?
Bu kitabl ni!rin okumadlnlz? Why did you not read this book?
As you know, neden and niye/neye also mean 'why~ and they can all
be used interchangeably without changing the meaning at all; niye/neye
is the more colloquial form and is not used in formal written Turkish.
42 -(N)iN: of (genitive case)
The meaning ofthe genitive SuffIX is roughly 'of', and its use
approximates to that ofthe 's in English. It indicates that the noun
which takes the genitive ending is the possessor of something, that it
possesses something else. Usually the thing it possesses is another noun
or noun phrase that comes later in the sentence and carries the possessive
suffIX (see section 43 below). In English, when you say 'Janet's' or 'the
eat's', it implies that Janet and the cat are possessors ofsomething
which is either to be mentioned or has already been referred to:
Janet's house
or
Whose house? Janet's.
the eat's tail
Whose tail? The eat's.
The situation is similar in Turkish, except that the thing possessed
carries the possessive ending, as we shall see next. Here are some
examples with the genitive ending:
Ankara'nln
istanbuPun
evin
kedinin
Ankara's
Istanbul's
ofthe house (the house's)
the cat's
Pronouns in the genitive show some variations, so here is a list ofthem:
benim my
senin your
onun his, her, its
bizim
sizin
ontarln
our
your
their
The interrogatives kim and ne take the genitive case ending as they take
other case endings: kimin 'whose', neyin 'ofwhat' (note the ~ception
with neyin: ne ends in a vowel, so you would expect to have nenin,
but it is always neyin).
56. 55
Bu kalem kimin? Whose is this pencil?
"0 kalem benim. That pencil is mine.
o oda senin mi? Is that room yours?
Hay1r, 0 oda benim degil, Ay§e'nin. No, that room is not mine, it is
Ane's.
Bu kapak kutunun, ama §u kapak kovanln(dll'). This lid is the
box's, but that lid is the bucket's.
The variants for -(N)iN are: -nin, -nln, -nOn, nun after vowels, and
":-in, -In, -On, -un after consonants.
0" 43 The possessive
The possessive suffixes are ~fTerent for each person (and each ofthem
has variants which change ,according to harmony).
1st person
"2nd person "
3rd person
1st person pI.
2nd person pI.
3rd person pI.
-(i)M
-(i)N
-(s)t(N)* (5 is the buffer when the base ends in a vowel)
-(t)MtZ
-(i)NiZ
-LERt(N)*
"'The final N which is shown in brackets for the 3rd person singular and
plural is used when another case SuffIX (that is, -DE, -DEN, -(Y)E,
;,(y)t or -(N)tN) follows:
bah~eleri their garden
bah~elerinde in their garden
'Odasl giizel. His room is nice."
Odaslnda koltuk yak. There is no armchair in his room.
Examples with the possessive suffIX:
evim my house
evin your house
evi his/her/its house
evimiz our house
eviniz your house
evleri their house
adam my room
odan your room
odas1 his room
odamlZ our room
odanlz your room
odalarl their room
The possessive suffix indicates that the word to which it is added is
possessed/owned by some other person, thing, etc. mentioned or implied
earlier in the sentence, the word for which carries the genitive SuffIX.
57. 56
Therefore the word with the genitive sufftx can be called the 'possessor'
and the one with the possessive sufftx can be called the 'possessed'. So
in Turkish, when you want to make phrases like 'the teacher's house~
you put the possessor (in this case the teacher) first, with the genitive
sufftx, and the possessed/owned (in this case the house) afterwards, with
the possessive suffix. You,must remember that in English only one of
the words takes a sufftx, 's, but in Turkish both words have a sufftx. So
the phrase 'the teacher'! house' is ogretmenin ev!.
my father's car babamln arabasl
baba father
babam my father
babamln arabaSl (lit. my father's, his car)
In English, when you use 'of' instead of's, the Qrder of the words
changes: 'the house ofthe teacher'/'the teacher's house'. In Turkish the
order is always ftxed: first the genitive, then the possessive. .
In English the possessor and the possessed can be separated by a
number ofwords that describe the possessed (in this case, 'house'):
the teacher's big but rather shabby-looking stone and brick built house
Similarly in Turkish all the words that describe the possessed (in this
case evi) come before it and thus separate it from the possessor (in this
case ogretmenin). The translation ofthe above phrase is:
ogretmenin biiyiik fakat biraz eski goriinii,lii, tal ve tugladan
yapdml§ evi
If a Turkish sentence contains a noun with a genitive suffIx, then there
must be a noun with a possessive sutrtx later in the same sentence.
Sometimes you may only find a possessive sutTtx, but no genitive before
it in the sentence. In such cases it means that the genitive is hidden: it
may be a pronoun which has not been explicitly included, but 'the
meaning ofwhich is clearly understood, or it may have been mentioned
in the previous sentence and therefore not repeated. But whatever the
actual form, the meaning and the implication of the genitive is always
~~ ,
OteI ~okrahat: odalarl biiyiik ve temiz, plajl ~ok geni§ ve
kumlu, bah~esi ~ok sakin.
The hotel is very comfortable: its rooms are big and clean, its beach is
very wide and sandy, its garden is very quiet.
58. 57
In the Turkish sentence above there is no genitive suffIx, although there
are three possessive suffIxes: odalar!, plaj! and bah~e!1, all these
linked to 'its' - it being the hotel which was referred to in the first part
of the sentence. Indeed, to emphasise the link between otel and
odalarl, plajl, bah~esi we could put onun before each ofthese
words. But this would be redundant: onun is a hidden pronoun there,
being present only in sense, not in form. And remember, when the third
person possessive is followed by a case suffix, we insert the buffer N
which has been shown in brackets (see page 55):
Otelin bah~esi!!degiizel ~i~ekler var.
Arabanln kapIsI!!1 a~tlm.
In colloquial speech it is possible to omit the possessive suffix when
there is a pronoun in the genitive:
bizirn ev our house
senin ~ocuk your cWld
The grammatical rules we have had so far require these to be bizirn
evimiz and senin ~ocugun. Nevertheless native speakers use the
simpler forms, but for you at this stage it is best to keep to the rules.
At these early stages of learning the language you may at times find
some ambiguity regarding certain suffIxes; for instance, the third person
plural possessive sutftx -LERi(N) can stand for different things:
kitaplarl his books (kitap + lar + I)
kitaplarl their boOk~ (k' 1)
. h . b k Itap + arlt elr 00 s
As the -LER ending cannot be used twice·in the same word, we cannot
.know by looking at the word alone whether it is the book or the possessor
that is plural. However, often the context will clarify the ambiguity.
Here are some more straightforward examples:
odanln pencere!1 the window of the room
kadln,!!! ~ocug!! the woman's child
plajm kum!! the sand ofthe beach
Tiirkiye'nin ba§kent! the capital of Turkey
Location
Some nouns indicating locations are often used in genitive-possessive
59. 58
constructions. In English, these are generally called prepositions and are
placed before nouns:
on front
Evin oniinde klrmlzl bir araba var. There is a red car in front of
the house (lit. at the front ofthe house)..
Ay§e'nin oniinde kim var? Who is in front ofAne?
arka back, behind
Otelin arkaSlnda bfiyiik bir otopark var. There is a large car park
behind (lit. at the back of) the hotel.
Arkamda be§ ki§i var. There are five people behind me.
Ceketini kaplnln arkaSlna astJ. He hung his jacket behind (lit. to
the back of) the door.
alt bottom, under
Masanln altlDda kediler var. There are cats under the table.
Agacln altmda oturduk. We sat under the tree.
ust top, above
Masanln iistii bo§. The top of the table is empty. (i.e. There is
nOfhing on top ofthe table.)
Tabaklarl masanln iistiine koydum. I put the plates on (the top ot)
the table.
The word iizer- (always followed by a SUffIX) is also used for iist.
i~ interior, inside
Kutunun i~i bo§. The inside ofthe box is empty.
Evin i~inde ka~ ki§i var? How many people are there inside the
house?
dl§ exterior, outside
Otelin dl§l ~ok giizel ama, i~i degil. The exterior (outside) of the
hotel is very nice, but the interior (inside) is not.
Kentin dl§lnda biiyiik parklar var. There are large }Jarks outside the
town.
Dl§lnda is also used to mean Capart from~ lother than':
Bunun dl§lnda bir sorUD yok. There is no problem other than this.
yan side, beside
~i§eyi bardagln yanlna koyduk. We put the bottle beside the glass.
vocuk yanlma geldi. The child came near me (lit. to my side).
kar§1 opposite
Evin kar§lsmda okul var. There is a school opposite the house.
60. 59
Yemeklerde kar§lnda kim var? Who is opposite you during (at)
meals?
Exercise 13
1j'anslate:
1 Bu sabah evin oniinden ~ok araba ge~ti.
2 Otelin plajmda yUzmedik.
3 Beyaz dolaplann i~i bo§ de~il.
4 Ya§h adamm gen~ arkada§l onu istasyona gotiirdii.
5 Otelinizin kaf§lsmda ne var?
6 There isn't a garden behind (at the back of) the house.
7 We did not smoke inside the chemist's.
8 The soap and the towelS are in the cupboard.
9 There isn't (any) hot water in our room.
10 In Bodrum, which hotel did you stay at?
44 Possessive compounds
When two nouns come together and the first one describes the second,
only the second noun takes the possessive sufflX (third person). This
possessive compound represents one single thing. In English neither of
them take any sufflX. Remember, the relationship between the two
words is not possession, but description.
4i§ flr~a!! toothbrush
el bagaj! hand luggage
yatak oda!! bedroom
elma agac! apple tree
yuzme havuz!! swimming pool
Compare:
~ocug'Un kitabl the child's book (the book belonging to the child)
~ocuk kitabl children's book (book writteI,1 for children)
bah~enin kaplsl the gate of the garden (gate that belongs to the garden)
bah~e kaplsl garden gate (a type ofgate used for gardens)
You will notice the possessive compound in the names of restaurants,
hotels and banks:
61. 60
Konyah Lokantasl
Pa1miye OteH
Hilton OteH
i§ Bankasl
the Konyah Restaurant
the Palm Tree Hotel
the Hilton Hotel
the i§ Bank
The possessive ending is however omitted in some place names that
have been used in that form over the years: Topkapl, <;engelkoy,
Arnavutkoy, Kadlkoy.
In a possessive compound nothing can come between the components
ofthe.compound; any modifiers like an adjective or dle indefinite article
bir come before the entire compound.
kii~iik, yefit bir bah~e kaplsl a small, green garden gate
In a possessive compound the first element of-the compound is more
strongly stressed.
A pos~essive compound can be possessed by another noun carrying the
genitive sufflX:
~ocugun yatak odaSl the child's bedroom
or it can form another compound:
misafir yatak odaSl guest bedroom
In both of these examples yatak odas1 has only one possessive sufflX
although one expects two possessive sufflXes: one for forming the
compound yatak odasl, and then another, in the first example to relate
the whole compound to the genitive in ~ocuk!!n, and in the second to form
a compound with misafir. This is because there can only be one
possessive sufflX on any word at one time: what will normally be the last
of these possessives is kept and the rest are dropped. Hence, when you
want to say 'my bedroom~ it is not yatak odas1m but yatak odam: 81
is dropped.
El bagajln aglr ml? Is your hand luggage heavy?
Di§ flr~an1z nerede? Where is your toothbrush?
45 'to have' (possessive + var: has/have)
There is no verb 'to have' iIi Turkish; its function is carried out by a
possessive construction acting as the subject ofa var or· yok sentence
(see sections 21 and 22). For example, a,rabam var means literally
'there is my car~ or 'my car exists'. This is used for 'I have a car'.
62. 61
,Otelin plajl var. The hotel has a beach.
Sigaranlz var ml? Do you have a cigarette?
Bugun ~ok i§lm var. I have a lot ofwork today.
~ocugunuz var ml? Do you have children?
The negative is formed with the possessive SUfTLX and yok:
Param yok. I have no money.
Otelin yuzme havuzu yok. The hotel does not have a swimming pool.
Bodrum'da arkada§larl yok. They do not have friend(s) in Bodrum.
46 Interrogatives: kimin, neyin 'whose', 'ofwhat'
The genitive slifllx is added to kim and ne to mean 'whose~ 'who
does it belong to' and 'what does it belong to' (see section 18).
Bu kalem kimin? Whose pencil is this?
These interrogatives are used in possessive constructions:
Kimin kalemi ye§it? Whose pencil is green?
Kimin adl Ahmet? Whose name is Abmet?
Neyin rengi ye§it? What is coloured green? (Green is the colour of
what?)
c;imenin rengi yefil. The colour ofgrass is green.
47 ~iinkii and onun i~in: 'because' and 'so'
These words are used to join sentences in a simple way.
Dun denize girmedim, ~iinkii miizeye gittim. I didn't go in the
sea yesterday, because I went to the museum.
Dun miizeye gittim, onun i~in denize girmedim. Yesterday I
went to the museum, ~ I didn't go in the sea.
Turkiye ~ok uzak, onun i~in bir ay kaldlm. Turkey is far away, ~ I
stayed a month.
Bugun ~ok yorgunum, ~iinkii dun ~ok ~ah§tlm. I am very tired
today, because I worked hard (lit. a lot) yesterday.
63. 62
48 Adjectives with the Pissessive
An adjective used without a noun is understood to refer to a noun:
SarI temiz, ye§i1 degil. The yellow one is clean, the green one is not.
When an adjective used like this refers to one out of a number of
persons or things, the adjective takes the third person possessive suffIx.
Sarls1 temiz, ye§ili degl!.
Hangisi ucuz, mavl mi, beyaz ml? Which (of them) is cheaper, the
blue or the white?
Hangisini aldln? Which of them did you buy?
aynl same
aynlsl the same ofit (Le. the same as that)
c;antaslnl begendim, aynlslnl aldlm. I liked her bag, (and) bought
the same (ofit).
The word hep, which is generally translated as 'always' but can also
mean call~ is used with this possessive SuffIX - hepsi - and means 'all of
them/it':
Hepsl ne kadar? How much is it all? (all of it)
Hepsine para verdim. I gave (some) money to all ofthem.
Some words used in this form have acquired standard meanings
alongside their usual meaning with the possessive:
biri someone, a person
Kaplya biri geldl. Someone came to the door.
(This can also be birisi, with no change in meaning. This avoids
confusion with the definite object form, which is also biri.)
kimi some (people), some ofthe people
Kimi denize girdi, kimi kumda oturdu. Some went in the sea,
some sat on the sand.
Like biri, this can also be kimis!'
Kimisi biiyiik, kimisi kii~iik. Some ofthem are big, some ofthem
small.
Although kimi and kimisi generally refer to people, they have both
come to be used for things as well - the context would tell us which.
64. 63
. Exercise 14
Translate the following:
1 Yatak odasmlD kaplsml kapadun.
2 Bu fincanlann hepsi giizel; siz hangisini alwmz?
3 Otelimizin banyosuz odasl yok.
4 I did not see the police car. ,
5 Where are your guests? Didn't they come?
6 How many children do you have?
7 All of these jackets are nice, but the white one is very expensive.
, Vocabulary
"'miize museum
::: i1gin~ interesting
~i hediye present; gift
;:§ey(ler) thing(s)
~:Note: you will also see an alternative plural form of §ey: etya, ~s in:
",hediyelik elya souvenirs
(fazla much, extra
;~ulmak to find
giine, banyosu sunbathing
;~~
:~
,t~
;
~ONVERSATION
~(
!..
¥."Diin ne yaptlnIz?
~Miizeye gittik. Miizede ~ok ilgin'i §eyler gordiils.
;iMiize biiyiik mii?
:'HaYlr, ~ok bllyiik degil; biz hepsini iki saatte gordiik. Milzenin
!iy,~mnda kiifUk bir diikkan var. Arkada§lanm oradan hediyelik e§ya
Paidl, ama ben almadlm, ~iinkii fazla param yoktu.
tNerede yemek yediniz?
~Miizenin arkasmda bir lokanta bulduk. Yemekleri ~ok lezzetli. Peki, siz
'~e yaptlnIz?
Biz denize girdik, kumda oturduk, giine§ banyosu yapuk.
Cokgiizel.
65. Lesson 6
49 Adverbs
Adverbs are words which tell us more about an action; they tell us
where the action takes place, how it takes place and when it takes place,
and are accordingly called adverbs ofplace, manner and time..
Almost all Turkish adjectives can be used as adverbs.
Kadln gUzel konu§tu. The woman spoke well.
~ocuklar ~ok yava§ yiiriidil. The children walked very slowly.
Yemegi ~abuk yediniz. You ate (the meal) quickly.
Film yeni ba§ladl. The film has just starred.
tstanbul'dan yeni geldik. We have recently come (Le. returned) from
Istanbul.
The demonstrative pronouns bu, §u, 0 can give us adverbs ofplace
when they take certain suffixes. .
The suffIx -RE- added to these pronouns forms the bases bura- 'this
place~ fura- 'that place~ ora- 'that place'. These bases must take a case
suffIX or a possessive suffIX before they can be used as individual words.
With the third person possessive suffix we obtain the following nouns:
burasl this place Burasl ~ok rahat. This place is very comfortable.
§urasl that place ~urasl temiz. That place is clean.
oraSI that place Orasl soguk. That place is cold.
With other persons of the possessive suffiX the reference is usually to a
part ofone's body:
Oran nasd? How is that part (place) ofyours? (How/What do you feel
in that part ofyour body?)
Buram iyi. This part ofme is OK.
The mOst frequent use of the bases bura-, §ura-, ora- as adverbs is
with the suffIXes -DE (locative), -(Y)E (dative) and -DEN (ablative):
burada
§urada
64
here, in here
there, in there
66. 65
orada there, in there
Arkada§larlmlZ burada kallyor. Our friends are staying here.
Otobiis ,urada duruyor. The bus stops there.
buraya to here
furaya to there
oraya to there
Oraya gitmedik, furaya glttik. We did not go there, we went therel
here.
buradan from here
furadan from there
oradan from there
Mektup oradan geldi. The letter came from there.
In colloquial speech, the vowel before the suffixes in the above bases is
regularly dropped; this can happen in an informal style ofwriting as
well, giving us the forms burda, furda, orda, nerde. However, the
correct spelling does keep the vowel, apd this is the form you sh~uld use
in writing.
.As we saw above the interrogative ne can also take the suffIX -RE-
forming nere-; this can then take the possessive suffIX and all the case
suffIXes:
neres!
nerede
nereye
nereden
which place
where (at where)
to where
from where
The above bases can also take the suffixes -(y)t (definite object) and
-(N)tN (genitive).
buraYl this place
§uraYI that place
oraYI that place
nereyi where (which place)
Burayl bUmiyorum. I do not know this place~
izmir'de nereyi gord'iin? Which place did you see in Izmir?
buranln
§uranln
oranlD
nerenin
of this place
of that place
of that place
of what place
67. 66
Bu ad nerenin? This name is ofwhat place? (belongs to what place?)
Bu anahtar buranln. This key is ofthis place (belongs to this place).
The following words have a directional meaning; that is, they indicate a
direction in which the action takes place. In this sense they can be used
as adverbs, whereas in other senses they can function as nouns or
adjectives.
i~eri inward, inside
dl§arl . outward, outside
i1~ri forward
geri backward
a§agl downward
yukarl upward
beri this way, here ;.r
Asansor yukarl ~lkt1. The lift went up.
Kaplyl i~eri ittim. I pushed the door inwards.
They are frequently used with the suffIXes -DE, -(Y)E and -DEN; with
the -(Y)E SuffIX, however, the direction indicated does not change and
therefore the meaning does not change. For this reason it is common
practice to leave out this ending.
Araba geri gitd. l The car went backwards.
Araba geriye gitd. ~
The words ote 'further, there' and karl. 'across, opposite' are used
adverbially with these same suffIXes.
Ye§ill§lkta kar§lya ge~tim. I went across (crossed to the other side)
at the green light.
Biraz oteye gitti. He went (moved) a little further.
·The direction words listed above are sometimes used in pairs to indicate
a two-way motion; the word bir often accompanies each word: .
Arabalar bir iteri bir geri gitti. The cars went one s!¢pforwards, one
step backwards. (Le. very slowly, continually stopping aricfstarting)
Gen~ adam bir a§agl bir yukarl yilriidii. The young ftJ.:ah walked·
up and down (the street).
The combination a§agl yukarl means 'approximately', '(l.bout' and not
'up and down': ,;" I "
68. 67
istanbul'da a§agl yukarl bir ay kaldlrn. I stayed in Istanbul
approximately/about a month.
The combination ote beri means 'this and that':
C;ar§lya ~lktlm, ote beri aldun. I went shopping, (and) bought this
and that. .
There are other ways to use words adverbially, as you will see later on in
the course (sections 104 and 137).
50 bazl, her, hepsi: 'some', 'every', 'all ofit/them'
The word bazl has a plural meaning, and the noun following it should
be in the plural.
Mannaris'te bazl giinler plaja gittim, baZl giinler havuza girdim.
In Marmaris on some days I went to the beach, and art some days I
went in the pool.
BaZI turistler yemekleri sevmedi. Some tourists did not like the
food.
You can omit the plural noun and just put the plural sufflX with a
possessive suffIX after bazl:
BazJ1arl yerneklcri sevrnedi. Soine (people) did not like the food.
When 'some' is used to refer to an luncounted' amount we use biraz,
which also means la little~ especially when used as an adverb:
Biraz ~ah,tlm. I worked a little/a bit.
Biraz viski i~tik. We had some whisky.
Bankadan biraz para aldlrn. I took some money from the bank.
When I some' has a singular meaning, we use blr:
bir giin some day
bir §cy something
bir yer somewhere
C;antaml bir ye~-de blraktlrn. I left my bag somewhere.
The word her means levery':
Hergiin yiizdiik. We swam every day.
Her §eyi anladlrn. I upderstood everything.
69. 68
And berkes means Ceveryone':
Herkes burada rol? Is everyone here?
CAll of it' or call ofthem' is hepsi:
Filmin hepsini gordiim. I s~w all ofthe film.
KagltlarlD hepsi masa01n iistiinde. All ofthe papers are on the table.
The word biitiin is also used to mean call~ but it is used as an adjective
and always comes before a noun:
Budin kag1dar masalun iistuode. All the papers are on the table.
Butun giln ~ah,t1k. We worked all day.
Another word meaning 'all' is tUm. It can be used as an adjective or as
a noun. When used as a noun it takes the possessi"e ending.
Tum peocereleri a~tlm. I opened all the windows.
Pencerelerin tiimiioii a~tlm. I opened all of the windows.
The word hi~ in various combinations is used for the negative ofthe
expressions above:
hi~ kimse no one kimse anyone
hi~ bir zaman never
bi!r bir fey nothing
Hi~ used with negatives means 'none~ cnever~ cnone at all':
Hi~ yemedim. I never ate.
tstanbul'a hi~ gitmedim. I have never been to Istanbul.
Hi~ yemek yak. There is no food at all.
Plajda kimse var m1? Is there anyone on the beach?
Haylr, hi~ kimse yak. No, there is no one at all.
51 ini/-(Y)Dt: the past form of 'to be'
tDi is seldom used as a separate word by itself; in written and spoke~
Turkish it is used as a suffIX equivalent to the past tense of Cto be', The
suffIX form can be represented as ..(Y)Dt: after bases that end in a vowel
it is .ydi, .ydl, .ydii or .ydu, after the voiceless consonants p, t, k, ~, 5,
§, f, h, it is ·ti, ..tl, .tu, ·tu, and after all other consonants it is .di,
.dl, .dii, ..du. It is followed by the same personal suffIXes' as the past
tense suffIX •Di.
70. 69
Dun ~ok yorgundum. Yesterday I was very tired.
Sen eVde~dinama karde§in okuldaydl. You were at home, but your
brother/Sister was at school.
Adam Tiirktu. The man was Turkish.
Kadln Londrabydl. The woman was a Londoner.
Hastaydlk. We were ill.
Otelimiz ~ok rahattl. Our hotel was very comfortable.
Hava ~ok kotiiydu. The weather was very bad.
tnt is also used with var and yak to mean 'there was' and 'there was
not':
Masada iki kitap vardl. There were two books on the table.
Odada koltuk yoktu. There was no armchair in the room.
Evde yoktu. He was not at home.
Partide kimler vardl? Who (pi) were at the party?
With the genitive + var/yok, int means hadlhad not (did not have):
Param vardl ama vaktim yoktu. I had money, but I did not have
time.
i§imiz vardl, onun i~in plaja gitmedik. We had things to do, so we
did not go to the beach.
,52 Question forms with ..(Y)Di
.(Y)nl comes between the question marker Ml and the personal
endings:
Dun evde miydin? Were you at home yesterday?
Otelde miydiler? Were they at the hotel?
Basta mlydlk? Were we ill?
Ge~en yaz'Marmaris'te miydiniz? Were you in Marmaris last
summer?
'Otelinizin havuzu yok muydu? Didn't your hotel have a pool?
If the question is formed with an interrogative, then that interrogative
carries the .(Y)Di suffIx provided it is not the subject:
C;ocuklar neredeydi? (lit. The children (subject) were where?) Where
were the children?
o kimdi? (lit. He/she/it (subject) was who?) Who was it?
Mektup kimdendi? (lit. The letter (subject) was from whom?) Who
was the letter from? .
71. 70
Note that in the last three sentences above, the subject and the word
order are the reverse ofwhat is ~ost natural in English. Thus 'He was
who?' rather than 'Who was he?"(see sectionlB).
53 Negatives with -(Y)Dt
Degil takes the past suffIx -(Y)Dt, and then comes the personal ending:
Plajda degildik ~iinkii hava kot'iiydii. We weren't on the beach,
because the weather was bad.
Otobiiste deglldim, dolmu§taydlm. I was not on the bus, I was in
the dolmu§.
Hasta degildi, yorgundu. 'He was not ill, he was tired.
54 Negative questions with -(Y)Dt
The order of the endings is as follows:
- + degil + Mt + (Y)Dt + person
Hava giizel degil miydi? Wasn't the weather nice?
Evde degil miydiniz? Weren't you at home?
-(Y)Dtcan also be added to tense suffIxes. It then forms a compound
tense with a past reference. Examples are given with each tense in later
lessons. It is seldom used after .Di (past).
Exercise 15
Trans/ate the following:
1 Orasl ~ok giizel bir yer; l.ondra'dan otuz ki§i geldi ve orada on be§
giin kahil.
2. Araba ileri gitmedi, geri gitd.
3 Bu anahtar nerenin?
4 Cuma giinil ~ok hastaydlm, doktora gittim.
5 Dun ak§am size telefon ettim, odaOlzda delildiniz.
6 He spoke very fast, I did not understand.
7 This is a very nice place.
B How many people stayed here?
