ancak - only, but

This is a Turkish word that can make you confused as it has more than one meaning.
It has 5 common different uses, let's see all of them with the help of sample sentences.

1) Only

Bu problemi ancak sen çözebilirsin.
Only you can solve this problem.

Ancak (eğer) sen de gidersen gelirim.
I come if only you also go.

Bu parfümü ancak şehirde bulabilirsin.
You can find this perfume only in the city.

Ancak bu şartlarda sizinle çalışabilirim.
I can work with you only under these circumstances.

You can replace it with "sadece".

2) Earliest - At the earliest possible time

Ancak üç saat sonra orada olabilirim.
I can be there in three hours earliest.

Bu inşaat ancak iki yılda biter.
This construction finishes in two years earliest.

You can replace it with "en erken".

3) However, but

Türkçe'yi seviyorum ama şu sıralar öğrenmek için çok vaktim yok.
I like Turkish but at the moment I do not much time to learn it.

Elinden geleni yaptı ancak sonucu değiştiremedi.
He did his best but could not have changed the result.

Ancak ben bu şartlarda burada çalışamam.
But under these circumstances I can not work here.

You can replace it with "ama".

4) Just

Ancak gelebildik, trafik çok yoğundu.
We have just come, there was traffic.

Ödevimi ancak bitirebildim. Çok zordu, iki saat sürdü.
I could have finished my homework just now. It was so hard, took two hours.

It means that, the speaker did the best possible but there were some circumstances that made it harder than normal and it took much time out of the speaker's control.

5) ancak bu kadar: as the best, as a phrase, it tells about the most possible amount and these sentences usually start with "bir insan" as you see in the examples.

Bir insan ancak bu kadar cimri olabilir.
One can not be more frugal.

Bir insan ancak bu kadar iyi kalpli olabilir.
One can not be more goodhearted.

Ancak bu kadar taşıyabildim.
I could have carried only this much.
Although we use the word only, it means that it was the best that the speaker could have done.

Konuşuyorum or Biliyorum?

In Turkish when you want to say that "you speak a language" you do not use the Turkish synonym of the English verb to speak but to know. It is acceptable but the Turkish verb bilmek / to know is more accurate to use in this context.

Let's have a look at these Turkish sentences and their literal English translations.

Ben Türkçe biliyorum. I speak Turkish. 

Ben İngilizce ve biraz (da) Türkçe biliyorum. I speak English and a little Turkish. 

Ben Almanca bilmiyorum. I do not speak German.

Ben Türkçe konuşuyorum. I am speaking Turkish.

This sentence means that at the current moment I am speaking Turkish. 

If you forget and say "konuşuyorum" instead of "biliyorum", you can be sure that everyone will understand that you want to say "you speak". It is not a big mistake at all. But you have a chance to be more impressive :) if you remember and use the more accurate verb which is "bilmek".

When to use "üzere"

Today we will put a spot on the Turkish word üzere which is one of the most common Turkish words.

1) Tells a reason when it comes after mek/mak form of the verb. In this kind of sentences, we can replace the word üzere with için.

examples

gitmek üzere/için

bilmek üzere

sample sentences

Paris'e gitmek üzere yola çıktı.

He left to go to Paris.

Ders çalışmak üzere odasına gitti.

He went to his room to study.

Bu konuda daha ayrıntılı konuşmak üzere sizi yarın ofisimde bekliyorum.

I am calling you to my office (I am waiting for you in my office) to talk about this topic in more detail.

2) Tells about the time - about, very soon

Again we use them with mek/mak verb form but this time it just tells that the verb will happen very soon.

Sample Sentences

Tren kalkmak üzere, çabuk ol, geç kalacağız!

The train is about to departure, hurry up, we will be late! (The train will leave very soon)

Şimdi evden çıkmak üzereyim, beni daha sonra arar mısın?

I am about to leave the house right now, can you call me later?

Öğrenciler sınıfa girmek üzere(ler) ama öğretmen hala gelmedi.

The students are about to enter the classroom but the teacher has not come yet.

if we conjugate for all subjects; üzeereyim, üzeresin, üzere, üzereyiz, üzeresiniz, üzereler

3) Especially with these three verbs and their passive voices - as you see..

Gördüğün üzere/gibi, görüldüğü üzere

Bildiğin üzere, bilindiği üzere

Anladığın üzere, Anlaşıldığı üzere

(The word üzere can be replaced with gibi; gördüğün gibi, üzere is more formal)

(You can read how to build that sentences article to learn about -dığı form. They can change upon the personal pronoun such as bildiğim, bildiği, bilidiğimiz and so on. And for the future tense they change the form; göreceğin, anlayacağımız, anlaşılacağı. Maybe the grammar about this -dığı/-acağı seems a bit complıcated but after you read that article, you will see that it is simpler than it seems.)

It has more uses in formal language than daily Turkish. When you listen to the news or read a newspaper, you would absolutely hear this word. Let's see how to use it.

It is the synonym of the English word "as" in this type of sentences.

examples

as you see

as we know

as you understand

sample sentences

Gördüğün üzere bu oda çok küçük, bu yüzden televizyonu diğer odaya koymalıyız.

As you see this room is so small, so/for this reason we should place the TV in the orher room.

Bu konuşmadan da daha iyi anladığımız üzere, o bize yardım etmeyecek.

As we understand from this talk (even) better, he will not help us.

Bu konuşmadan anlaşılacağı/anlaşıldığı üzere, o bize yardım etmek istemiyor.

As it can be/is understood from this talk, he does not want to to help us.

Bildiğiniz üzere bu balıklar serin sularda yaşarlar.

As you know, these fishes live in the cold water.

Örneklerden de anlayacağınız üzere, bu kural birden farklı yolla uygulanabilir.

As you may also see from the examples, this rule can be applied with more than one method/way.

Örneklerden de anlaşılacağı üzere, bu soruyu iki farklı yolla çözmek mümkün.

As it can be/is understood from the examples, it is possible to solve this question with two methods/ways.

Nazar boncuğu - Evil eye

What is Evil's Eye? How can we protect ourselves from them? And what are the Turkish phrases about it? 

Today we will learn about that cute small blue amulet. That is one of the common thıngs that you should take it to home if you visit Turkey. You can attach it to your clothes, hang on the wall or even use it as a key chain. But why? 

Welcome to Turkish Culture

You study Turkish very well. Maşallah to you. Now you need a "nazar boncuğu/protection amulet". Only it can protect you from the people that jealous at you. Because this amulet will remind the people to say Maşallah and they will send their bad energy away from you if they have any, and they will say;

nazar değmesin: may you be protected from the evil eye, may Allah protect you from the evil eye. 

Maşallah, nazar değmesin (inşallah): That's the goods, may you be be protected from the evil eye. 

Or if some people forget to say one of those, other people remind them by saying;

Maşallah de (de-we can add another de whıch means smthng like "and so") , nazar değmesin.: Say Maşallah so he/she can be protected from the evil eye.

We say maşallah to show we liked something or appreciated someone we saw and we do not have any jealousy or bad,evil wish inside. Our energy should not cause any trouble for them.

And so people buy "nazar boncuğu" to remind people to say "Maşallah", especially for new born babies or new bought stuff like car. You can see it over the doors of restaurants or other shops, too. It has such a nice story to talk about and give a brief information about Turkish Culture. This is why I wanted to write about this. Hope you enjoyed!

recharge - şarj etmek

recharge one's phone: telefonu şarj etmek
--> You can add personal suffixes to telefon.
I am recharging my phone. Telefonumu şarj ediyorum.
Telefonunu şarj ettin mi? Did you recharge your phone?

-->The use of personal suffixes is more common but saying just telefonu also works for all subjects.

recharge one's phone card: telefona kontör/kredi yüklemek
Telefonuma kontör yükledim. I topped up my account.
Same personal suffix rule applies also here. Better with it, but wouldnt hurt without it.
Telefona kontör yükledim. Telefona kredi yükledim. Telefona kredi aldım. All mean the same.

my phone card is out of credit: Kontörüm yok/bitti. I dont have credit/My credit has finished.
Telefonumda kontör kalmadı. No credit has left in my phone.
They all mean same.


download

Thanks to you & Because of you

Today we will learn to say thanks to you both in positive and negative terms.

1) How to say "thanks to you" and show our appreciation in Turkish. 

After reading this page, you will have more words to say when you want to thank someone.  

Sayende means thanks to you, but for the other personal pronouns it changes. Because we add the genitive suffixes. 

The formula is: "saye + genitive suffix + de"

benim sayemde

senin sayende

onun sayesinde

bizim sayemizde

sizin sayenizde

onların sayelerinde/sayesinde 

*It is okay to omit the personal pronoun but I recommend you to use, it will sound better and more polite.

examples

Burada çalışmaya senin sayende başladım. Sen bana söylemeseydin, benim o iş ilanından haberim olmazdı. (I started to work here thanks to you, if you did not tell me, I would not be aware of that job ad.)

Canları çok sıkkındı ama ben komik hikayeler anlattım ve benim sayemde güldüler biraz. (They were very bothered but I told them funny stories and they luaghed a little bit thanks to me.)

*When you do not use a personal pronoun but another person orobject title like mother, house, school, teacher, it is acceptable not to add the gentive suffix to those words. And as they take the same suffix with the third singular or plural subject, you always use the word sayesinde(singular) or sayelerinde(plural) with them. And it is okay to use sayesinde with the plural nouns like we usually skip the plural suffixes in daily Turkish.

Annem(in) sayesinde okumaya erken başladım. Thanks to my mother, I started to read early (in early ages).

Yardımseverler(in) sayesinde okul için gerekli parayı toplamayı başardık. (Thanks to the charitable people, we succeded in collecting the money that is needed for the school.

Bu kitap/kitabın sayesinde çok sayıda yeni kelime öğrendim. Thanks to this book, I learned many new words.

2) What if something negative happened and you need to blame someone?

When something bad happened and you think that someone, something or a group of people is responsible for that, then you say "becuase of you = senin yüzünden"

Yüz means face, (well it is such an interesting word that means 4 different things. The other three are: hundred, and the imperative forms of the verbs to swim and to skin out) and it is like the face of the guilty person refers directly to that person.

benim yüzümden

senin yüzünden

onun yüzünden

bizim yüzümüzden

sizin yüzünüzden

onların yüzünden (we always use the singular for the third plural subject, too)

As you see everything is same with "saye" formula. We add the genitive suffixes that's all.

examples

Senin yüzünden işe geç kaldım. I became late for work because of you.

*Except using the personal pronouns that I wrote above,we usually use the nouns without the suffixes with the word yüzünden.

Bir şarkı yüzünden kavga mı ettiniz? Did you argue because of a song?

Bu tembel adamlar yüzünden evin tamiri 3 ay sürdü. The repair of house took 3 months because of these lazy men.

Kötü hava şartları yüzünden tüm uçuşlar iptal edildi. Because of the bad weather conditions, all the flights have been canceled.

Other Notes

*Likewise, when there is a negative reason we usually use the phrase "bu yüzden"(=for this reason), but if the reason is positive we say bu sebeple/bu nedenle.

Are we okay so far? Then the let's learn the today's secret Turkish lesson !

*If you say sayende (or sayemizde,..sayelerinde) although something negative happened, then it sounds sarcastic. You should know that if you say this in a negative situation, your friend can get angry. You take all the responsibility.

Hope you liked and found it simple to learn. Have a nice day!

(And if you want to speak Turkish, don't forget to join Turkish Learners on Google Plus. Soon we will start to arrange hangouts and speak Turkish together!)

Word Order in Turkish

Today we will learn about the word order in Turkish.

The usual Turkish word order is

Subject + Complements + Predicate (Özne + Tümleçler + Yüklem)

In case you are not familiar with those terms;

Subject: Who performs the action (I, you, cat, people etc.)

Complements: The words that tell about the place, time or the adverbs which describes the way the action/verb is done.

Predicate: The verb with the tense and personal suffixes. 

Let's start with the most simple rule:

When making negative sentences

When making negative sentences in Turkish, learners sometimes use the positive verb form. But like in Spanish, we love negation in Turkish.
Let's say, you want to say; Nobody believes them.
Then in Turkish we say; Kimse onlara inanmıyor.
As you see we did not only use the word "kimse" as nobody but we also "inanmıyor" is negative!

Let's read more examples;
I do not anything. Hiçbir şey istemiyorum.
She did not buy anything. Hiçbir şey satın almadı.
You are not going to anywhere. Hiçbir yere gitmiyorsun.

So please keep in mind that, no matter which and how many negative words you use other than the verb, if you will say something negative and not sarcastic at all :) use the negative verb, too.

But can't we say it at all? Of course you can!
Let's say you forgot this lesson and said
Noboy went. "Kimse gitti". instead of "Kimse gitmedi."

Then it sounds like a joke if you say such a sentence as a reply to this question
Who went there?
Cause you really say that someone went, but just noone...

Two verbs in one sentence

In Turkish, when you have two verbs in the same sentence, you are free to not conjugate the first one. You use a suffix ıp/ip/up/üp instead of adding the tense and personal suffixes.

Dışarı çıkıp temiz hava aldım. Dışarı çıktım ve temiz hava aldım.

I went out and took fresh air.

I did them in a row and as I used -ıp, I do not need to say "ve sonra"(and then) after the first verb. -ıp do the job and sound like I did the fırst thing to do the second.

Televizyon izleyip müzik dinleyeceğim. Televizyon izleyeceğim ve müzik dinleyeceğim.

I will watch TV and listen to music.

This is future tense, maybe you do something else between, it does not necssarily mean they have a time relationship. -ip just replaced the word "ve"(and).

Yemek yiyip konuşuyorlar. Yemek yiyorlar ve konuşuyorlar.

They are eating dinner and talking. 

As this is present continuous, we can guess/think that they do these two at the same time. So you do not need to say "aynı anda/aynı zamanda"(at the same time)

So, what is the formula? 

take the verb stem

look at the last vowel

if it is a,ı then use ıp yap-mak ,yap, a --> yapıp yapmak: to do

e,i --> ip gidip gitmek: to go

o,u --> up sorup sormak: to ask

ö,ü --> üp görüp görmek: to see

And if your verb stem ends with a vowel, then add y also. susa-mak, susa, a --> susayıp susamak: to get thursty 

I hope that you defeated one more suffix and now it is less likely for you to get confused with the verb forms when you see them. Have a nice day!

Present Tense Vs. Can

Sometimes it is okay to use present tense over 'can' in Turkish. They mean just the same.

for example;

*How can you believe this?

can be translated in more than one way.
Buna nasıl inanabilirsin? is 'one to one' translation.
You can also say Buna nasıl inanırsın?/How do you believe this? without using can/-ebilmek .
Using the continuous present is also okay - inanabiliyorsun/inanıyorsun

*When you ask for someone to do something, again it is possible to skip -ebilmek
For example;
Kapıyı açar mısın? Kapıyı açabilir misin?
The second one-with can/ebilmek sounds a little bit more polite but they mean exactly the same.

*Let's say you share your near future plans;
Bugün işe gidebilirim. Today I can go to work.
Bugün işe giderim sanırım/sanıyorum
You can add the word 'sanırım' (I guess, I assume) to your present tense sentence to make it sound less certain, or in Turkish we say 'açık bir kapı bırakmak' . You can leave an open door for uncertanity.

Possessive Suffixes

In this page we will learn about the Turkish genitive endings.

1) Word ending with a consonant
There are 4 alternatives;. ım, im, um, üm
if a word has a or ı as the last vowel ım..1
                   e or i as the last vowel im..2
                  o or u as the last vowel um..3
                  ö or ü as the last vowel üm..4
1. yaş - age
benim yaşım - my age
2. ev - house
benim evim - my house
3. sabun - soap
benim sabunum - my soap
4. göz - eye
benim gözüm - my eye

sahip olmak - to own

sahip olmak - to have, to own, to possess, to have ownership of
sahip - owner, someone/something who has

Whenwe have 'something', we basicly use the genitives and the word 'var/there is', but actually there is another way to say it which is sometimes really necessary to know in order to make sentences.

for example;

Bunu bilmedim or Bunu bilmiyordum?

This is one of the common mistakes that people do while learning Turkish Language. When you did not know something, you do not use the past simple tense in Turkish-which is I did not know this-Bunu bilmedim. 

We do not say "Bunu bilmedim". But we use the past continuous instead and say; 

"Bunu bilmiyordum"

Bunu biliyor muydunuz? Did you know this?

Evet, biliyordum. Yes, I knew.

Hayır, bilmiyordum. No, I didn't.

So, when you just want to say I knew it/I did not know it, you should always use the continuous form.

But, can't we say ever 'bildim' in Turkish?
Yes, we can.
Let's say you are in the class and the teacher asked a question, and you solved it.

Sorunun cevabını doğru bildim.
Either you say 'doğru' or not, this sentence means 'I found the right answer of the question' .

İlk önce ben bildim. I was the first who told the right answer.

So, it is about something that happened for the specified time at once, not like biliyordum which covers all the past.

 

nüfus - population

Yavru Panda

Why has the panda population declined?
Panda nüfusu neden azaldı?

Türkiye'nin nüfusunu biliyor musun?
Do you know the population of Turkey?

Nüfus son beş yıl içinde iki katına çıktı.
The population has doubled in the last five years.

Şimdi kasaba nüfusu yüzde yüz Türk.
Now the town's population is a hundred percent Turkish.

Ankara nüfus kayıtlarında bu isim yok.
This name does not exist in Ankara's public records.

Dünya nüfusu 6 milyarın üzerinde.
World population is over 6 billion.

Nüfus cüzdanımı kaybettim.
I have lost my ID.

Nüfus cüzdanımdaki resmime bak.
Check out my ID picture.

Nüfusumuzun yaklaşık yüzde yirmisi bağımlı olarak sınıflandırılabilir.
Nearly 20 percent of our population can be classified as addicts .

Dünya bu Galaksi' deki en yoğun/fazla nüfusa sahip gezegen olmalı.
Earth must to be the most densely populated planet in the galaxy.

Az önce bahsettiğiniz nüfus sayımı, geçen yıldı değil mi?
That census you mentioned a moment ago, was last year, was it?

Bombay, Hindistan'ın en çok nüfusa sahip şehridir ve dünyadaki ikinci en çok nüfusa sahip şehirdir. 
Mumbai is the most populous city in India and the second most populous city in the world.

Hindistan, Bombay

abur cubur - junk food

Abur cubur
1) Turkish definition
Yararlı olup olmadığı düşünülmeksizin rast gele yenen, yemek yerini tutmayan yiyecekler.
2) English definition
The food that people eat randomly and without thinking if it is beneficial or not, and does not replace the meal.

When to say "Aşk olsun"

AŞK OLSUN ! 

aşk : love
olsun : may it be
So what does "may it be love" mean as a phrase, when to say it ?

1) It was a greeeting phrase in some cults, especially in Mevlevi and Bektaşi Orders. It was used to say "Hoşgeldin/Welcome" and "Afiyet olsun/Enjoy your meal".


2) People can say it when they really appreciate an attitude or a behavior and want to show their admire with a word that can worth more than a usual "aferin/good for you" but with "well done!, nicely done!" instead. But this is not so common. Today people usually say "bravo" or "helal olsun/may it be halal" instead of "aşk olsun", to show that they are impressed by the success or the good attitude they see.

3) The last and the most common use is when you show your disapproval, criticism or just a reproach to your friend; like saying "shame on you!, you should be embarrassed!"

It does not need to be that critical or judgemental all the time.
Let's say you wanted your friend to do a favor for you. You help him whenever he needs, and now you need help but he just refused you with an excuse. Then you can say "Aşk olsun" with a reproachful voice.
Your friend thought that you forgot her birthday and shared this opinion with you. Then you can reply "Aşk olsun, nasıl düşünürsün bunu, asla unutmam/how can you think of that, I never forget it"
As you see it is not like saying shame on you but just reproaching.
Well, if someone has done something which you can never forgive, again you can say "Aşk olsun sana, bir daha benle konuşma/Shame on you! Do not ever talk to me again" Now you say it with a high disapproval.

I hope you will not need it as in the last example. Otherwise it is already not so bad.

Buffer Letters in Turkish

I always called "the buffer letters" connection letter in my lessons as they usually connect two vowels. Sometimes I see some beginner Turkish learners getting confused use them with the consonants also. Now let's take a deeper look and send the question marks for a long trip. We will make simple formulas together.

What is buffer letter? 

In Turkish two vowels can not be next to each other. When a word that ends with a vowel takes a suffix that starts with a vowel, we put the buffer letter between them. In Turkish we call them kaynaştırma harfi - combining letter.

Who are they?

There are 4 buffer letters in Turkish: –y, -n, -s, -ş

In Turkish schools our teachers told us to remember these letters with the word "Yaşasın!" which means hurrah, hurray, hooray in English and heil!, hurra! in German. As I thought that they may not be such triggers for excitement, I had to teach my readers when to use them so you could also say "Yaşasın!" from your heart after you read -_*

1. y 

Masa-y-a kitabı koydu. He put the book on the table.

Çanta-y-ı aldı. He took the bag.

Araba-y-a bak! Look at the car!
--> araba, ends with a, we need to add a, we have two vowels a and a, there needs to be a connection between which is y.


--> we can use it with the verbs also. For example with the negative form of future tense, we always use it;
Gitmeyeceğim: I will not go
git-mek: to go
git-me-mek: to not go, me is the general suffix to make the verbs negative.
-ecek/-acak: the future tense suffix for the verbs
so, in order to add -ecek to gitme- we need y between.

yürüyen adam: the man who is walking / walking man
yürümek: to walk
-en/-an: the man who/that/which
so we need y, but look at this verb also;
oturan çocuk: the kid who is sitting
otur-mak: to sit, as you see we did not add y, otur- the verb stem ends with r which is not a vowel but consonant.

*Now we learned that Turkish people do not feel comfortable with two vowels together. But is that all? Is there no other place that we use y? Some other places exist indeed;
“ile, idi, imiş, ise” Are these familiar to you? They should not be :) Because when we use these mini words we omit the first vowel and add y instead. We seldom use them as a separate word but it is also possible although we do not prefer.

ile (with, and)
araba-y-la, with the car,
araba ile is also correct to use
anne-y-le,  with the mother, anne ile is also correct.
Anne ile(ve) çocuk bahçede oyun oynuyor(lar).
The mother and the kid are playing games in the garden.
ile can mean "by means of"
İşe arabayla gidiyorum. I am going to work with car.

idi (was/were)
Bu bir hataydı. This/That was a mistake.
hata: mistake
hata idi is also correct.

imiş (was/were, the past tense that you hear/recognize)
Bu film çok eskiymiş. Annem söyledi. Fakat çok güzelmiş.
This movie is very old. My mother told me. But it is very nice. (I learned it from my mother)
eski - old, eski-y-miş, imiş lost its "i" and we added "y". Because eski ends with i which is a vowel. güzel-miş, güzel ends with "l", a consonant, so we did not add "y". 
(eski imiş, güzel imiş are also correct)

The male kid learned about the movie from his mother and shares this info with his sister

ise (if)
Birinci cevap doğruysa ama ikinci cevap yanlışsa bu sınavı geçemezsin.
If the first answer is correct but the second is wrong, you can not pass this exam.
-->We have a word for if, "eğer". But even if we use it in the beginning of the sentence, we still need to use the word "ise" which we usually use it like a suffix and add to the word instead.  
-->ise can be isa because of the vowel harmony
doğru-y-sa, ends with u-vowel so we need y. yanlış ends with ş-consonant so we don't need a connection.
  

2. n
When we talk about the buffer letters, first "y" comes to mind, that's the most common. N is the second common one and we use it when we add a suffix to compound nouns. What is this? I always call them genitive noun phrases, for example;

bebek arabası - stroller, baby carriage

okul yolu - school road

yaz günü - summer day, Türk Dili - Turkish Language, işaret dili - sign language, vücut dili - body language, yemek tarifi - recipe, Yüzük Kardeşliği - Fellowship of the Ring.

Bebek arabasını gördün mü? Ne kadar değişik! Have you seen the stroller? How different it is!
--> arabası-n-ı . We needed to add -ı but we had to add n between. What if it was nout a compund noun but just araba?
Arabayı gördün mü? Have you seen the car?
--> Now we add y as araba is alone and does not belong to any phrases.
Annemin arabasını gördün mü? Have you seen my mother's car?

Onların evi - Their house
Onların evini mi arıyorsun? Are you looking for their house?
akrabalarımın evleri - houses of my relatives
Akrabalarımın evlerini arıyorum. I am looking for my relatives' houses.

*Arkadaşımın evinde üç oda var. There are three rooms in my friend's house.
arkadaşımın evi - my friend's house, although the suffix -de starts with a consonant we still add n, this is unique for these noun phrases, arkadaşımın evi-n-den-from my friend's house. So unless it is a tense suffix, always add n when you add a suffix to a genitive noun phrase/compund noun. 

*The first word of these phrases also take n.
Ali'nin telefonu - Ali's phone
caddenin ışıkları - the lights of the street
but
evin odası - room of the house (ends with a consonant)

Sene-n-in sonu geldi. End of the year has come.
but yıl-ın sonu - end of the year

*After personal pronouns we always use n as connection.
O-n-a haber verin. Inform him.
Bu-n-u biliyoruz. We know this.

3. s
To make a genitive noun phrase, you use s with the third singular subject.

Okulun bahçe-s-i - Garden of the school

Şehrin cadde-s-i - Street of the city

So when you say 'Adamın arabasını çaldılar'. They stole his car.
araba-s-ı-n-ı both n and s are connections. 

4. ş with the distrubutive numerical adjectives
It happens when the number ends with a vowel. We add ş between the suffix -er/-ar and the number.

Öğrenciler iki-ş-erli gruplar halinde yürüyorlar. The students are walking in a group of two people.

Altışar altışar 60'a kadar sayı saymayı öğreniyoruz. We're learning to skip counting by 6 to 60.

Kalemleri yedişer yedişer ayırıyoruz. We are grouping the pencils by 7.

birer, ikişer, üçer, dörder, beşer, altışar, yedişer, sekizer, dokuzar, onar

yarışmak - to compete

yarışmak: to compete, to contest, to run, to race, to emulate

Kimse size karşı yarışmak istemiyor. Nobody wants to run against you.

Benim için yarışmak istiyor. Kazanırsa para ödülünü eğitimim için kullanacağız. She wants to race for me, if she wins, we will use the prize money for my education.

How to build "..that.." sentences in Turkish

I am so lucky to meet hardworking Turkish Learners while trying to help; as you ask more I get the chance of helping you more. A hardworking Turkish Learner sent me a great question and I thought that all my readers should see my answer here.

Have you checked the most popular lesson of all times in this blog?
http://blog.learnturkisheasy.com/2012/07/oldugunu-that-is.html

Let me tell you briefly what that lesson is about.
It teaches you how to build sentences like
Onun güzel olduğunu biliyorum. I know that she is beautiful.

I explained how to make sentences that have "that, who, what, which" in the middle.
It was an introduction to make a way to use all the verbs easily with that kind of sentences.

Let's have a look at 3 sentences below now:
I saw that she went to the cinema yesterday
Onun bugün sinemaya gittiğini gördüm.

I heard that you have been ill / were ill
Hasta olduğunu duydum.

I saw that Ahmet wrote a long post
Ahmet'in uzun bir yazı yazdığını gördüm.

**!!! It seems like all these sentences have two verbs Gül! What's happening!

I know how they seem, I know how you feel about them, maybe you almost want to ignore them, but do you know that there are just three simple rules to follow? And then you will make and understand these sentences  as children play with toys. And good news: there is no exception. (A Turkish expression that I love) 

*now we take the verb gitmek for all pronouns in starting from I
gittiğim/gittiğin/gittiği/gittiğimiz/gittiğiniz/gittikleri-gittiği
it is like we take the conjugation for "we" in past tense and add genitive suffixes.

/-just to remind you vowel harmony; gördüğün, uyuduğun, yaptığın/
when we need connection letter we use "n" so it is usually same for "you" and "he/she"

for example:
look what he does / what you do
yaptığına bak

*it is same for past and present but in the future tense;
we take the future 3.person and add genitive again
gitmek - gidecek - gideceğim, gideceğin, gideceği, gideceğimiz, gideceğiniz, gidecekleri

I told him that I will go.
Ona gideceğimi söyledim.

I told him that she will go.
Ona gideceğini söyledim.

**in the present tense : rule is same with the past tense
I see that you are feeling good today
Bugün iyi hissettiğini görüyorum.

I can't see what she is doing.
Ne yaptığını göremiyorum.

**We have "ki" also but it is not so common to use.
When you use ki you build the sentence just as normal, in its real tense.

I told him that we will also join.
Ona dedim ki biz de katılacağız.
Bizim de katılacağımızı söyledim.

**or the sentences like having "what,who" inside;
I do not know who they are.
Bilmiyorum onlar kim.
Onların kim olduğunu bilmiyorum.

I can't see what she is doing.
Ne yapıyor göremiyorum.

If you use these alternatives everyone will sure understand and they are not wrong,
but the first forms with those suffixes are the common ones.

Also see http://blog.learnturkisheasy.com/2012/07/what-is-your-favorite-food.htm which uses the same rule and helps you to tell what your favorites.

Hope it is clear, for any questions you know what to do -_o

Evde - At Home

Evde

Bugün evde kalacağım.

Canım dışarı çıkmak istemiyor.

Zaten hava yağmurlu.

Televizyon izleyeceğim ve müzik dinleyecegim.

Kek yapacağim ve çay içeceğim.

Evde olmayı çok seviyorum.

At Home

Today I will stay at home.

I do not feel like going out.

It is already rainy.

I will watch TV and listen to music.

I will bake a cake and make tea.

I like to be at home very much.

(For more please visit learnturkisheasy.com/reading)

How are the different words for "trust" used?

Güvenmek & İnanmak

These are two strong special words that we do not tell just anybody.. and as there are some small exceptions for their uses, I wanted to make a small lesson about them. Let's jump to the words and learn!

Basicly güvenmek: to trust and inanmak: to believe and trust also means "güven" as noun.

Although one is to believe and the other is to trust, but we can use one over the other in two cases.

*to believe someone to do something - we use inanmak
Bunu yapacağına inanıyorum. I belive that you can/will do this.
We can not say Bunu yapacağına güveniyorum, this is wrong.

*to believe in / to have trust in someone
Sana güveniyorum. I trust you / I believe in you
We can say Sana inanıyorum / I believe you, to tell the same(to trust/to believe in) but Sana güveniyorum is more common when you build your sentence without telling anything else.

Sana inanıyorum sounds more like 'I believe what you say' rather than 'trust' when you do not tell why you believe in.

One last thing; if you ask someone to trust you you can say either
"Güven bana" or "İnan bana"

That's all!

Telling Time in Turkish

What time is it? Saat kaç?

It's 2'o'clock. Saat iki.

It's 5'o'clock Saat beş

It's 8'o'clock Saat sekiz

It's 3:30 saat üç buçuk

It's 8:30 saat sekiz buçuk

It's 10:30 saat on buçuk

12:30 (AM or PM) Yarım (yarım means half)

Formula for telling time when it's BEFORE the hour Time =  hour + -e/a(to) minutes + var

İkiye beş var  (it's 5 to 2)  or  (1:55)

Formula for telling time when it's AFTER the hour Time = hour + i/ı (accusative) minutes + geçiyor

beşi on geçiyor (10:05)

It's 12:07 On ikiyi yedi  geçiyor 

For quarters we can use the word "çeyrek" which means quarter.

It's 4:15 Dördü çeyrek geçiyor

It's 3:45 Dörde çeyrek var 

At what time?/When? Saat kaçta?

at 8:00AM sabah saat sekizde

at 1:00PM öğlen saat birde

at 6:30PM akşam saat altı buçukta

Formula for responding to saat kaçta when it's BEFORE the hour. Time = hour+dative  minutes + kala

ikiye beş kala (at 5 to 2)

Formula for responding to saat kaçta when it's AFTER the hour.Time = hour + accusative  minutes + geçe

üçü beş geçe (at 5 after 3)

clock related words

wrist watch - kol saati

wall clock - duvar saati

alarm clock - çalar saat

to set the alarm/clock - saati kurmak

notes

We can skip the word "saat"

(Saat) kaçta buluşalım? When shall we meet?

It is enough to say "Kaçta buluşalım?" 

"Ne zaman buluşalım?" would be another option.

And when you respond to this question, you can skip the word 'saat' and say;

Üçte. (at 3 o'clock) is enough to say instead of 

example sentences

Her gün saat 7'de uyanırım. I wake up at 7 o'cloc everyday.

Saat 8'de evden çıkarım ve işe giderim. I leave the house and go to work at 8 o'clock.

Saat 1'de öğle yemeği yerim. I have lunch at 1 o'clock.

Saat 5'te iş biter ve eve dönerim. The workshift ends and I turn back home at 5 o'clock.

Saat 7 olunca akşam yemeği yerim. When it becomes, 7 I have dinner.

Akşam saat 8 ile 10 arası televizyon izlerim. I watch TV between 8 and 10 o'clock in evening.

Saat 11 gibi uyurum. I sleep around 11 o'clock.

How to say sad in Turkish

I am happy to read different language learning sites as it gives me the chance to learn what possible questions the Turkish learners have and I can help them. By this way, maybe my dear readers will learn about that before they get confused. Here is the today's question:

How are the different words for "sad" used?

We have different words that can mean sad in Turkish but there are some certain rules for which one to choose. These are the words that all mean sad;

üzgün
üzücü
acıklı

Üzgün is used for living beings and there is a logic behind.

Üzgün comes from the verb "üzülmek" - to become/get/be sad
So we can not use it for nonliving things as they have no chance to get sad.

For the word "acıklı" we have another alternative "üzücü"
üzmek - to make sad / to sadden
üzücü, acıklı - the thing that makes you sad (can't be a living thing)
acı - bitter (both for food and almost anything)
*I would use the word acıklı especially for weepy songs, movies or sad events. It gives a bit more sad feeling than üzücü when you hear.

Bu film çok acıklı. This movie is so sad.

Bu durum gerçekten çok üzücü/acıklı. This situation is really so sad.

Ben çok üzgünüm/üzülüyorum. I am feeling so sad.

Çocuk üzgün gözlerle bakıyor. The kid is looking with sad eyes.

Böyle üzücü sözler söyleme. Don't tell me such sad words.

Bu kanalda hep üzücü/acıklı haberler var, izlemek istemiyorum. There are always sad news on this channel, I don't want to watch.

I hope that you will not need to use this word ! There are happier Turkish words around -_o

Öğretmenler Günü - Teacher's Day

The future is young people's creation and the young people is teachers'. Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK

Bugün Türkiye'de Öğretmenler Günü. (Today is Teacher's Day in Turkey)

Bütün öğretmenlerimizin öğretmenler günü kutlu olsun ! (Happy Teacher's Day for all our teachers!)

İstanbullu'yum or İstanbulluyum?

I had decided to share common mistakes that Turkish Learners make. Here we are learning the second one and this is something we native Turkish speakers also do.
When you speak, there is no difference but when you write where you are from, you don't use the punctuation mark.

Why They Call it A Turkey?

As a Turkish, that was something I always wondered. Now I got the chance to learn it from a reliable resource; GrammarGirl. Perhaps some of you already know her English Language Blog where she is giving tips&tricks about the English Language. Now let's listen to her and learn if there is some connection between that bird and the land Turkey.

,

How to say "Soon, Very Soon, Close, Nearby" in Turkish

We can use the word "yakın" or "yakında"

1) Location

Okul eve yakın mı? 

Is the school close to the house?

göl - lake

Van Gölü Türkiye'nin en büyük gölüdür.
Van Lake  is the biggest lake of Turkey.

Gölde balık tutmak gibisi yok!
There is nothing like fishing in the lake!

How to Say "I am OK" in Turkish

In English if someone asks how are you we can say I am OK, or we could say the movie was OK.
Can we say "tamam" or "peki" and use it like OK in Turkish?


The answer is no and here is why;

• It would mean totally different;

example:
-What was his answer to that question?
-It (his answer) was okay - Pekiydi / Tamamdı

Only in such a conversation this word would make some sense.

• So we need to use the word "iyi" to mean OK

I am OK - İyiyim
The film was OK - Film güzeldi / iyiydi

Let's learn some more;
if it is just so-so movie then
Film fena değildi or
İdare eder --yes it is present even though the question is past tense

and for a person;
I am so-so Fena değilim / Fena değil / İdare eder

When it is an answer for a person, I would say it is a bit informal to say "İdare eder"

sincap - squirrel

Fotoğrafta bir sincap görüyorsunuz.

Şimdi sincapları biraz tanıyalım ve yeni kelimeler öğrenelim.

Sincaplar ağaçlarda yaşar.

Sincaplar kahverengidir.

Sincaplar sevimli ve küçük hayvanlardır.

Sincaplar fındık ve cevizi çok severler.

You see a squirrel in the photograph.

Now let's get to know the squirrels a little bit and learn new words.

Squirrels live on the trees.

Squirrels are brown.

Squirrels are lovely and small animals.

They like hazelnut and walnut a lot.

Words About 'Week'

hafta -week
hafta içi gün - weekday
haftanın günleri - days of week
hafta ortası - midweek
hafta sonu - weekend
hafta başı - beginning of week
haftalık - weekly
haftada bir defa - one time a week
haftalık çalışma saati - workweek
haftalarca - for weeks
haftalık ödeme - weekly payment
her hafta - every week
her (bir) hafta - each week
her iki haftada bir - every two weeks
Hafta içi kaça kadar açıksınız? - How late are you open on weekdays?

matematik - mathematics

Matematik çalışmam gerek, yarın sınav var.

I need to study math, there is an exam tomorrow.

savaş - war

Birinci Dünya Savaşı hangi yıl başladı?
When did the World War I begin?

Türkiye İkinci Dünya Savaşı'na katılmadı.
Turkey did not join the World War II.

Savaşta kazanan taraf yoktur.
There is no winning side in the war.

Askerler savaş çin hazırlanıyor.
The soldiers are preparing for the war.

O ülkede iç savaş çıkabilir.
There can arise a civil war in that country.

Bağımsızlık savaşı büyük bir başarıyla sonuçlandı.
The Independence War has ended with great success.

İki taraf da artık savaşmak istemiyor, çünkü çok kayıp verdiler.
None of the sides want to continue the war, because they had so many losses.

Cranberries - Animal Instinct +Turkish Translation

Hello! This is one of my all time favorite songs. A friend,who is learning Turkish, asked me to translate it and here it is! Enjoy! And if you also want me to translate a song please just leave a comment!

Lyrics - Sözler:

Animal Instinct / Hayvan İçgüdüsü
Suddenly something has happened to me
Aniden bana bir şey oldu

As I was having my cup of tea
Bir fincan çayımı içtiğim sırada

Suddenly I was feeling depressed
Aniden kendimi üzgün hissettim

I was utterly and totally stressed
Ben tamamen ve bütünüyle stresliydim

Do you know you made me cry
Beni ağlattını biliyor musun?

Do you know you made me die
Beni öldürdüğünü biliyor musun?

And the thing that gets to me
Benim sahip olduğum bu şeyi

Is you'll never really see
Asla gerçekten göremeyecksin

And the thing that freaks me out
Ve bana kendimi kaybettiren şey şu ki

Is I'll always be in doubt
Her zaman şüphede olacağım

It is a lovely thing that we have
Sahip olduğumuz hoş bir şey

It is a lovely thing that we
Hoş bir şey bu bizim..

It is a lovely thing, the animal the animal instinct
Bu hoş bir şey, hayvan, hayvan içgüdüsü

So take my hands and come with me
Ellerimden tut ve benimle gel

We will change reality
Gerçekliği değiştireceğiz

So take my hands and we will pray
Ellerimden tut ve dua edeceğiz

They won't take you away
Onlar seni uzağa götüremeyecek

They will never make me cry, no
Asla beni ağlatamayacaklar,hayır

They will never make me die
Asla beni öldüremeyecekler

The animal, the animal, the animal instinct in me
Hayvan, hayvan, hayvan içgüdüsü içimde

It's the animal, the animal, the animal instinct in me
Bu hayvan, hayvan, hayvan içgüdüsü içimde

It's the animal, it's the animal, it's the animal instinct to me [x2]
Bu hayvan , hayvan , bu benim hayvan içgüdüm

Yapmak & Etmek

What is the difference between yapmak and etmek ? 

As both verbs mean "to do" or "to make", it can be a bit confusing to choose right one. But I have some good news for you. It is easier than English to guess which one is right to use. Let me tell you why;

çalmak - to steal, to play a musical instrument, to ring

Hırsız kapıyı çalar mı?
Does the thief ring the doorbell?

polis - police

Büyüyünce polis olmak istiyorum.
I want to become a policeman when I grow up.

boşanmak - to divorce

balık - fish

- Akşama ne yemek yaptın? What did you cook for dinner?

 - Balık. Fish.

How to say I don't feel like in Turkish

Today we will learn how to say the common English expression I feel like doing something in both positive and negative form. First we will see some sentences and then make a formula.

First Way

This is the quite easy way;

Canım elma (yemek) istiyor. I feel like eating apple.
Canım yürümek istiyor. I feel like walking.
Canı tartışmak istiyor. She feels like arguing.
Canım hiçbir şey yapmak istemiyor. I don't feel like doing anything.
Canın ne yapmak istiyor? What are you feeling like doing?

->Take the word can; add the suffixes for genitive and the rest is same for all subjects. Just use the original forms of the words.


Second Way

I do not feel like doing anything - Hiçbir şey yapasım yok.

She feels like working today. Bugün çalışası var.

-> Now we saw that if it is positive we say "var" in the end and "yok" if it is negative.

-> What about you feel like asking if someone feels like doing something 

Şarkı söyleyesi var mı? Does he feel like singing?

Yemek yapasın yok mu? Don't you feel like cooking?

-> Just the same verb form but you add Turkish question word "mı / mu"

Now let's learn the rule of forming the verbs.

yap-mak - to do, to make 

the stem "yap" ends with a consononat "p"

yap-ası-m

yap-ası-n

yap-ası

yap-ası-mız

yap-ası-nız

yap-ası

Do you remember those suffixes in the end from somewhere?

They are the genitive suffixes.

Already! I could write in samples benim yapasım, onun çalışası, senin yemek yapasın

But we usually skip them in colloquial language.

So, we need to say ası/esi and add the genitive suffixes.

I mentioned that the verb yapmak ends with a consonant. Because if it ends with a vowel we need to add the connection letter y also;

oku-mak - to read

oku-yası-m (benim okuyasım)

oku-yası-n (senin)

oku-yası (onun)

oku-yası-mız (bizim)

oku-yası-nız (sizin)

oku-yası (onların)

another thing we need to know is that if the last vowel in the verb stem is a,ı,o,u we take -ası otherwise (e,,i,ö,ü) -esi

for example;

sev-mek - sev-esi-m

gizle-mek - gizle-yesi-m

Bugün Türkçe çalışasın var mı? 

Do you feel like studying Turkish today?

Bugün hiç çalışasım yok, başım ağrıyor.

Today I don't feel like studying at all, I have headache.

*One last thing ! 

Sometimes you can see the verb "gelmek" with this verb form and it means almost the same.

When you use var and yok, it is about the current moment, but if you use it with gelmek, you can talk about the past.

Hava çok güzel, dışarı çıkasım geldi.

The weather is so nice, I felt like going out.

Hava çok güzel ama evi bırakasım yok.

The weather is so nice but I do not feel like leaving home.

Words about Weight

Son günlerde çok kilo aldım.
Lately I gained too much weight.

I want to lose weight but it is hard.
Kilo vermek istiyorum ama (bu) zor.

Herkesten çok yiyor ama hiç kilo almıyor.
He eats more than everone but never gains weight.

Related Vocabulary:
tartı: weighing machine
kilo almak: to gain weight
kilo vermek: to lose weight
rejim yapmak/diyet yapmak: to be on diet
az yemek: to eat a little bit
çok yemek: to eat much
acıkmak: to be hungry
doymak: to get full























Kadın hissettiği kilodadır
Tartı fazla gösterirse
Tartı bozuk
Elbise dar gelirse
Kalıbı küçük
Arkadaşı kilo almışsın derse de
Fesattır

(Women weight how much they feel like
If the weighing machine shows much
It means it is broken
If they can not fit in the dress
Its pattern is tight
And if a friend tells her she has gained weight
Then she is evil)

film - movie

Komedi filmi aldım, izleyelim mi?
I bought a comedy movie, shall we watch?

En sevdiğin film hangisi/ne?
What is your favorite movie?

Bu filmdeki adamı tanıyor musun?
Do you know the man in this movie?

Bütün gün televizyonda film izledim.
I have been watching movies on TV whole day.

horror movie

WHY YOU KISS A WOMAN'S HAND....

The answers of the question WHY YOU KISS A WOMAN'S HAND?
English man: From respect..
German man: As they are valuable..
Turkish man: You should start from somewhere bro....

silmek - delete, erase, clean, wipe, write off

Bilgisayardaki tüm dosyaları sildi.
He deleted all the files in the computer.

Ben o notu sildim, çünkü yanlıştı.
I erased that note, because it was wrong.

Bu pencereleri misafirler gelmeden (önce) silmelisin.
You should wipe these windows before the guests come.

Yerleri silmek için yeni bir kova aldım.
I bought a new bucket to wipe the floor.

Banka kredi kartı borcumu sildi.
The bank wrote off my credit card debt.

Comparatives & Superlatives in Turkish Language

Turkish Comparatives

This is maybe the easiest subject for Turkish learners. How come?

*Because there is no

• exception
• changing letter
• strange vowel harmony rule
• connection letter

What we have then?

All you need to do is adding the word "daha" 

and sometimes you do not even need this word !

here we go;
büyük: big
Bu ev daha büyük. This house is bigger.
Bu ev şu evden daha büyük. This house is bigger than that house.
/Bu ev şu evden büyük.
*The decision is yours, it really is okay not to use "daha" as long as you say what you compare with.

Ben uzunum. I am tall.
Ben daha uzunum. I am taller.
Ben senden daha uzunum. I am taller than you.
*And we may skip the word 'daha' and say;
Ben senden uzunum. I am taller than you.

Just like the English language we use than, it sounds exactly the same, although we write den.
Keeping this in mind, we need to know that this suffix -den can change and may become
dan,tan,ten also;

Bu araba pahalı. This car is expensive.
O araba daha pahalı. That car is more expensive.
O araba bu arabadan daha pahalı.

kitap-kitaptan  saat-saatten
(book)            (clock)

How we will know?
If the word ends with f s t k ç ş h p and the last vowel is a,ı,o,u --> tan
                                                                                 e,i,ö,ü --> ten
If the word does not end with one of those consonants and the last vowel is a,ı,o,u --> dan
                                                                                                             e,i,ö,ü --> den

Ben annemden daha kısayım. I am shorter than my mother.
The last letter is m (not one of f s t k ç ş h p)  and, the last vowel is e

Market okuldan daha yakın. The store is closer than the school.
Ayşe bu bebekten daha güzel. Ayşe is more beautiful than this baby.
Aşktan daha büyük bir duygu yok. There is no feeling greater than love.

Super Easy Superlatives of Turkish 

And for the superlatives we have another word; "en"

en güzel kız - the most beautiful girl
en uzun adam - the tallest man
en çalışkan öğrenci - the most hardworker student
en kalabalık cadde - the most crowded street

As you see, we just put the word en in the beginning, the rest is the same, we have no suffix or no other rule.

*** Tomorrow we will learn more about the Turkish Adjectives ***
We will learn to say "the + adjective in all forms + one" such as the good one, the better one, the best one in and out of sentence.

Until tomorrow you might find these lessons useful to learn some more uses of adjectives.
http://blog.learnturkisheasy.com/2012/08/en-most-width.html
http://www.learnturkisheasy.com/grammar/i-am-good-at



Update...13.11.2012
extra information about the word saat (clock)
In an original Turkish word we can not see two vowels next to each other. Some old people already pronounce this word as if there is a "h" between them (sahat). Upon the rule we need to add -tan but when we read the word-saat the second "a" sounds different than the normal "a" sound and "-ten" fits better.

yeter - enough

Bu para bana yeter.
This money is enough for me.

Bugünlük yeter, yarın devam ederiz.
It is enough for today, we continue tomorrow.

Bu yemek herkese yeter mi?
Is this food enough for everyone?

***yetmek: to be enough, so it is a verb. Let's see some samples in other tenses, too.

Zamanın yetti mi?
Was your time enough?

Sence onun yardımı yetecek mi gerçekten?
Do you think his help will be enough really?

O para tüm ihtiyaçları yetmiş, ne gerekiyorsa almış.
(We heard that/She said that..) That money was enough for all needs, she bought whatever she needs.

If you are confused with the grammer in the last sentence, you may like to read these lessons:
http://www.learnturkisheasy.com/grammar/when-to-use-indefinite-past-tense
http://www.learnturkisheasy.com/grammar/indefinitepasttense