A nice Turkish saying about learning

Merhaba!

Today let me introduce you a Turkish saying which I like;

"Bilmemek ayıp değil, öğrenmemek ayıp"

and the translation is;

Not knowing is not shameful, not learning is (shameful)

or,

It is not a shame not to know, it is a shame not to learn.

Let's look up the grammar a little bit; 

When we talk about a/an verb/action, we use their -mek/-mak form and they become like he, she, it. And then we add our describing words.

Another example for you;

Koşmak yorucu. Running is tiring. It is tiring to run.

When I was an elementary school student, I've heard this saying a million times from my teachers. They used to try to motivate us to learn saying this sentence. When they ask a student a question and can not get the correct answer, this sentence was somehow first to hear from them. So I think that these magical words must have been invented to prevent the lazy students from feeling shameful and instead, to motivate them to study. 

What about a small homework?
Watching TV is fun.
Studying Turkish is fun.
Traveling is exciting.
Reading is a nice hobby.
It is easy to walk.
It is hard to wake up.

Please leave a comment to check your work -_o and never forget that there is nothing wrong with not knowing, but if you have the resources to learn and you refuse to use them.....  It means you have more important things to do! :))

Also, if you have a similar saying in your language please share it with us!

İyi günler!

www.learnturkisheasy.com
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aynı - same

Aynı dili konuşuyoruz.
We're speaking the same language.

Biz aynı ülkede yaşıyoruz.

We're living in the same country.

Bu iki elbise aynı değil, bu daha uzun.

These two dresses are not same, this is longer.

Aynı anda hem kitap okuyor hem de televizyona bakıyor.

She both reads a book and watches TV at the same time.

Ablam ve ben aynı okula gidiyoruz.

My sister and I are going to the same school.

Aynı baban gibisin, hiç beni dinlemiyorsun.

You are just like your father, you never listen to me.

Note: 

1)Aynı ... gibi - Just like ....

Aynı masal gibi. Just like a tale.

Aynı senin gibi . Just like you. (Personal pronouns are used in the genitive form; benim, senin, onun, bizim, sizin, but onlar)

Aynı benim evim gibi. Just like my house.

2)Aynı ... benziyor

Aynı sana benziyor. It looks just like you.

Aynı benim evime benziyor. It looks just like my house.

göstermek - to show, to point, to display

Çocuk kalemi öğretmene gösteriyor.

The kid is showing the pencil to the teacher.

Neyi gösteriyorsun, kitabı mı defteri mi?

What are you pointing at, the book or the notebook?

Televizyon iyi göstermiyor, çünkü eski.

The TV does not display well, because it is old.

Test sonuçları sağlıklı olduğunu gösteriyor.

The test results show that you are healthy.

Bu elbise onu zayıf gösteriyor.

This dress shows her thin.

yol - way, road, method

We can use this word as both road and method just like the English Language.

Yolda iki araba var. There are two cars on the way.

Yollar çok kalabalık, çünkü bugün Cumartesi. The roads are very crowded, because today is Saturday.

Bu soruyu çözmek için iki farklı yol var. There are two ways to solve this problem.

Bu yol kapalı, başka bir yol bulmamız gerek. This road is closed, we need to find another way.

Yol ayrımını görünce sağa dön. Turn right when you see the turnout.

En kısa yol bu. This is the shortest way.

Kestirme yoldan eve gittik. We took a shortcut home.

Hangi yolu seçtiler? Which way did they choose? 

Dil öğrenmek için en iyi yol nedir? What is the best way to learn a language?

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kolay - easy

Bu konu çok kolay. This subject is so easy.

İngilizce daha kolaydı. English was easier.

Türkçe öğrenmek kolay mı? Is it easy to learn Turkish? (is learning Turkish easy?)

Ben çok kolay öğreniyorum. I'm learning so easy.

Bence hiç kolay değil, çok zor. I think that it is not easy at all, very hard.

En kolay yol bildiğin yoldur. The easiest way is the way you know.

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şarkı - song

şarkı - song, şarkı söylemek - to sing, şarkı sözü/sözleri - lyrics, şarkı dinlemek - to listen to a song, şarkı istemek - to request a song

Bu şarkı yeni mi?
Is this song new?

Çocuklar şarkılar söylüyorlar.
The children are singing songs.

Kim söylüyor bu şarkıyı?
Who is singing this song?

En sevdiğin şarkı ne/nedir/hangisi?
What is your favorite song?

Bu şarkının sözleri çok anlamlı.
The lyrics of this song are so meaningful.

O şarkıyı çok beğendim.
I liked that song so much.

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her - every, any

Her gün kitap okurum. Everyday I read (a) book.

Herkes ona bakıyor. Everybody is looking at him.

Her şey pahalı. Everything is expensive. 

Her fırsatta beni ara. Call me at every turn.

Her yeri ara. Search everywhere.

Her yeni gün yeni bir umut. Every new day is a new hope.

Note: 

Her yere gidebilirim. I can go anywhere.

Now we see the word "her" as "any", but this is possible if only the sentence is positive.

(Onu) Hiçbir yerde bulamadım. I could not find it anywhere.

güzel - beautiful

Today's word is maybe one of the first words you have learned when you started to learn Turkish. In Turkish, we can call almost everything "güzel". Even a man. Yes, you can say "what a beautiful man!"/"ne güzel adam!" even!!! The Turkish synonym of "handsome" is "yakışıklı" and it is more common to tell but some women prefer to say güzel if the guy is more than handsome. Food, drink, woman, man, movie anything that you can think of. If you liked how it looks, then feel free to say güzel.

Ne güzel bebek, oyuncak gibi!
How beautiful baby, like a toy!

Bu film daha güzel.
This movie is better.

Yemek çok güzeldi, bir tabak daha alabilirim.
The meal was great, I can take one more dish.

Bu güzel bir fikir. (Güzel fikir.)
This is a good idea. (Good idea.)

Güzel bir kek yap, akşama misafir var.
Make a nice cake, we have guests tonight.

Onun bilgisayarı çok güzel ve yeni.
His computer is so nice and new.

Ne güzel bir elbise bu, nereden aldın?
What a beautiful dress this is, where did you buy?

mu - ?

Although this short word has no meaning alone, it helps the Turkish speakers a lot. Because we make so many questions with the help of it. Let's start to see its all possible uses.

Bu mu? Is this one?

Bunu mu istiyor? He wants this one? 

Bunu istiyor mu? Does he want this one?

In Turkish language we put the questions words after the thing we question as you see in the example above. 

some more examples;

O gidiyor mu? Is he going?

O mu gidiyor? Is it he who is going?

How this works? What is the word order?

When we use this question maker short word "mu", we don't change the normal word order, we just add the word mu after the thing we question as you already see in all examples. 

This one. Bu

Is this one? Bu mu?

He wants this one. Bunu istiyor.

He wants this one? Bunu mu istiyor?

O gidiyor. He is going.

O gidiyor mu? Is he going?

What about the vowel harmony?

mu can be mı, mi, mu, mü

We look at the last vowel of the word that we ask about.

after a,ı --- mı

after e,i --- mi

after o,u --- mu

after ö,ü --- mü

Now please look at the position of "mı,mi,mü" with the help of underlines;

Dün beni okulda gördü. Yesterday he saw me at the school.

Dün beni okulda gördü mü? Did he see me at the school yesterday?

Beni okulda dün mü  gördü? He saw me at the school yesterday?

Dün okulda beni mi gördü? He saw me at the school yesterday?

Dün beni okulda mı gördü? He saw me yesterday at the school?  

And as you may see in these examples, we usually tend to tell the thing we ask about just before the verb in Turkish. This is a general for all kind of sentences. Either it is a question sentence or just a normative sentence, when we want to put emphasis on something, we usually prefer to say it as last word before the verb..

Bugün ben geldim. I came today.

Ben bugün geldim. I came today.

Can I always ask anything adding this word after, even in all tenses?

Yes!

Just some verbs for you in different tenses.

Bu olacak mı? Will it  happen?

Bu olur mu? Can it happen?

Bu oldu mu? Did it happen?

Bu olmuş mu? Did it happen? 

(Related lessons: Indefinite past tense, When to use indefinite past tense)

There is only one exception.

Had it happened? Bu olmuş muydu?

Actually, again you use "mu" but you need to add ydı,ydi,ydu,ydü also.

All these examples were for the third singular subject he/she/it - O. 

All tenses except the past simple require to add personal suffixes after.

Sen gidecek misin? Will you go?

Sen gider misin? Do you go?

Sen gittin mi? Did you go? --- you add the ending to the verb instead.

Sen gitmiş misin? Did you go?

Sen gitmiş miydin? Had you gone? 

Some more sample sentences

O Türk mü? Is he Turkish?

Sen Rus musun? Are you Russian?

Ekmeği masaya koydun mu? Did you put the bread onto the table?

Anahtarını buldun mu? Have you found your key?

Bu filmin sonu mu gerçekten? Is this the end of the movie really? 

Hope you enjoyed and learned some more Turkish with this article. Have a nice day!

en - the most, width

En is the 44th most common word in Turkish and it has two meanings.


1) width
odanın eni - the width of the room
Bu odanın eni kaç metre? How many meters is the width of this room?

And there is a nice idiom using this word;
Benim enim ne boyum ne? What is my width what is my height?
When you are supposed to do something that you think that it is obvious that you are not able to do, you whine saying this sentence.

2) The most; this has more common use than the first one hopefully.
en güzel kız - the most beautiful girl
en küçük ev - the smallest house
en temiz oda - the cleanest room
en kötü film - the worst movie

Bence en güzel kız o. I think the most beautiful girl is her.
En küçük ev bizim. The smallest house is ours.
Bu evde en temiz oda benim odam. In this house, the cleanest room is my room.
Bu Adam Sandler'ın en kötü filmi. This is the worst movie of Adam Sandler.

This is how we form the superlatives in Turkish. You just put the word "en" before the adjective (describing words like; güzel, küçük, temiz, kötü). I always thought that the comparatives and the superlatives are really the easiest subjects in Turkish. (You put "daha" instead of en to form a comparative phrase e.g. daha küçük - smaller) Please think of the other languages you are familiar with. I am thinking of 4 other languages right now and all the adjectives change! and if there is some vowel harmony rule, it becomes a little bit more complicated even. But in Turkish you can use the adjectives in all forms with 100% confidence. Isn't it nice?

sonra - later, then, after

This is the 43th most common word in Turkish Language.
We can use it;
1. without ending or;
2. with the ending -'den'

Benim acelem var, ben şimdi gidiyorum, sen  (daha) sonra gelirsin.
I am in hurry, I am going now, you come later.
'sonra' and 'daha sonra' have exactly the same meaning.

Yemekten sonra bulaşıkları yıkadım.
After the meal, I washed the dishes.
This is the same suffix we use with the comparatives. Please see here to learn when to choose -ten,-tan,-den,-dan.

Okuldan sonra eve gittiler.
They went home after the school.


Senden hemen sonra babam da aradı.
Just after you my father also called me.

Saat üçten sonra buraya gel.
Come here after 3 o'clock.

Birden sonra iki gelir.
Two comes after one.


Önce yemek yedik, (ondan) sonra müzik dinledik.
First we ate, then we listened to music.
when you tell a story feel free to use 'sonra' to tell what happened next.
some people say 'ondan sonra' it has the same meaning.
o - n - dan: after that
o: it, that (also he,she but not here)
n: connection 
dan: the suffix for 'from','than' 


Let me share my story about a friend;

I had a friend and she was always saying 'ondan sonra'. It was like between every sentences she was saying it. We were three close friends. And one day my other friend and I, decided to tell her that it was not so nice. Her audience could get bored saying it continuously. We found a good way to tell it hopefully, so she did not get angry and instead she said that she had heard it from the others and she will try not to tell it such often (and maybe she was already trying it!). But at least for a while she could not. And whenever she was about to say those words again we understood and laughed all together.. 

şimdi - now

Şimdi gitmem gerek. Now I have to go.
Şimdi gitmem lazım. Now I need to go.
Şimdi mi gidiyorsun? Are you going now?
Şimdi herkesin cep telefonu var. Now everyone has cellphone.
Şimdi mi sonra mı? Now or later?
Şimdi anlıyor musun? Do you understand now?
Eve şimdi/yeni geldim. I've just come to home.
Şimdi biraz tatlı olsaydı keşke. I wish there was some dessert now.

Yalın - Şimdi Senden Vaz mı Geçmeli

Koydum sevinçlerimi önüme,

I put the all my happiness in front of me

Baktım hepsi sensin

I looked, all of them is you

Yazdığım şiirlerin her hecesi

Every vocal of the poems I wrote

Üzüldüğüm tüm flimler

All the movies I've felt sad

Yıpranmamış hayatlar, büyük hüzünler bekler

Undamaged lives, big unhappinesses wait

Her işte bir hayır, bu işte hepsi sensin

In everything there is goodness, in this one all is you  

Şimdi senden vaz mı geçmeli

Should I get away from you now

Masal olup yola devam mı etmeli

Should I be a tale and continue the way

Ben kalpten sorumlu

I was responsible for this heart

Aşka sorumluydum, anladım herşey sensin

And for the love, I understood that everything is you