Blog.LearnTurkishEasy: November 2012

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?

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

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

- Balık. Fish.

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

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