Why do you learn Turkish?

This is not a real question. I am Turkish but I will give the answers to this question. Yes, this article is about how to give an answer when people ask this question to you.

I love to learn languages. When people ask me why I am learning a language, my answer is usually "Because I like to learn languages". However people do not like this answer much, especially when the language you are trying to learn is accepted as one of the hardest. They keep looking at you with bigger eyes until they hear something special^^. In my opinion, if a language is hard then it just means it can take a bit more time to learn than the others but it can never be impossible. Moreover, already how hard you find it totally depends on your mother tongue and with the right help any subject can be simplified.

Let's start with your teacher's reason to learn any language and add some other options that might belong to you. And if you do not see your special reason to learn Turkish here, please just leave  a comment below. 

Some Reasons to Learn Turkish 

Just Turkish Sentences

listen to ‘Some Reasons to Learn Turkish’ on Audioboo

Both English and Turkish 

 ( Download )

1. Because I like to learn languages and Turkish is my favorite, it sounds so nice to me. 

Çünkü dil öğrenmeyi seviyorum ve Türkçe en sevdiğim dil, kulağa çok hoş geliyor.

2. I will go to Turkey soon. 

Yakında Türkiye'ye gideceğim.

3. I will visit Turkey this summer.

Bu yaz Türkiye'yi ziyaret edeceğim.

4. I'm planning to move to Turkey.

Türkiye'ye yerleşmeyi planlıyorum.

5. My family and I go to Turkey for vacation every summer.

Ailem ve ben her yaz Türkiye'ye tatile gidiyoruz.

6. I have Turkish friends and I want to talk with them in their own language.

Türk arkadaşlarım var ve onlarla kendi dillerinde konuşmak istiyorum.

7. I want to live in Turkey.

Türkiye'de yaşamak istiyorum.

8. I want to get a job in Turkey.

Türkiye'de (bir) iş bulmak istiyorum.

9. I want to work as a translator.

Çevirmen olarak çalışmak istiyorum.

10. I need to learn it for my university education.

Üniversite eğitimim için öğrenmem gerek.

11. I will attend a university in Turkey the next academic year.

Gelecek akademik yılda Türkiye'de üniversiteye gideceğim.

12. My spouse is Turkish.

Eşim Türk.

13. My girlfriend is Turkish.

Kız arkadaşım Türk.

14. My boyfriend is Turkish.

Erkek arkadaşım Türk.

15. I live in Turkey. 

Türkiye'de yaşıyorum. 

16. I found a job in Turkey. 

Türkiye'de bir iş buldum.

17. I will go to Turkey to study next year.

Gelecek yıl Türkiye'ye okumaya gideceğim.

18. I like Turkey, Turkish People, Music and Culture so much.

Türkiye'yi, Türkleri, Türk Müziğini ve Kültürünü çok seviyorum.

19. My father is Turkish but we always speak another language at home.

Babam Türk ama evde hep başka dil konuşuyoruz.

20. My fiancé is Turkish and we will live in Turkey when we get married.

Nişanlım Türk.ve evlendiğimiz zaman Türkiye'de yaşayacağız.

21. In my country the TV shows Turkish TV series. I like to watch them and want to understand.

Benim ülkemde televizyon Türk TV dizilerini gösteriyor. Onları izlemeyi seviyorum ve anlamak istiyorum.

22. My mother tongue is similar with Turkish. I like to find similarities between and also compare them.

Benim anadilim Türkçe'yle benzer. Aralarındaki benzerlikleri bulmayı ve ayrıca karşılaştırmayı seviyorum.

23. I work and live in Turkey. Not everyone speaks English here, so I need to learn it.

Türkiye'de çalışıyorum ve oturuyorum. Burada herkes İngilizce bilmiyor. Bu yüzden öğrenmem gerek.

24. My family is Turkish but I have always been raised and lived in another country and could not get to speak Turkish much. For this reason I want to improve my Turkish and be able to speak better.

Ailem Türk ama ben hep başka bir ülkede büyüdüm ve yaşadım.ve Türkçe pek konuşamadım. Bu sebeple Türkçemi geliştirmek ve daha iyi konuşabilmek istiyorum.

25. My company will send me to Turkey and I will have to stay there for some time. I think it is necessary to learn the language of the country you will live in. This way, life becomes easier.

Çalıştığım şirket beni Türkiye'ye yollayacak ve belli bir süre orada kalmak zorunda olacağım. Bence yaşayacağın ülkenin dilini bilmek gerek. Bu şekilde hayat daha kolay olur.

26. Anatolian Turkish is the most widely spoken Turkic Language. At least 75 millions of people speak it as native. Also,  when I learn Turkish, it will be a lot easier to learn the other Turkic Languages.

Anadolu Türkçesi en çok konuşulan Türk Dili. En az 75 milyon kişi ana dil olarak konuşuyor. Ayrıca, Türkçe öğrendiğim zaman diğer Türk Dillerini öğrenmek çok daha kolay olacak.

....................................................................................................................

Reasons can vary but learning something that you are interested in, putting your time and effort to reach your goal and to see that you get closer everyday really worth much I believe. Thanks for reading and happy learning! 

What is -mişmiş in Turkish?

We call this tense "Geçmiş Zamanın Rivayeti" /The rumor of the Past Tense. 

Rivayet means rumor. 

There is no certainty that "that verb, event" has occured. 

As you know there is another tense is called -Miş'li Geçmiş Zaman / Indefinite Past Tense in Turkish. And you may use it when you tell a story or something that you learned from someone else. This Rumor of the Past Tense use the same ending -miş but two times, and you add it when you don't believe the thing you learned or you just heard, let's learn what it is now! You can listen to example sentences at the bottom of the page.

We can use it for two common purposes;

1) You do not believe someone or you are not satisfied with something.

Example; 

A: Haven't I said clean here?

(Ben sana burayı temizle demedim mi?)

B: Don't you see? I already cleaned.

(Görmüyor musun? Zaten temizledim.)

A: You cleaned?! Why do I still see dust here then?

(Temizlemişmiş. O zaman neden hala burada toz görüyorum ben?)

We used the super power of -miş to have "ultra moody insulting effect".

One could just say, temizledin mi? did you clean? otherwise.

When you are not happy with the result of something that someone did, you can use this.

It does not have to be said with anger all the time. 

Another example; 

A: Neden bunu bana söylemedin? 

(Why did not you tell me this?)

B: Nasıl söylemedim? Telefonda anlattım dün.

How did not I tell? I told it on phone yesterday.

A: Söylemişmiş, ben niye hatırlamıyorum?

(You said it?!, why don't I remember?)

A did not believe B and used this unpleasant -mişmiş again.

Although it does not sound as much angry as the first example, 

still B would not be happy to hear it as it shows that A does not believe that B said it.

2) You tell a story to someone but you don't believe that really happened.

This is not so different use with the first one indeed. 

When you tell a story or something to someone you can use it, and this story is something you heard from someone else, too.

Example;

A: Öğrendin mi dün neler olmuş?

(Did you learn what happened yesterday?)

B: Evet, önce Ece eve gelmişmiş, sonra annesi aramışmış, o da ona yardım etmeye gitmişmiş. Bu yüzden gelememiş partiye.

(Yes, (she said that, I learned from her that) Ece has come to home, then her mother has called her, and then she has gone to help her. That's why she could not have come to the party (according to what I've learned from her))

A: Duy da inanma!

(Hear and/but don't believe!)

B: (Seninle) Aynı fikirdeyim. Bana hiç de doğru gibi gelmedi bu. Sadece gelmek istemedim diyebilirdi.

(I have the same opinion. I don't think/(I did not find) that it is like the truth, either. She could just say she did not want to come.

A: Bence de.

(I agree.)

How to say "the more... the more..." in Turkish

In this lesson, I will explain how to apply the grammar rules in Turkish to make sentences like "the more... the more...", "the more... the less..." in English.

1) Simple Present Tense, "You" Form as a General Statement
"The more you study, the less you make mistakes"
1. Daha çok çalıştıkça, daha az hata yaparsın.
2. Çalıştıkça daha az hata yaparsın.
3. Ne kadar çok çalışırsan, o kadar az hata yaparsın. *

The other two have similar meanings but when we make a statement like this, we use the third option.
Likewise;
The less you study, the more you make mistakes.
Ne kadar az çalışırsan, o kadar çok hata yaparsın.

2) Other Sentences
If it is not a general statement but the subject is "particular" then,
we can not use the third option but the first or second, and usually the second if the sentence starts with "the more". If it starts with "the less", then we have to say "daha az".

The first part is same for any tense or subject. That means, you always add -çe or -ça to verb of the first sentence like we did above in the first and the second sentence.


this is the general formula: tanı-mak -> tanıdık (we knew) + ça
after dık,duk you add ça
after dik,dük you add çe


Example 1
Seni daha çok tanıdıkça, daha iyi anlıyorum.
The more I know you, the better I understand.
(As I know you more, I understand better)
- tanımak: to get to know, to know someone

Example 2
Daha az/Az para harcadıkça daha çok yatırım yapabilirsin.
The less you spend money, the more you can do investment.

Example 3
Daha çok konuştukça, daha çok öğreneceksin.
The more you speak, the more you will learn.

Example 4
Daha çok okudukça, daha çok anladı.
The more he read, the more he understood.


This is also how we make sentences like, 
As he read more, he understood better.
Okudukça daha iyi anladı.
As I met more people, I became more popular.
Daha çok kişiyle tanıştıkça, daha popüler oldum.

The similarity is that we use the same verb for the first part of the sentence.

If you still have questions about this subject, please leave a comment below. Teşekkürler!

1000 Turkish&Spanish&English Words

Today I discovered a Website to study Spanish in Turkish and found a great wordlist there. There are 1000 Spanish words with their English and Turkish synonyms and I felt like I had to share this thinking  you also might find it helpful. Here is the wordlist and if you would like to download it please visit this link: http://goo.gl/74gm2

First Turkish Phrases

Here is a video to learn first Turkish Phrases for beginners. If you want to download the text as pdf, please follow this link and click the link under the video.

Kedi Kuyruğu Konuşur mu? Does Cat Tail Speak?

The answer is yes ! Cevap evet!

Let's learn some Turkish Verbs with the help of cats. Kedilerin yardımıyla bazı Türkçe Fiiller öğrenelim!

The title says "Kedi kuyruğu konuşuyor" - "Cat tail is speaking"

Korkuyorum - I am scared

Seni gördüğüme sevindim - I am glad to see you

Sinirleniyorum - I am getting angry

Arkadaş olalım - Let's be friends

İlgileniyorum - I am interested

Sana deli oluyorum - You drive me crazy

Aşk hissediyorum - I am feeling love

Endişeliyim - I am worried

Kızgınım - I am angry

Turkish Song: Ali Güven - Yadigar

This is a Turkish song from 90s. Turkey have been listening to this song on radios and TVs before Internet was widely used. We used to listen to the same song over and over again when they were just released. And this is one of those songs. I would recommend you to listen without looking at the lyrics first in order to test yourself. I hope you enjoy!

Ali Güven - Yadigar

Sözler (Lyrics)
Bu gece canım yalnız kalmak istiyor
Herkesten uzak her sözden gözden uzak
Bu gece canım yalnız kalmak istiyor
Hiçbir şey konuşmadan insandan dosttan uzak

Böyle değildim ben sensizliği bilmeden
Bu garip huylar senden yadigar
Ne varsa gönlümde sen aldın götürdün yar
Bu hüzün bana senden yadigar
İçimde ağlayan bir çocuk bıraktın yar
Bu acı bana senden yadigar

İngilizce Çeviri (English Translation)

I feel like being alone tonight
Far from everyone, from every word and every eyes
I want to stay alone tonight
Without speaking anything, far from people and friends

I was not used to be like this, before meeting your loneliness
These strange habits are all left from you
You took away whatever there was in my heart my beloved
This sadness is left from you
You left a crying child in me, my beloved
This pain is left from you



Yadigar means something that someone left for you/gave you or something that is left from someone. It can be an object like neckless from someone or even some emotional things or an illness.
for example;
Bu ev bana annemden yadigar.= Bu ev bana annemden kaldı.
(My mother left me this house. / This house is left from my mother.)

Yaşlı Vs. Eski

In Turkish we have two words that mean "old" and they are;

• eski
• yaşlı

How we know when to use the right one?

For living things we need to say "yaşlı".

*"Yaş" means "age". And yaşlı means "having age". -lı is a suffix add the meaning of "to have, with"

for example:
Balkonlu bir ev aldım. I bought a house with/that has a balcony
İki çocuklu bir aile. A family with two children.

*Eski means old, depreciated, worn out in Turkish. So we should use it to describe only non-living things.
If you look up a dictionary to learn how to say "old" in Turkish as an English speaker, "eski" will be the first word to see. But as you may agree, it is not nice to call someone "eski". It could be accepted for the plants only.

*You could call someone eski in only ths case;

oldschool - eskikafa

kafa and baş both mean "head" in Turkish. So if someone is oldschool enough then you are free to call him/her eski but with kafa together. Otherwise please don't forget my words to keep being polite when you speak Turkish. Thanks! :)

What is ise?

The Turkish word ise can have two different meanings and we usually see it as a suffix -se/-sa.
If it is added a word that has a,ı,o or u as last vowel, we choose -sa, and if it is e,i,ö or ü then we choose -se.

1) Conjunction
It can be used together with the word "eğer" but it is enough just to add -se/-sa

2) Comparison
It builds a comparison and strengthens it.

Conjunction Examples
Bugün markete gidersen ekmek almayı unutma.
If you go to the store today, don't forget to buy bread.

Seni ararsam, mutlaka cevap ver.
If I call you, absolutely answer it.

Öğretmen 5 dakika içinde gelmezse, eve gideceğim.
If the teacher does not come in 5 minutes, then I will go home.

Bu benim evimse, benim kurallarım geçerli.
If this is my house, then I rule. (kural: rule, geçerli: valid)

Comparison Examples
Adam konuşuyor, kadınsa hep susuyordu.
The man was talking but/however the woman was silent.

Ben para biriktirelim diyorum, sense sürekli yeni şeyler satın almak istiyorsun.
I am saying we should save money but you always want to buy new stuff.



*There are also some common words having the suffix -se/-sa like;
oysa, yoksa, öyleyse

Babam mühendis olmamı istedi, 'oysa ben'/'bense' hep öğretmen olmak istemiştim.
My hatfer wanted me to become an engineer, however I always wanted to become a teacher.

Bence taksiye binelim, yoksa geç kalacağız.
I think we should take a taxi, otherwise we will be late.

- Sonunda bir iş buldum! - Finally I found a job!
- Öyleyse bunu kutlamalıyız! - 'Then'/'If so' we should celebrate it!

Demek Vs. Söylemek

These two verbs demek and söylemek mean to say, to tell but sometimes we need to choose the right one to avoid grammatical errors.

I told that I will go.
There are three ways to tell this sentence in Turkish

1) Gideceğimi söyledim

2) Dedim ki gideceğim

3) Gideceğim dedim

(If you want to read about the uses of "ki" here is the detailed explanation.
The first and the third ones are more common to say.)

So what is the rule?

If you tell "exactly what you told" to someone (Gideceğim = I will go), then you choose the verb "demek". Otherwise söylemek always works. In some sentences demek can also work but to make it sure I would recommend you to choose "söylemek" unless you quote some words.

(If the sentence you tell your audience has a verb, the grammar changes a bit with the verb söylemek. You can read about it here.)

-- > If you read a book, you see the verb "demek" when there is a conversation:

The mother said; "I am happy".
Anne; "Mutluyum" dedi.
*söylemek version: Anne mutlu olduğunu söyledi.

He told me that he is going today.
Bana "Bugün gidiyorum" dedi.
Bana bugün gideceğini söyledi.

Burda or Burada?

There are some words in Turkish which can be confusing but indeed they are totally innocent.
Which words are they?
"burda, orda, şurda, nerde"

You know them as burada, orada, şurada and nerede and they mean exactly the same:
here, there, there, where

(*You can say şurada if that place is is your sight)

When we speak we can use those short versions. But when we write it is more accurate to write burada, orada, şurada, nerede

This can be the case for these words also and for two different meanings we can use the shorten forms;
bura - burası, buraya
ora - orası, oraya
şura - şurası, şuraya
nere - neresi , nereye
But for these words I would recommend you to use the long ones.

Let's see them in sample sentences

Burda/Burada bir adam seni bekliyor. A man is wating for you here.
Orda/Orada kardeşim de çalışıyor. My brother is also working there.
Şurda güzel bir restoran var. There is a nice restaurant (over) there.
Nerdesin? Neredesin? Where are you?

Bura / Burası çok soğuk. Here is so cold.
Bura/Buraya gel! Come here!
Ora/Orası çok uzak. That place is far away.
Ora/Oraya gitme!. Don't go there!
Şura/Şurası televizyonu koymak için daha iyi. That place is better to place/put the TV.
Şura/Şuraya bak, ne güzel bir araba! Look there, how nice car!
Nere/Neresi konuşmak için daha uygun? Where is more conveinent to talk?
Nere/Nereye gidiyorsun? Where are you going?

Some extra notes
In daily talk we usually omit one letter and say burda, orda, şurda and nerde. And maybe it is not that common but it is possıble to hear bura,ora,şura and nere instead of buraya, oraya, şuraya and nereye when there is a direction like in this sentence: Bura(ya) gidiyorum. I going here. Ora(ya) gidiyorum. I am going there. Nere(ye) gidiyorsun? Where are you going? This happens when the direction is like the English "to". And also nereden - nerden, oradan - ordan, şuradan - şurdan, buradan - burdan are other alternatives if it is "from". Şur(a)dan şekeri uzatabilir misin? Can you hand me the sugar from there? The forms burada->burda and buradan->burdan are so common when we speak. 

Turkish Practice Hangouts 1

Here is the "Turkish Practice Hangouts 1"
If you would like to participate in the future hangouts,
please "circle us" on Google Plus from the right side bar.
Thank you!

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...