Let's Learn Turkish

Let's Learn Turkish

Vowel Harmony
In Turkish, words are constructed in such a way that the vowels follow a specific pattern. This pattern is called Vowel Harmony and is an important feature of the Turkish language. Vowel Harmony is used particularly when deciding which vowels should be used when adding a suffix to a word. By looking at a particular vowel in a word (usually the last vowel), the rules of Vowel Harmony help us to decide which vowels will be used after it. In order to understand Vowel Harmony we have to look at the different types of vowels that exist in Turkish:

Vowels: a, e, ı, i, o, ö, u, ü

Hard vowels: a, ı, o, u
Soft vowels: e, i, ö, ü

Straight vowels: a, e, ı, i
Round vowels: o, ö, u, ü

There are four Vowel Harmony rules in total: two Major Vowel Harmony and two Minor Vowel Harmony rules.

MAJOR VOWEL HARMONY
Part 1: Hard vowels

If the last vowel of a word is one of a/ı/o/u, vowels in the suffixes that follow it can only be one of a/ı/o/u.

Commonly Used Turkish FORMULAIC Expressions

Turkish has many formulaic expressions that are appropriate for use in various social situations. Such expressions will help you greatly in holding/understanding a conversation. Here are some common ones:

GREETINGS
Merhaba
Selam
Selamın aleyküm
Aleyküm selam (reply) "Hello"
(informal hello)
Religious greeting exchange; used usually by older males only
Alo or efendim "Hello" (when answering the telephone)
Efendim "my esteemed person" (a polite way to address any person, male or female, married or single; efendi means Lord or Master in Turkish)
Hanım
Bey (female first name)…… Hanım (lit. “lady”)
(male first name) ….... Bey (lit. “gentlemen”)
Hocam
Öğretmenim “my professor” (university/college level)
“my teacher” (K-12)
Günaydın "Good morning" (lit. "The morning is bright")
Tünaydın “Good afternoon”
İyi günler
İyi hafta sonları
İyi tatiller "Good day" (lit. "Good days")

Future Tense
Tenses
There are 5 fundamental tenses in Turkish. These are:
Present simple tense (Geniş zaman)
Present continuous tense (Şimdiki zaman)
Future tense (Gelecek zaman)
Past tense with -di (-di'li geçmiş zaman) --> Regular past tense
Past tense with -miş (-miş'li geçmiş zaman) --> Also called the story past tense
In the basic grammar lessons, we will cover the present continuous tense and the future tense. Rest will be covered in the intermediate level lessons.

To start with, let's review some verbs we'll use in the following lessons and their meanings:
gelmek --> to come
gitmek --> to go
okumak --> to read
kapatmak --> to close
koşmak --> to run
aramak --> to call
konuşmak --> to talk
vermek --> to give
kaynamak --> to boil
çalışmak --> to work
yemek --> to eat
beklemek --> to wait

The meaning of tenses are given using some suffixes. There are some important properties common to all these suffixes denoting tense:

THE TURKISH ALPHABET

Since 1928, Turkish has been written in a slightly modified Latin alphabet which is very nearly phonetic.
The Turkish alphabet has 8 vowels (a, e, ı, i, o, ö, u, ü) and 21 consonants. The letters Q, W and X do not exist in Turkish.
Most letters are pronounced pretty much as you would expect, but some are not. Once the phonetic value of all letters is known, then it is rather easy to pronounce any word one sees or to spell any word one hears. This means once you know how to pronounce the letters in the alphabet you can start reading perfectly right away!
Remember that while reciting the alphabet, a Turkish “E” is attached to all consonant sounds. Some of the following letters require explanation which has been provided, others are similar to English pronunciation:
Aa "a" as in "cut" or "son", never as "a" in"cat" or "back" kan = blood
Bb
Cc "J" as in "judge" can= life, soul, pronounced like "John")

"If"
(sa/se)
We say "if" in Turkish by attaching the suffixes "sa/se" to the verb. "sa/se" can be used with both positive and negative verbs and is attached after the tense suffix. We choose the correct one based on the last vowel before it i.e. in the tense suffix. Onlar is an exception, we attach "sa/se" right at the end.


Last Vowel of verb root▶ a/ı/o/u e/i/ö/ü
Ben -sam -sem
Sen -san -sen
O -sa -se
Biz -sak -sek
Siz -sanız -seniz
Onlar -larsa -lerse
Examples:
In Turkish, "sa/se" is most often used with the present simple tense:

Ben yazarsam - If I write
Sen duyarsan - If you hear
Onlar gelirlerse - If they come
Siz izlerseniz - If you watch

Ben unutmazsam - If I don't forget
Sen istemezsen - If you don't want
O okumazsa - If he/she/it does not read
Biz düşünmezsek - If we don't think

...however, it could be applied to any of the tenses:

Ben gideceksem - If I will go
Sen başladıysan - If you started
Biz koşuyorsak - If we are running

Directions
Can you help me?
Bana yardımcı olabilir misiniz?

I'm lost
Kayboldum

Where is __________ ?
__________ neresi?

I am looking for a __________
Ben bir __________ arıyorum

How far is it from here?
Ne kadar uzaklıkta?

Do you have a map?
Haritanız var mı?

Where does this road go to?
Bu yol nereye gidiyor?

Is this [place name] ?
Burası ____________ mı?

Thank you very much
Çok teşekkür ederim



Go straight
Düz git

Turn right
Sağa dön

Turn left
Sola dön

Traffic lights
Trafik ışıkları

Map
Harita

Seninim I Am Yours

Gun isigi düssün üstüne her sabah

Karanlık gecenin pusunu alsin üzerinden

Hersabah gibi bu sabah ta seni seviyor olacagım

Acinca gözlerini, gorecek gözlerin gözlerimi, sana bakıyor olacagim

Hani bana diyorsun ya "benimsin"

Senin olmak gerek, sensiz bir ben olmayacak ki zaten.....

May the daylight fall upon you every morning

Let it take the dark night's haze off of you

As every morning, I will be loving you this morning too

When you open your eyes they will see my eyes I will be looking at you

And you'll be telling me "you're mine"

I have to be yours, as there won't exist a me without you anyway...

Imperatives - Let
Making a verb imperative for the second singular person (sen), is the same as it is done in English. Just use the plain verb without any suffix or change. When you want to order something to a single person listening to you, you just say the plain verb. Examples:
Come! --> Gel!
Go! --> Git!
Read! --> Oku!
Sit down! --> Otur!
Stand up! --> Kalk!
However, different from English, there is an imperative form for different cases of person. Let´s see now how these are constructed:

Personal Pronoun
Suffix
Ben No first person singular form
Sen
- (no suffix)
O -sin
Biz No first person plural form
Siz -in
Onlar -sinler

Now, let´s see the meaning of each case using the verb to go (gitmek).

Case
Meaning
(sen) git
go! (singular, to a single person)
(o) git-sin --> gitsin
let him go (not like "allow him to go", this has the meaning that you want him to go in an imperative way)
(siz) git-in --> gidin go! (plural, to multiple people)

"Must"
(malı/meli)
In Turkish we express "must" using the suffixes "malı/meli". We do this by attaching them to the verb root.

Positive (Eg. You must come)
Negative (Eg. You must not come)
I Ben
You Sen
He / She / It O
We Biz
You (Plural) Siz
They Onlar
Personal pronouns
POSITIVE

We attach one of "malı/meli" depending on the verb root's last vowel. Thereafter we attach the personal suffix.

Last Vowel of verb root▶ a/ı/o/u e/i/ö/ü
Ben -malıyım -meliyim
Sen -malısın -melisin
O -malı -meli
Biz -malıyız -meliyiz
Siz -malısınız -melisiniz
Onlar -malılar -meliler
Suffixes to be added to the verb root (Positive)
Examples:
yazmak - to write gelmek - to come
Ben yazmalıyım I must write Ben gelmeliyim I must come
Sen yazmalısın You must write Sen gelmelisin You must come
O yazmalı He/she/it must write O gelmeli He/she/it must come
Biz yazmalıyız We must write Biz gelmeliyiz We must come
Siz yazmalısınız You must write Siz gelmelisiniz You must come

Occasions
Congratulations
Tebrikler

Get well soon
Geçmiş olsun

Bon voyage
Hayırlı yolculuklar

Enjoy your meal
Afiyet olsun

Ramadan Mubarak
Ramazanınız Mübarek Olsun

Eid Mubarak
Bayramınız Mübarek Olsun

Happy Eid
Hayırlı Bayramlar

Jumuah Mubarakah
Cumanız Mübarek Olsun

May Allah have mercy on his/her soul (when someone dies)
Allah rahmet eylesin