Basic

HO GELDINIZ! WELCOME!
Turkish, unlike many Indo-European languages, contains no articles at all! Surprisingly simple, right? Turkish does have its own
little quirks that will make it a challenge.

Word Order
Turkish is a Subject-Object-Verb language, meaning that sentences take on a different word order than that of English, French,
German, or most other languages that English speakers most commonly study. That being said, a background in Japanese, Korean,
or Hungarian will prove very useful. The verb always comes at the end of the sentence in written Turkish (spoken Turkish allows
for some flexibility).
For example: Ben gazete okurum. Literally I newspaper read., meaning, I read newspapers.

Verb Tenses
The Turkish language does distinguish between a present continuous and a simple present tense. In this lesson, we have
included the simple present form of a few verbs, but this will be taught later in greater detail. This means that there is a difference
in the sentences:
I eat a sandwich. (present simple) I am eating a sandwich. (present continuous)
Be careful while you are translating, because this does make a difference, just like in English!

Pronouns
The Turkish pronouns are as follows:
Singular

Plural

1st Person

Ben

Biz

2nd Person

Sen

Siz

3rd Person

Onlar

Siz behaves just like vous in French, serving both as you (plural) and you (formal).

Articles
There are no articles in Turkish! The number one (bir) is sometimes used to distinguish between the/a(n). However, if a noun is in
the subject position, there is no way to tell! Cool, right? This being said, if the noun is in the object position, Turkish does distinguish
between the/a(n). In this lesson, we will only use a(n) in the object position, but we will teach you in the Accusative skill how to do it
the other way.

Commands
Forming the informal imperative form in Turkish is extremely simple. All you have to do is use the root form of the verb. More
information about the formal imperative can be found in the skill to be. Here are the two verb in this lesson in their dictionary
(infinitive) and informal imperative forms:

Infinitive

English

Inf. Imp.

English

yemek

to eat

Ye!

Eat!

imek

to drink

Drink!

Adjectives 1
Adjectives and all modifiers in Turkish must always come before the nouns that they modify when they operate as modifiers. This
does not stand true if it is used as a predicate adjective with the verb to be in English (e.g. The dog is happy). If you use the
number bir as an article, this will come directly before the noun. For example:
souk elma --The cold apple
souk bir elma -- A cold apple
Elma souk -- The apple is cold.
Adjectives are also not declined according to gender and number like what is common to many European languages. This means
that adjectives behave pretty close to their English counterparts and shouldnt pose too big of a challenge.

Food
General Direct Objects
Selam!
In Turkish, if you have a general direct object, there is no need to put any case or suffix on the object itself. A general direct object
is one that uses a/an or the plural without the. If you want to be extra specific, you can add the numeral bir to make sure that the
meaning a/an is given. For example:
Turkish

English

O portakal yer.

He/She/It eats oranges or He/She/It eats an orange.

O bir portakal yer.

He/She/It eats an orange.

Just keep in mind, "O portakallar yer" is simply wrong in Turkish.

Happy Learning!

Accusative
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Welcome to your second of the 7 cases in Turkish. You have already been using the nominative case to describe subjects and some
objects. The accusative case in Turkish is used to mark specific direct objects. What does this mean exactly? A specific direct
object is one that uses the article the. For example:
Turkish

English

Ben gazete okurum.

I read newspapers. or I read a newspaper.

Ben gazeteyi okurum.

I read the newspaper.

Ben bir gazete okurum.

I read a newspaper.

As you can see above, the accusative is only used when referring to the newspaper. Now, how do we form the accusative case?
This will bring you to one of the funnest aspects of the Turkish language, vowel harmony.

Vowel Harmony
In Turkish, vowels within a (native) word and any suffixes that are attached to said word must obey vowel harmony rules. This
means that vowels tend to either be the same or similar, making words easier to pronounce than they may look. There are two types
of vowel harmony in Turkish, 4-way and 2-way. The accusative case uses 4-way vowel harmony. In order to figure out what may go
on the end, you will have to look at thefinal vowel in the word.
Turkish

Accusative Suffix

-(y)

o,u

-(y)u

e,i

-(y)i

a,

-(y)

If the noun ends in a vowel, you have to insert the buffer letter y. Here are some examples:
Turkish, Nominative

Turkish, Accusative

English

elma

elmay

apple

gazete

gazeteyi

newspaper

st

st

milk

limon

limonu

lemon

Consonant Mutations
There is one final thing to talk about in terms of the accusative case. That would be your first taste of consonant mutations, often
called consonant harmony. Consonants often change at the end of words depending on if it is followed by a vowel or a consonant.
If they are followed by a vowel, they will generally change into voiced consonants. For example:

Turkish, Nominative

Turkish, Accusative

English

kitap

kitab

book

aa

aac

tree

kpek

kpei

dog

This means:

pb

td

This rule in general does not affect single syllable words, but there are exceptions of course. You will even come across exceptions
to vowel harmony in loanwords from Arabic, Farsi, and French. These must be learned as you encounter them. In the meantime,
happy learning and kolay gelsin.

Tips and notes

Plural Suffix
Forming the plural in Turkish is simple compared to the Accusative case. It is formed using the suffix -lAr. Now you might be
thinking, what is that capital A doing there? to which we respond with 2-way vowel harmony.
This is the other form of vowel harmony found in Turkey suffixes. Basically if the final vowel is front (i, e, , ) use -ler. If it is back (a,
, o, u), use the suffix -lar. This rule along with the rule for 4-way vowel harmony will be used in several suffixes across Turkish
grammar, so try to get used to it now.
Here are some examples:
Turkish, Nominative

English

Turkish, Plural

English

ay

bear

aylar

bears

ku

bird

kular

birds

kurbaa

frog

kurbaalar

frogs

kpek

dog

kpekler

dogs

hindi

turkey

hindiler

turkeys

men

menu

menler

menus

TO BE
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Copula
There are a few ways to say to be in Turkish depending on what you are saying. This is shocking since there is not an actual verb
to be. A suffix is used to form to be in the present tense. The suffixes are as follows:
Suffix

Person/Number

Example

English

-(y)Im

1st sing.

(Ben) mutluyum.

I am happy.

-sIn

2nd sing.

(Sen) mutlusun.

You are happy.

, -DIr

3rd sing

O mutlu.

He/She/It is happy.

-(y)Iz

1st pl.

(Biz) mutluyuz.

We are happy.

-sInIz

2nd pl.

(Siz) mutlusunuz.

You are happy.

, -DIr

3rd pl.

Onlar mutlu/mutludur.

They are happy.

-lAr, -DIrlAr

3rd pl.

(Onlar) mutlular/mutludurlar.

They are happy.

There are a few points to talk about in the above chart.

1) All except the 3rd person pl. suffix follow 4-way vowel harmony.
2) In the 1st person, you will see a buffer -y- be used if the adjective or noun ends in a vowel.
3) The suffix -DIr is used to clarify any ambiguity, emphasize, or state facts. This both follows 4-way vowel harmony and has
consonant harmony; d changes to t after the following consonants (p t k s h f).
4) The suffix -lAr is optional in the 3rd person pl. However, it is only optional when referring to people. This suffix may not be used
for items and animals. Only humans!

Be as a Command
To form be as a command in Turkish, the stem of the verb olmak, which means to become. All you have to do is take off the
-mak and you have the command for ol. To make it formal, add the ending -In, which according to 4-way vowel harmony, comes
out as olun. This same sufix gets added to all verbs to make formal commands.

Possessives
Tips and notes
Possessive Suffixes

Possessive Determiners ( my, your, his, her, its, our, and their) are represented by a set of suffixes, all of which follow 4-way vowel
harmony, where applicable. These suffixes are as follows:
Sing.

Plural

1st Person

-(I)m

-(I)mIz

2nd Person

-(I)n

-(I)nIz

3rd Person

-(s)I

-(s)I

Some of the suffixes have buffer vowels (or in the case of the 3rd person, a buffer consonant). These means that the suffixes gain
the buffer vowel when the root ends in consonant and do not have it when the root ends in a vowel. For the 3rd person suffix, the
buffer s will be added when the root ends in a vowel and will be omitted when it ends in a consonant. This may seem a little
confusing, but it is extremely simple with practice. The same consonant harmony that we talked about in the accusative skill will
occur with the possessive suffixes as well Now lets see these in real use. This chart will give an example of a word that ends in a
vowel:
Turkish

English

(Benim) kedim

My cat

(Senin) kedin

Your cat

(Onun) kedisi

His/Her/Its cat

(Bizim) kedimiz

Our cat

(Sizin) kediniz

Your cat

(Onlarn) kedisi

Their cat

This chart gives an example of a word that ends in a consonant:

Turkish

English

(Benim) aslanm

My lion

(Senin) aslann

Your lion

(Onun) aslan

His/Her/Its lion

(Bizim) aslanmz

Our lion

(Sizin) aslannz

Your lion

(Onlarn) aslan

Their lion

When you own multiples of the same thing, you will use the plural suffix. The plural suffix comes before the possessive suffixes. For
example:

Turkish

English

(Benim) pastalarm

My cakes

(Onun) limonlar

His/Her/Its lemons

(Sizin) portakallarnz

Your oranges

If you attach any other case suffix to a noun with a possessive suffix, it will always come after the possessive suffix. They will also
obey vowel harmony according to the last vowel in the whole word. If you add a case to a noun with the 3rd person possessive
suffix, it will always have a buffer -n-. This buffer -n- can lead to ambiguities with the second person possessive suffix. Here are
some examples of nouns in the accusative case with a possessive suffix:
Turkish w/o Accusative

Turkish w/ Accusative

English

(Benim) adm

(Benim) adm

My name

(Onun) kahveleri

(Onun) kahvelerini

His/Her/Its coffees

(Senin) kahvelerin

(Senin) kahvelerini

Your coffees

Genitive Case
The genitive case is expressed with the suffix -(n)In in Turkish. This case is used to showpossession. The buffer -n- must be added
to roots that end in a vowel. For example:

Selcens dog: Selcenin kpei

zges cats: zgenin kedileri

Notice: Possessors get the genitive case ending. Possesees get the possessive suffixes. Pay attention to this! Look at the above
tables to get a full list of the pronouns in the genitive case.
If you want to say something like your cats food, this would have both the personal suffix and the genitive case. The translation to
this is kedilerinin yemei. This is ambiguous (remember, it can be your cats or his/her/its cats.

To Have
Turkish has a verb for "to have" (sahip olmak) but that's rarely used and will be taught in a future skill. We mostly use
just possessive + var to say "X has Y" and possessive + yokto say "X does not have Y". For example:

Selcen has a dog: Selcenin kpei var

zge has cats: zgenin kedileri var

I do not have water: Benim suyum yok

You do not have milk: Senin stn yok

Dative Pronouns

The dative case in Turkish is normally used to describe indirect objects and motionstowards a place. The dative pronouns in Turkish
are as follows:
Sing.

Plural

1st Person

bana

bize

2nd Person

sana

size

3rd Person

ona

onlara

They generally have the meaning of to me, to you, etc. If you are reading to me, speaking to me, or coming to me Turkish
would use the dative pronoun.
For example: O bize gazeteyi okur. He/She/It reads the newspaper to us OR He/She/It reads us the newspaper.
These pronouns and this case are used for more things in Turkish, but we will cover that when we get to the Dative skill. Until then,
kolay gelsin!

Questions
Turkish question words do not undergo the same movement that they do in
English (notice...questions words almost always are at the beginning of
questions in English). Instead, they keep put in the place that naturally occur
in the sentence-form of the question. For example, imagine that you are
surprised while asking the question Where did you buy the present? You
might exclaim, You bought the present WHERE?! Turkish maintains this
position in sentences.
Do not forget Turkish is a SOV language. This means that verbs are always
at the end if the sentence contains a verb.

Locative
The locative case in Turkish is used to describe location in, at, or on a place. It is
formed with the suffix -DA. Now, you may be asking, what is that capital D doing
there
...to which we respond with the answer consonant harmony. Turkish employs both
vowel and consonant harmony in its grammar. What does consonant harmony mean
exactly? Basically, unvoiced consonants like to be next to unvoiced consonants and
voiced consonants like to be next to voiced consonants. For example, things about
how we pronounce the plural marker -s in cats and dogs (one should sound like
an s and the other should sound like a z). With the locative (and later the
ablative), you will see a similar phenomenon. The suffix -DA will become -TA after
the letters p, , t, k, f, h, s, and (We use Fstk ahap or "Efe Paa ok hasta"
as mnemonics to remember these). These are unsurprisingly all of the unvoiced
consonants in Turkish. The suffix remains as -DA in all other instances (after
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following any other consonant or a vowel). Remember, this suffix will also employ 2way vowel harmony.
Here are some examples:
Turkish, Nominative

English

Turkish, Locative

English

park

park

parkta

in/at the park

otel

hotel

otelde

in/at the hotel

banyo

bathroom

banyoda

in/at the bathroom

bakkal

store

bakkalda

in/at the store

kpek

dog

kpekte

on/at the dog

Numbers
Tips and notes
Forming numbers in Turkish is very simple after you know the core vocabulary. The numbers are as
follows:
Turkish Number
bir
iki

drt
be
alt
yedi
sekiz
dokuz
on

Digit
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Turkish Number

Digit

on bir
on iki
yirmi
otuz
krk
elli
altm
yetmi
seksen
doksan

11
12
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90

When you use a digit with a noun, you should NEVER use the plural suffix on the end of the noun. This
is redundant and grammatically incorrect in Turkish. That means you should say iki kedi and not iki
kediler. The larger numbers are as follows:
Turkish Number

Digit

yz
bin
milyon

100
1000
1000000
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Now, have fun!

Verbs: Present continuous 1

Tips and notes
The tense sign of the present continuous tense in Turkish is -iyor, -yor, -yor, -uyor, which is added to the
verb root. These suffixes are added according to 4-way Vowel Harmony.
Just how does one find the verb root in Turkish? Infinitives in Turkish end in -mAk, for example: istemek.
You must simply remove the -mek off of "istemek" to get the root "iste-"
The tense endings are completed by adding the following personal suffixes:
Sing.
1st Person
2nd Person
3rd Person

-um
-sun
-

Plural
-uz
-sunuz
- / -lar

*If the nominative pronoun "onlar," is used in the sentence, you are not required to include '-lAr as a
suffix, since it is already clear that the verb is plural from context. You can only use -lAr if the subject is
human. Sorry cat, trees, and cars!
When the verb root itself ends in a vowel, as in bekle-mek (to wait, expect), then this vowel is also
dropped as the head vowel of the "-iyor" tense sign replaces it, becoming bekl-iyor.
The first letter "-i" of "-iyor" is subject to 4-way vowel harmony with the verb stem's final vowel. The
tense sign "-iyor" can be likened to the English Tense sign "-ing".
Some examples:

geliyorum [geliyor-um] (I am coming)

alyorsun [alyor-sun] (you are taking)

dyorlar [dyor-lar] (they are paying)

Dates and Time

Tips and notes
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Noun Compounds
In this skill, you will encounter your first Turkish noun compounds. A noun compound is when you
combine two nouns to create something with a new meaning (i.e. birth+day=birthday). Forming these in
Turkish will be easy using the knowledge that you already have up to this point.
All you have to do is put two nouns next to each other and add the possessive suffix on the second noun.
There is no suffix on the first word. For example:
Word 1
doum
tavuk
balk
kuzu

Word 2
gn
su
orba
et

Noun Compound
doum gn
tavuk suyu
balk orbas
kuzu eti

English
birthday
chicken broth
fish soup
lamb (meat)

Ablative
Tips and notes
Ablative Case
You have learned 4 of the 7 Turkish cases so far (Nominative, Accusative, Genitive/Possessive, Locative).
Tebrikler! In this lesson you will get closer to learning all of them. In this lesson we will cover the
Ablative case, which is used in Turkish to convey motion from a place. After learning the Locative case,
the Ablative will be extremely easy. In fact, it is almost the exact same! The suffix that you will have to
use is -DAn. This suffix follows the exact same consonant and vowel harmony rules as the Locative. In
fact the only difference is the letter n at the end of the suffix. Here are some examples:
Turkish Nominative
park
ky
saray
ofis

Turkish Ablative
parktan
kyden
saraydan
ofisten

English
from the park
from the village
from the palace
from the office

Dative Case
It is time for case 6 out of 7. How are you feeling? Overwhelmed? Dont be! You are doing great
so far! Just remember that Turkish isnt as complicated as you think, and it will be easy. It is
different from English, but it much more regular and isnt too complicated. The Dative case in
Turkish is used to describe movement towards something and for indirect objects. An indirect

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object tells to whom or for whom an action is being done. It always tells the recipient of the
direct object.
I gave her a hug.
I told him about the event.
We showed them the cake.
Forming the Dative case is very simple, considering the amount of knowledge you have under
your belt now. The suffix is -(y)A. The suffix obeys 2-way vowel harmony and uses a buffer
-y- when attached to a word that ends in a vowel. Consonant harmony will often happen at the
end of words that end with /p t k /. Simple, right? It is a great way to review concepts while still
learning something new. Here are some examples:
Turkish Nominative
park
apka
domates
fare
fareler
kpek

Turkish Dative
parka
apkaya
domatese
fareye
farelere
kpee

English
to the park
to the hat
to the tomato
to the mouse
to the mice
to the dog

Good job and see you in the next lesson!

What time is it?

Tips and notes
This skill, unlike the last Time skill is only dedicated to telling time in Turkish. There will be a
lot of information below, so read carefully.
Saat ka?

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1) The phrase Saat ka? is used to ask What time is it? in Turkish. The response is Saat
followed by the number of the hour. This is really simple when you are at the full hour. When at
the full hour, saat is optional.
Turkish

English

Saat ka?
Saat be.
Be

What time is it?

It is 5 o'clock.
It is 5.

2) The word buuk is used to describe time at the half hour.

Turkish
Saat ka?
Saat be buuk.

English
What time is it?
It is 5:30.

3) For telling time before the half hour, you will use the word geiyor and the accusative case.
The word denoting the hour gets the accusative case ending which is then followed by the minute
number. Then you add geiyor to the end.
Turkish

English
What time is it?
It is 5:10.
It is 4:14.

Saat ka?
Saat bei on geiyor.
Saat drd on drt geiyor.

4) For telling time after the half hour, you will use the word var and the dative case. The word
denoting the next hour gets the dative and the remaining minutes until the next hour follows.
Then add var to the end.
Turkish
Saat ka?
Saat yediye var.
Saat altya on var.

English
What time is it?
It is 6:57.
It is 5:50.

5) When you are unsure, you can just say saat+ the hour number + the minute number. This
construction is used for trains, buses, and television.
Turkish
Saat ka?
Saat on krk.
Saat dokuz elli.

English
What time is it?
It is 10:40.
It is 9:50.

6) To describe things at the quarter hour, use the word eyrek using the same grammar from
above.

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Turkish

English
What time is it?
It is 10:15.
It is 7:45.

Saat ka?
Saat onu eyrek geiyor.
Saat sekize eyrek var.
Saat kata?

Now that you have taken in how to tell the time, we have to explain how to explain At what
time?. This uses a similar, but not identical system.
7) If it is the full or half hour, you will use the described system above along with the locative
case (-DA).
Turkish
Saat kata?
Saat onda.
Saat iki buukta.

English
At what time?
At 10.
At 2:30.

8) If it is before the half hour, you will use the same construction as above, but will use gee
instead of geiyor.
Turkish

English

Saat kata?
Saat onu be gee.
Saat biri eyrek gee.

At what time?
At 10:05.
At 1:15.

9) If it is after the half hour, you will use the same construction above, but with kala instead of
var.
Turkish

English
At what time?
At 10:45.
At 8:55.

Saat kata?
Saat on bire eyrek kala.
Saat dokuza be kala.

Ok...I know this was a lot to take in, but with some practice, it will be very easy! Good luck in
the skill and please feel free to repeat it several times until you have the hang of it. Until then,
kolay gelsin!

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