Countries Nationalities And Languages Worksheet Pdf

Aşağıdaki kelimeleri öğrenin.
country: ülke
nationality: milliyet, uyruk
language: dilk

Aşağıdaki soru kalıplarını öğrenin.
1. “Where are you from?” sorusuyla bir kişinin nereden (hangi ülkeden) geldiği öğrenilir. Bu soru kalıbında da cevap verirken de “from” kullanılır.
A: Where are you from?
(Sen nerelisin?)
B: I am from Japan.
(Ben Japonya'lıyım.)

A: Where is Mark from?
B: He is from England.

A: Where are John and Jack from?
B: They are from the USA.

2. “What is your nationality?” ve “What nationality are you?” soruları aynı anlmadadırlar ve ikisi de milliyet (nationality) sormak için kullanılır. Birinin milletini (nationality) sorarken de, milliyetimizi söylerken de “from” kullanılmaz.

A: What nationality are you?
(Sen hangi millettensin?)
B: I'm Russian.
(Ben Rus'um).

A: What is your nationality?
(Senin milliyetin ne?)
B: I am Turkish.
(Ben Türk'üm.)

3. “What language(s) do you speak?” sorusuyla birinin hangi dili ya da dilleri konuştuğunu sorabiliriz.
A: What language do you speak?
(Sen hangi dili konuşursun?)
B: I speak French.
(Ben Fransızca konuşurum.)

Countries And Nationalities Exercises Boşluk Doldurma Soruları
Aşağıdaki cümlelerde boş bırakılan yerlere gelmesi gereken sözcükleri seçerek tamamlayınız. Boşlukları doldurduktan sonra Kontrol Et butonuna tıklayarak doğru ve yanlışlarınızı öğrenebilirsiniz.

Austrian    ∼    Greece    ∼    Russia    ∼    American    ∼    Japanese    ∼    Italy    ∼    Turkish    ∼    China    ∼    English    ∼    Germany

1. Jonathan is from the USA. He is .

2. I am from . I speak German.

3. Dimitri is from . He is Greek.

4. Mehmet is from Turkey. He is .

5. Nadia is from . She is Russian and she speaks Russian.

6. Luigi is from . He is Italian.

7. Jim is from Australia. He is Australian and he speaks .

8. Heidi is from Austria. She is and she speaks German.

9. Yoko is Japanese. She speaks .

Li is from . She is Chinese.

Citation preview

eas • y



Turkish Grammar with answers

A self-study reference and practice book for beginner to lower-intermediate students of Turkish

Halit Demir



Copyright © Halit Demir All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. Printed by CreateSpace, An funduszeue.info Company Available on Kindle and online stores



Sevgili anne ve babama

Contents vii

13

Ek-fiil -di past tense

58

viii

14

Ek-fiil -miş past tense

60

Conventions and abbreviations

ix

15

Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns 64

How Turkish works

10

16

Comparative adjectives

66

16

17

Superlative adjectives

68

Acknowledgements Introduction



1

Spelling and pronunciation



1 The alphabet 2 Syllable 3 Circumflex and vowel length 4 Buffer letters



2 Vowel harmony

page

22

1 2-fold 2 4-fold





3 Consonant harmony

26

1 in suffixes 2 in word stems





18 Verb tenses

70

19

72

Present continuous tense

20 Simple present tense

78

21

86

-di past tense

22 -miş past tense

92

23 Future tense

96

24 Question words

1 kim

4 The plural suffix

30



2 ne

5 Possessive suffixes

32



3 ne zaman

6 Case suffixes

34



4 nere-



5 nasıl



6 niçin/niye/neden



7 kaç



8 kaç yaşında



9 ne kadar



1 2 3 4 5 6

7

Compound nouns

8

Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative Locative Ablative

There is

9 Have got

40



10 hangi

44

25

Possessive, reflexive and reciprocal pronouns

46

10 Personal pronouns and suffixes

48



1 benimki, seninki, onunki etc

11 Ek-fiil tenses

52



2 kendim, kendin, kendi etc

12

54



3 birbirimiz, birbiriniz, birbirleri

Ek-fiil simple present tense

iv





Contents 26 Imperatives

page

27 Let me and let’s 28 Expressing necessity, obligation and advice



33

Zero and first conditionals





34

Postpositions





1 Bare postpositions



1 için, gibi, ile 2 -e göre, doğru, karşı, kadar, rağmen

29 Expressing ability, possibility, permission and requests



3 -den önce, sonra, dolayı

30 Quantity words





2 Inflected postpositions



1 biraz

1 alt



2 birkaç

2 ön



3 çok

3 arka



4 az

4 yan



5 hiç

5 karşı



6 bütün



7 her

6 ara



8 bir

31

Compounds with bir, her and hiç(bir)



1 biri/birisi, herkes, hiç kimse



2 bir şey, her şey, hiçbir şey



3 bir yer, her yer, hiçbir yer

32

Adverbs



1 Manner



2 Time



35

Conjunctions



1 ve



2 ile



3 veya/ya da



4 ama/fakat



5 çünkü



6 de de



7 hem hem de

1 Present 2 Past 3 Future 3 Place and direction 1 Place

36



8 ya ya da 9 ne ne de 10 ki

Word order



2 Direction

4 Comparison of adverbs

v

Contents

Appendices 1 Numbers

page



1 Cardinal 2 Ordinal 3 Distributive

2 Decimals, fractions, percentages, sums, phone numbers and money



3 Asking and telling the time



4 Days, months, seasons and years



5 Personal and demonstrative pronouns + case suffixes 6 Ek-fiil and verb tenses: conjugation tables



7 Countries, nationalities and languages



8 Word formation





1 Nouns



2 Adjectives



3 Verbs

9 Using capital letters



10 Using apostrophes



11 Addressing people





Answer key





Index



Bibliography

vi



Acknowledgements I would like to express my very sincere gratitude to the following people: Serhat Köklü, a close friend and colleague, for his readiness to provide clear explanations for the tricky rules of Turkish grammar. Hasan Çeri, also a close friend and colleague adored by his students, for helping proofread the exercises. Fatih Akgül, founder of the online Turkish teaching site funduszeue.info, for publishing some of my draft version of lessons on funduszeue.info, which provided me with useful feedback from learners of Turkish visiting the site. Duha Elsayed for reading the very first manuscript and providing invaluable comments and suggestions from a learner’s point of view. Gökhan Cansız, an old friend and a highly competent teacher of English, for assisting in editing and proofreading the text and examples. All my students for teaching me as much as, if not more than, I taught them. My mum, dad and siblings for all their support in the past and now in these hard times.

vii

Introduction Who is eas•y Turkish Grammar for? It is for students who are studying Turkish for the first time, and for lower-intermediate students who would like to revise their knowledge of Turkish.

Which Turkish does eas•y Turkish Grammar teach? It teaches modern standard Turkish, which is based on the dialect of Istanbul.

How is eas•y Turkish Grammar organised? The Grammar The book starts with a brief introduction about how Turkish works. Following this introduction are 36 units, which are presented in order of difficulty – especially the first 23 units. Each unit covers one part of Turkish grammar, explained by pointing out the similarities and differences between Turkish and English and illustrated by plenty of Turkish examples with full translations. The translations are usually meaning-based, but some are literal and may sound unnatural to English ears. They will still prove useful in understanding Turkish way of expressing things. The Exercises There are an extensive set of exercises at the end of the units, and there is a key to all the exercises at the end of the book. We cannot put the audio for the key into the book as it will heavily increase the size of the file. You can find the audio at funduszeue.info

Using eas•y Turkish Grammar If you are studying Turkish for the first time and without a teacher:

• Read the conventions and abbreviations used in the book on the following page. • Read the introduction How Turkish Works, and then go right through the book from the 1st unit to the 23rd unit. You may study the remaining units in any order you like. • Study each grammar point separately and then do the exercises. • Check your answers in the answer key. If you have problems, look at the grammar explanations and examples again.

• While doing the exercises, you may need a good dictionary. You can use the printed or online dictionaries in the bibliography. I hope you will get maximum benefit from eas•y Turkish Grammar. I would be very grateful if you could take a couple of minutes to write an Amazon review. Halit Demir

viii

Conventions and abbreviations In the book we use the following conventions and abbreviations.

Colour codes for suffixes turquoise violet red orange green blue red black bold

buffer letters as in possessive suffixes case suffixes tense suffixes personal suffixes negation suffix all other suffixes

odalarında odalarında odalarında gelecek geleceksin gelmeyeceksin öğrenciler, yapmalı

As from unit 1, you can find the colour-legend at the bottom of the pages. We also use: ( ) to show buffer letters which may precede suffixes / to show consonant changes which may occur in suffixes 2f/4f to show the rules of vowel harmony that suffixes follow And: _ /



as in

to show long vowels as in to show consonant changes in word stems

-(y)e, -(s)i -d/te, -c/çe -ler

2f

, -sin

4f

mavi, mimar kitap/bı, ağaç/cı



You can find the table of vowel/consonant harmony at the top of exercises.

Abbreviations

nom acc gen dat loc abl eg ie poss lit

nominative accusative genitive dative locative ablative exempli gratia (= for example) id est (= that is) possessive literally

sb sth v tr intr n adj adv per suf

somebody something verb transitive intransitive noun adjective adverb personal suffix

ix

A brief introduction to Turkish

How Turkish works Spelling and pronunciation İmlâ ve telaffuz

Turkish script is almost like a phonetic transcription, so you will not have difficulty in reading and writing after you have learned what sound each letter in the alphabet stands for and how the letters combine to form syllables.

Suffixes Ekler

1

Inflectional suffixes

Çekim ekleri

In most cases, Turkish uses inflectional suffixes where English uses words such as auxiliary verbs to show (for example, tense, person and mood) and prepositions to show (for example, place, time and direction). Look at this example sentence: Karıma / çiçek / alacağım.

I will buy / flowers / for my wife. At first, you may find inflectional suffixes confusing, but once you get a feel for how they work, we believe that you will find them quite fascinating if, especially, you are a native speaker of a language such as English. A single word with a single suffix or a set of suffixes in Turkish may sometimes form a phrase, clause or sentence, for which you may need several or more words in English. Look at the words in italics in these sentences: Sağdakini beğendim.

I like the one on the right. is the worst joke I have ever heard. Saçımı kestireceğim. I’m going to have my hair cut. Ona güvenmemeliydin. You shouldn’t have trusted him/her.





Bu duyduğum en kötü espri. This

2

Derivational suffixes

Yapım ekleri

Like in English, derivational suffixes form new words:

gazeteci



eğitimci

10



journalist educationalist

eas•y Turkish Grammar

fırıncı politikacı



baker politician

Turkish also uses prefixes to form new words, mostly adjectives and nouns:





unofficial; informal unbeaten snow-white curse (prayer)

gayriresmî namağlup bembeyaz beddua

Vowel and consonant harmony Ünlü ve ünsüz uyumu

1

Vowel harmony

Vowel harmony applies to vowels in suffixes. When a suffix is added to a word, its vowel changes depending on the last vowel in the word. Look again at the derivational suffix in the words we studied on the previous page: journalist educationalist





gazeteci eğitimci

2

Consonant harmony



fırıncı politikacı



baker politician

Consonant harmony applies to certain suffix-initial and word-final consonants. For example, c in the above derivational suffix changes to ç after certain word-final consonants:

işçi tarihçi

worker historian

dansçı iktisatçı

dancer economist

We may say that the realization of vowel and consonant harmony is somewhat similar to different pronunciations of some English suffixes. Depending on the preceding sound, for example, the past tense suffix -ed in played, finished and started, or the plural suffix -s in cats, dogs and houses are pronounced differently. In Turkish, however, different pronunciations are nearly always shown in writing.

Accent Vurgu

The accent (or stress) in words is usually on the last syllable: o-kul



school

friend

ar-ka-daş

When words takes one or more suffixes, the accent usually moves to the last syllable:

in/at school okul-da

arkadaş-lar arkadaş-la-rım arkadaş-la-rı-mın



friends my friends my friends’

How Turkish works

11

Structure Yapı

1



Word order

Söz dizimi

The general word order in Turkish is SOV: Subject / Object / Verb



Uma ve Kim Türkçe öğreniyorlar. Ben ayak bileğimi burktum.





Uma and Kim are learning Turkish. I have sprained my ankle.

Expressions of time or place can go between the subject and the object. Time usually precedes place:



Uma ve Kim bu yaz İstanbul’da Türkçe öğreniyorlar.

Uma and Kim are learning Turkish in Istanbul this summer.





Ben dün akşam spor salonunda ayak bileğimi burktum.

I sprained my ankle at the gym yesterday evening.



Look also at the following examples with intransitive verbs:



Ben her sabah ’da kalkarım.



I get up at every morning.

Biz hafta sonu sinemaya gideceğiz.





We will go to the cinema at the weekend.

Although the general word order is SOV, you may use almost any word or phrase in almost any place in the sentence. We may say that the word order is the very last thing you should worry about. After you have studied the first 23 units, you can study possible variations in word order in unit

2

Parts of speech

1

Verbs



Söz bölükleri Fiiller

There are two types of verbs in Turkish: 1 ek-fiil (lit suffix-verb), which is a Turkish grammatical term we prefer to use in this book. Ek-fiil functions like to be in English. We have no word for it; it exists in the form of suffixes, which we add to predicative words such as nouns and adjectives:



Ben öğretmenim. I am a teacher. Sen çok güzelsin. You are very beautiful. Uma ve Kim bu yaz İstanbul’dalar. Uma and Kim are in Istanbul this summer. Ben dün akşam spor salonundaydım. I was at the gym yesterday evening.

12

eas•y Turkish Grammar

2 all other verbs, which we may call main verbs or just verbs. You will find verbs in a Turkish dictionary with the ending -mek or -mak: Look at the dictionary forms of the verbs we studied in word order:

öğrenmek

gitmek



to learn to go

burkmak kalkmak

to sprain to get up

Tense Turkish tenses have roughly similar meanings to the corresponding English tenses:

in Turkish

in English

Şimdiki Geniş Geçmiş -di’li geçmiş -miş’li geçmiş Gelecek

Present continuous Simple present Simple past Future

Turkish has two past tenses, each of which is called by the name of the suffix it uses. They may be expressed in the simple past in English as well as the present perfect and present perfect continuous (when used for actions that happened in the past and are finished).We have no separate tenses in Turkish that correspond to these English perfect tenses. For the future time we have a single tense, which corresponds both to will and to be going to in English.

Person and number Person and number are primarily expressed with personal suffixes, which change according to tense and person (subject). Look at the verbs of the sentences we studied in word order on the previous page:





Tense



Person and number

Uma ve Kim öğreniyorlar.

Uma and Kim are learning

present continuous

3rd person plural





Ben burktum.

-di past

1st person singular







I sprained

Ben kalkarım.

I get up



simple present

Biz gideceğiz. future

We will go…



1st person singular 1st person plural

How Turkish works

13

Look also at these examples of ek-fiil we studied in verbs on page



Tense

Person and number



Sen çok güzelsin.

simple present 2nd person singular



Uma ve Kim bu yaz İstanbul’dalar.

simple present

3rd person plural



Ben dün akşam spor salonundaydım.

-di past

1st person singular

You are

Uma and Kim are I was

As person and number are clearly indicated by personal suffixes, we usually omit personal (subject) pronouns: (Sen) Çok güzelsin. (Ben) Dün ayak bileğimi burktum. (Biz) Hafta sonu sinemaya gideceğiz.





You are very beautiful. (lit beautiful-you are) I sprained my ankle yesterday. (lit sprained-I) We will go to the cinema at the weekend. (lit will go-we)

Look also at the following example:



Uma ve Kim İstanbul’dalar. (Onlar) Türkçe öğreniyorlar.



Uma and Kim are in Istanbul. They are learning Turkish.

(lit are learning-they)

As can be seen, personal suffixes function just like personal (subject) pronouns.

2



Nouns and pronouns Adlar ve zamirler

Turkish is a gender-neutral language. Nouns and pronouns may inflect for number, possession and case. 1 Number Number is indicated by the plural suffix -ler:

okullar

sınıflar 2 Possession

schools öğrenciler classrooms öğretmenler

students teachers

Possession is expressed with: i possessive suffixes, which change according to person:

adım 14

my name

eas•y Turkish Grammar

adın

your name



adı

his/her/its name

Possessives benim, senin, onun etc may be used before nouns, but since the possessors are clearly indicated by the suffixes, we usually omit the possessives:

(benim) adım

(senin) adın

(onun) adı

ii the genitive case suffix -in. It functions like possessive ’s in English:

Uma ve Kim’in

Uma and Kim’s

(benim) öğrencilerimin

my students’

3 Case



Case is changes in the forms of nouns and pronouns with the addition of suffixes, which usually function like prepositions in English:





Uma ve Kim İstanbul’dalar.

Uma and Kim are in Istanbul. (lit Istanbul-in) İstanbul’dan eylülde dönecekler.

They will return from Istanbul in September. (lit Istanbul-from, September-in)

3 Adjectives and adverbs

Sıfatlar ve zarflar

Adjectives and adverbs come before what they describe:

kolay Türkçe Dilbilgisi easy Turkish Grammar

Ben sabah erken kalkarım. I get up early in the morning. Sağ ayak bileğimi çok fena burktum. I sprained my right ankle very badly.

4 Postpositions

Edatlar

Postpositions are words. They also function like prepositions in English:



taksi ile



ailem için

5

Conjunctions



by taxi for my family

yemeklerden önce



işten sonra

before meals after work

Bağlaçlar

Conjunctions in Turkish function like those in English:





Uma ve Kim



zeki ama tembel

Uma and Kim intelligent but lazy

çay veya kahve



ne Ece ne de Su



tea or coffee neither Ece nor Su

How Turkish works

15

1

Spelling and pronunciation

1 The alphabet The Turkish alphabet ‘alfabe’ is composed of twenty-nine letters: twenty-one consonants and eight vowels. The vowels are highlighted in bold in the chart below.

Letter

Name

Pronunciation

Example words

A B C Ç D E F G

a b c ç d e f g

a   be ce çe de e fe ge

as in as in as in as in as in as in as in as in

up but jam rich desk bed form gate

adam baba cam çaba dede el fakat gece

Ğ H

ğ h

yumuşak ge he

(see next page)

u b j ch d e f g

as in

happy

dağ hedef

I İ J K L M N

ı i j k l m

n

ı i je ke le me ne

(see next page)

h

as in as in as in as in as in as in

sit measure cat lemon man number

ılı iç jet kedi leke mama nine

O

o

o

Ö

ö

ö

(see next page) (see next page)

i s c l m n

P R S Ş T U

p r s ş t u

pe re se şe te u

Ü V Y Z

ü v y z

ü ve ye ze

16

eas•y Turkish Grammar

(see next page)

buffer

mor

p r s sh’s t u

as in as in as in as in as in as in

put ready sun shish kebab taste put

v y z

as in as in as in

very yes zone

possessive

case

öl polis resim ses şiş kebap tat ulu üç vakit yaya zengin

tense negation

man father glass effort grandfather hand (n) but night mountain target (n) get tipid drink (v) jet cat stain (n) baby food grandmother purple die (v) police picture (n) sound, voice shish kebab taste (n) Almighty three time pedestrian rich

person

others

Vowels ı, o, ö and ü 1 /ı/ is an unrounded /u/.You can produce the /ı/ sound by unrounding your lips as you continue saying /u/. It is similar to the ‘schwa’ sound in the second syllable of butcher or carrot. Listen and repeat: ulu, ılı

Almighty, get tepid

2 The /o/ sound is more like the /o/ in boy or joy without the final /ı/ sound. Or we can say it is the /o/ in more or small, but only shorter: purple more, mor 3 /ö/ is a rounded /e/. You can produce the /ö/ sound by rounding your lips as you continue saying /e/: el, öl hand (n), die (v) 4 /ü/ is a rounded /i/. You can produce the /ü/ sound by rounding your lips as you continue saying /i/: iç, üç drink (v), three



Consonant ğ The consonant ğ (yumuşak ‘soft’ ge) has no pronunciation itself. It behaves differently depending on the environment it appears. 1 When ğ appears: at the end of a syllable, it lengthens the preceding vowel:

dağ /da:/

mountain

bağ-la

button (n) doğ-ru

düğ-me /dü:me/

/ba:la/

/do:ru/

tie (v) true, correct

/aşa:/

heavy (weight) down (to/in a lower place)

12 between a and ı (ağı), it lengthens a; ı is not pronounced:

ağız bağır

/a:z/

mouth shout (v)

/ba:r/

ağır

/a:r/

aşağı

3 between two e’s (eğe), or between e and i (eği), and vice versa (iğe), it is pronounced as y:



eğer diğer

/eyer/



if other

/diyer/



değer



value (n) /deyil/, or /diil/ not

/deyer/

değil

4 between the vowels other than the above ones, it remains silent:



ağustos /austos/

August onion

/soan/

soğan

göğüs

yoğurt



/yourt/

chest, breast yogurt

/göüs/

If the vowels are identical, they are pronounced as one vowel, lengthening the sound:

ağaç düğün



/a:ç/ /dü:n/



tree

wedding

kuğu

/ku:/

Yiğit

/yi:t/





swan (n) (a boy name)

Note that no words in Turkish begin with ğ. buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

Spelling and pronunciation

17

2

Syllable

A syllable ‘hece’ may have only one vowel, or a vowel-consonant combination: man father lesson/class modern Türk-çe Turkish o-ku-mak to read din-le-mek to listen gü-zel            beautiful fa-kül-te          faculty bil-gi-sa-yar computer A-vust-ral-ya Australia



a-dam

ka-dın

ba-ba ders mo-dern



an-ne o-kul çağ-daş

mer-ha-ba öğ-ren-mek an-la-mak ya-kı-şık-lı ü-ni-ver-si-te        tek-no-lo-ji Mu-zaf-fer



woman mother school contemporary hello to learn to understand handsome university technology (a boy name)

In some words (borrowed mostly from Arabic and Persian), two vowels may follow one another. Each of these vowels forms a syllable and is pronounced as a distinct sound. If, however, the vowels are the same, they are pronounced as one vowel, lengthening the sound: ta-bi-at



şa-ir /şa:ir/ a-i-le

/a:ile/

sa-at /sa:t/ maalesef /ma:lesef/

nature poet family

dü-et

ku-a-för

je-o-lo-ji

duet (n) hairdresser geology

hour; watch unfortunately

şi-ir /şi:r/ koordinatör /ko:rdinatör/

poetry coordinator

Look at the following sentence:



Uma ve Kim İs-tan-bul-da Türk-çe öğ-re-ni-yor-lar.

Uma and Kim are learning Turkish in Istanbul.

Notice that the colours label the suffixes, not syllables. Do not break, for example öğreniyorlar, into its syllabes as öğ-ren-iyor-lar.

Word-initial consonant clusters Some words (borrowed mostly from western languages) begin with two consonants with no vowel in between such as kredi, grup and Brüksel. In speech, the vowel ı, i, u, or ü is put between the consonants. There is, however, no hard and fast rule as to which vowel to choose. You should learn such words with their pronunciations: kre-di

/kıredi/

psi-ko-lo-ji /pisikoloji/ grup /gurup/

18

eas•y Turkish Grammar

credit (n) psychology group (n) buffer

possessive

kral

plan

/kıral/

/pilan/

Brük-sel /bürüksel/

case

tense negation

king plan (n) Brussels person

others

3

Circumflex and vowel length

In writing, a circumflex ‘düzeltme işareti’ (ˆ) is placed above the vowels a, u and i (it replaces the dot) to show vowel length, or to indicate palatalizing of the preceding g, k or l. The circumflex: 1 above a and less often u: i shows vowel length. It serves to differentiate the words that are the same in spelling but different in pronunciation and meaning:



adet

aşık

ama

dahi şura

unit (for product) (a bone in the foot) but too, also; even (adv) this/that place

âdet /a:det/ âşık

âmâ dâhi

şûra

habit; custom /a:şık/ in love /a:ma:/ blind (adj) /da:hi:/ genius, brilliant /şu:ra:/ council

ii indicates palatalizing of the preceding k, l or g. Compare the palatal and non-palatal k, l and g in the following examples, in which â and û may or may not be long: prisoner ahlâk moral values rüzgâr wind (n) kâr profit (n) hâlâ /ha:lâ:/ still mahkûm



kum

sand (n) kulak ear otogar coach station kar snow (n) hala paternal aunt

Notice that in hâlâ, the first circumflex shows vowel length, it has nothing to do with palatalization. 2 above i. (It replaces the dot.) It shows i is an adjectival suffix. It is always long and does not change depending on the last vowel in the word. Look at these examples: roman resmî /resmi:/ dil tarihî /ta:rihi:/ dinî



/di:ni:/ eğitim

maddî /maddi:/ sorunlar askerî /askeri:/ bölge ilmî

buffer

/ilmi:/

possessive

araştırmalar

case

tense negation

historical novel official language religious education financial problems military zone scientific researches

person

others

Spelling and pronunciation

19

A sound, most frequently a, may be lengthened without a ğ or circumflex, but it is not shown in writing:



şûra mavi

/şu:ra:/ /ma:vi/

council blue

şair rüya

/şa:ir/ /rüya:/

poet dream (n)

dâhi Didem

/da:hi:/ /di:dem/

(a gil name)

genius, brilliant

mimar İran

/mi:mar/ /i:ran/

architect Iran

şube Ebru

/şu:be/ branch office /ebru:/ (a girl name)

cumhuriyet /cumhu:riyet/ Suriye /su:riye/

republic Syria

A suffix that begins with a vowel may also cause a preceding vowel to be lengthened, for example, the adjectival suffix -î, or the first person singular possessive suffix -im (-ım, -üm, -um), which means my: din → dinî /di:ni:/ religious din → dinim /di:nim/ my religion

insan hayat

→ insanî /insa:ni:/ → hayatım /haya:tım/

humane my life

Such vowels are shown in a proper dictionary as in these examples: dinî (di:ni:) and hayat (haya:tı). For convenience, we will underline those and other long vowels that are not shown in writing as in: mavi, şube, dinim and hayatım.

Vowel omission When a vowel-initial suffix is added to some words, mostly two-syllable nouns ending in a consonant and having i, ı, ü or u in their second syllables, these vowels are omitted. Look at these nouns with the first person singular possessive suffix -im (-ım, -üm, -um): isim fikir resim vakit

name idea picture time

→ → → →

ismim şehir fikrim akıl resmim özür vaktim oğul

city mind apology son



→ → → →

şehrim aklım özrüm oğlum

Notice that the vowels in the suffix are the same as the vowels that are omitted. Look also at these examples with the suffixes -ış and -ık, which make nouns from verbs: be mistaken → yanlış mistake



yanıl

4

Buffer letters

sıyır

scrape → sıyrık scrape (=graze)

When a word that ends in a vowel takes a suffix, which usually begins with a vowel, the consonant n, s, ş or y goes between the word and the suffix. These four consonants are called kaynaştırma harfleri, which may translate as buffer letters. The buffer letter ş goes only before the suffix -er that forms distributive numbers (see page ). It is used nowhere else. We will show all other suffixes that may require the buffer letter n, s or y as in:

-(n)in

-(s)i

-(y)e

-(y)di

For now, look at these examples:

Sevgi’nin Türkiye’ye



20



eas•y Turkish Grammar

Sevgi’s to Turkey buffer



possessive

arabası Evdeydim.

case



his/her car I was at home.

tense negation

person

others

Exercises 1 Break the words into their syllables as in the example. (For the meanings see the answer key.)

ba-ba

1 baba 2 annem

babam ba-bam

annemin

3 ad





adın

4 okul







okullar



5 onlar



onların



6 teşekkür



teşekkürler



7 bilgisayar



bilgisayarım



8 iki





ikinci



9 tabiat



tabiatta



Türkiye



10 Türk





Check in the key.

2 Write the pronunciations as in the example. /sa:lık/

1 sağlık health





blackberry 3 sağır deaf 2 böğürtlen









nature 5 mağara cave 6 beğen like (v) 4 doğa



3 Using the translations put ^ over the vowels they require it. Remember to replace the dot over i with ^. ^ 1 a) kar



2 a) adet 3 a) dahi 4 a) hala



5 a) İslam dini 6 a) askeri harekât 7 a) manzara resmi 8 a) tarihi bina

profit b) kar snow (n) unit (for product) b) adet custom; habit genius b) dahi too, even, also paternal aunt b) hala still religion of Islam b) dini duygular religious feelings military action b) düşman askeri enemy soldier scenery picture b) resmi dil official language historic building b) dünya tarihi world history

4 Rewrite the words with -im (-ım, -üm, -um), which means my. Remember to omit the second vowels. forehead burun nose ağız mouth boyun neck omuz shoulder göğüs chest karın stomach

alnım

1 alın



2



3 4 5 6 7

buffer

possessive

case

(my forehead etc)







You can find the key with audio at funduszeue.info



tense negation

person

others

Spelling and pronunciation

21

2

Vowel harmony

The rule of vowel harmony ‘ünlü/sesli uyumu’ is based on part of the tongue involved in producing a vowel. Accordingly, the vowel sounds can be divided into two groups:



Front vowels: e i ö ü Back vowels: a ı o u



Look at the plural suffix in these nouns:

öğretmenler öğrenciler



teachers students

okullar arkadaşlar



schools friends

As can be seen, the plural suffix harmonizes with the preceding front vowels (e and i) as -ler, and it harmonizes with the preceding back vowels (u and a) as -lar. However, not all suffixes harmonize in the same way as the plural suffix. There are two rules of vowel harmony, which we may call 2-fold vowel harmony and 4-fold vowel harmony. 2-fold and 4-fold indicate the variants of vowels in suffixes.

1

2-fold vowel harmony

2-fold vowel harmony table:



Last vowel in the word The vowel of the suffix

Front vowels

Back vowels

e i ö ü

aıou

e a

As shown in the table, the suffix takes e after the front vowels and a after the back vowels. Suffixes that follow the rule of 2-fold vowel harmony can be printed with e or a. We will print them with e, and as a reminder of the rule of 2-fold we will put the sign 2f as in -ler 2f and -de 2f. Here are more examples of the plural suffix -ler 2f: 1-fold after the front vowels (e i ö ü):

ülke



şehir köy gün

22

country city village day

eas•y Turkish Grammar

→ ülkeler → şehirler → köyler → günler

buffer

possessive

case

countries cities villages days

tense negation

person

others

2-fold after the back vowels (a ı o u):



aslan



ayı antilop maymun

lion bear antelope monkey

→ aslanlar → ayılar → antiloplar → maymunlar

lions bears antelopes monkeys

Look also at the locative case suffix -de 2f, which indicates location in place in the following examples: 1-fold after the front vowels (e i ö ü): bahçe



şehir kuaför



öykü



garden/yard city hairdresser’s story (narrative)

→ bahçede in the garden/yard → şehirde in the city → kuaförde at the hairdresser’s → öyküde in the story

2-fold after the back vowels (a ı o u): masa



kapı salon kutu

2

table door living room box

→ → → →

masada



kapıda



salonda kutuda



on the table at the door in the living room in the box

4-fold vowel harmony

4-fold vowel harmony table:



Last vowel in the word The vowel of the suffix

Front vowels

Back vowels

e i

a ı

o u

ü ı

u



ö

i

ü

The front and back vowels are each divided into two groups according to the height of the tongue and the position of the lips, thus making 4 groups in total. The suffix, accordingly, takes i, ü, ı or u; it never takes ö or o. Suffixes that follow the rule of 4-fold vowel harmony can be printed with i or ı. We will print them with i, and as a reminder of the rule of 4-fold we will put the sign 4f as in -i 4f, -li 4f and -im 4f.

buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

Vowel harmony

23

Now look at these examples: 1 Ek-fiil simple present 1st person singular suffix -(y)im 4f, which means I am: 1-fold after the front vowels (e and i):

öğretmen öğrenci

teacher → Öğretmenim. student → Öğrenciyim.

I’m a teacher. a student.

2-fold after the front vowels (ö and ü): kuaför hairdresser gözlükçü optician 3-fold after the back vowels (a and ı):

manav şarkıcı



greengrocer singer

→ Kuaförüm. → Gözlükçüyüm.

a hairdresser. an optician.

→ Manavım. → Şarkıcıyım.

a greengrocer. a singer.

→ Doktorum. → Memurum.

a doctor. a government employee.



4-fold after the back vowels (o and u): doktor memur



doctor government employee

2 The derivational suffix -li 4f, which makes adjectives from nouns (see pages ): 1-fold after the front vowels (e and i):

değer eğitim

value → değerli education → eğitimli

valuable educated

2-fold after the front vowels (ö and ü):

söz kültür



word culture

→ sözlü → kültürlü

verbal cultured

→ yararlı → saygılı

useful respectful

→ tozlu → bulutlu

dusty cloudy



3-fold after the back vowels (a and ı): yarar saygı



use respect

4-fold after the back vowels (o and u): toz bulut



dust cloud

Note that when a word takes two or more suffixes one after another, suffixes harmonize with each other. See how the possessive suffix -im 4f harmonizes with the following singular and plural nouns:



gözüm gözlerim



24

my eye my eyes

eas•y Turkish Grammar

buffer

kolum kollarım

possessive

case

my arm (of the body) my arms tense negation

person

others

3

Exceptions to the rule of vowel harmony

Even though some words (mostly nouns) have a back vowel (a, o, or u) in their last syllables, their suffixes do not take a back vowel (a, ı, or u). Instead, they take a front vowel (e, i, or ü). The most common of such words, most of which end in a palatal l, are:



saat

hour; watch harf letter (sign in writing) ihtimal possibility sembol symbol ampul (light) bulb



dikkat



kalp



kontrol alkol

care (n)

→ → → → →



heart ideal ideal (n) hayal dream (wish) rol role; part meşgul busy (adj)

→ → → →



harfler ihtimaller





ampuller



dikkatli kontrollü alkollü



harf,-fi

hayal,-li

rol,-lü



(… dikkatlı) careful (… kontrollu) controlled (… alkollu) alcoholic (adj)

(… kalp/bım) idealim (… idealım) hayalim (… hayalım) rolüm (… rolum) kalp/bim

→ Meşgulüm. These words are shown in a proper dictionary as in: saat,-ti

(NOT saatlar) hours; watches (… harflar) letters (… ihtimallar) possibilities (… sembollar) symbols (… ampullar) bulbs

semboller

→ → →

control (n) alcohol

saatler



sembol, -lü

my heart my ideal my dream my role; part

(… meşgulum) I’m busy.

meşgul, -lü

You can use Türk Dil Kurumu (The Turkish Language Institution) online dictionaries. You can find the links in the bibliography.

Endnote

At earlier stages, you may have difficulty using the correct vowel in the suffix. When you are confused about which vowel you should use, just pick up the one that feels more natural and rolls off the tongue. As your ear is getting tuned to the sound of Turkish, you will be able to do it. You do not have to keep the rules in mind all the time. Do exercises on page

buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

Vowel harmony

25

3

Consonant harmony

According to the quality of being soft ‘yumuşak’ or hard ‘sert’, the consonants are divided into two types, on which the rule of consonant harmony is based:



Soft consonants: b c d g ğ j l m n r v y z Hard consonants: f s t k ç ş h p

You should learn the hard consonants. You can use the mnemonic trick: fıstıkçı Şahap,



which translates as peanut seller Şahap.

There are two rules of consonant harmony.

1

Consonant harmony in suffixes

When a suffix that begins with the soft consonant c, d or g is added to a word that ends in one of the hard consonants above:



changes to the hard consonant ç t g k c



d

Note that consonant-initial suffixes are printed with the soft consonants as in -ci, -de and -gen. Now look at the suffixes -de, -ci and -gen after the soft and hard consonants. 1 The locative case suffix -de 2f: i after the soft consonants: ev home; house okul school

→ →

evde

at home; in the house at/in school

→ → →

sınıfta

in the classroom in the street in the tree

okulda

ii after the hard consonants:



sınıf

classroom sokak street ağaç tree

sokakta ağaçta 2 The derivational suffix -ci 4f (see pages ): i after the soft consonants: futbol football fırın baker’s

26

eas•y Turkish Grammar

→ →

futbolcu fırıncı

buffer

possessive

footballer baker case

tense negation

person

others

ii after the hard consonants: diş tooth dans dance And: fıstık peanut

→ dişçi → dansçı →

fıstıkçı

dentist dancer

peanut seller

3 The derivational suffix -gen 2f (see page ; 3): i after the soft consonants:



sürün saldır



crawl assault

→ →

sürüngen saldırgan

reptile assailant

ii after the hard consonants:

çalış work unut forget değiş change (intr)

→ çalışkan hard-working → unutkan forgetful → değişken changeable; variable (n)

For convenience we will hereafter print the suffixes, which may undergo consonant harmony as in:

2

-d/te

-c/çi

-g/ken

Consonant harmony in word stems

When a suffix that begins with a vowel is added to a word that ends in the hard consonant k, t, ç or p (for which you can use the mnemonic trick ketçap ‘ketchup’):



k changes t d ç c p b

to the soft consonant ğ

Notice that the consonants change from hard to soft in word stems whereas they change from soft to hard in suffixes. Now look at these nouns with -im 4f, which means my: çocuk → çocuğum my child vücut → gözlük → gözlüğüm my glasses ümit → ilaç → ilacım my medicine mektup → amaç → amacım my aim cevap →

vücudum ümidim

my body my hope

mektubum cevabım

my letter (written message) my answer

For convenience we will show the consonant changes in word stems as in: çocuk/ğum and ilaç/cım. buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

Consonant harmony

27

3

Exceptions to consonant harmony in word stems

The hard consonants k, t, ç and p do not change to the soft consonants: 1 in verbs. However, t changes to d in the following verbs: git tat seyret et







go taste (tr) watch aux. verb as in yardım et ‘help’

→ Git/diyor. (He/She/It is going etc.) → Tat/dıyor. → Seyret/diyor. → Yardım et/diyor.

2 in most monosyllabic nouns: Look at the following compounds, formed with -i 4f:





gençlik aşkı yaş farkı Türk halkı

young love kredi kartı age difference kuzu eti the Turkish people inek sütü

gelin saçı nefret suçu futbol maçı

bridal hair yaz kampı hate crime tenis topu football match uyku hapı













credit card lamb (meat) cow milk summer camp tennis ball sleeping pill

But: eye colour küf tat/dı mould taste labour force insan kalp/bi human heart Notice that k in renk does not change to ğ but g.

göz renk/gi iş güç/cü









3 in most two (or more)-syllable nouns that end in t: kol saati montaj robotu gece hayatı savunma avukatı sinema sanatı







wristwatch Türkiye Cumhuriyeti assembly robot terör örgütü night life aşk cinayeti defence lawyer İngiliz edebiyatı cinema art otobüs bileti

4 in proper names. However, in speech they change to the soft consonants:

Serap Mehmet Uşak Norveç



28

(a girl name) (a boy name) (a city in Turkey) Norway

eas•y Turkish Grammar

buffer

the Turkish Republic terrorist organisation love homicide English literature bus ticket



in writing

in speech

→ → → →

Serap’a Mehmet’e Uşak’a Norveç’e

/seraba/ (to Serap etc) /mehmede/ /uşa:/ /norvece/

possessive

case

→ → → →

tense negation

person

others

vowel harmony

2-fold aıou eiöü e a

Exercises

4-fold ei öü aı ou i ü ı u

consonant harmony

in suffixes word final f s t k ç ş h p +suffix-initial c d g =suffix-initial ç t k

in words word final k t ç p +suffix-initial e 2f i 4f =word-final ğ d c b

1 Join the words with the conjunction -(y)le 2f, which means and. Use an apostrophe (’) after the proper names. (Ali and Melis)

’yle Melis 1 Ali

5 pantolon ayakkabı

2 annem babam

6 Galatasaray Fenerbahçe

3 kadın çocuk 7 köy şehir 4 Özgü ben 8 turuncu kırmızı

Check in the key.



2 Complete the following instructions with the suffix -(y)iniz 4f . 1 Fill in the gaps. 2 Complete the sentences. 3 Rewrite the words/sentences. 4 Learn the new words. 5 Translate into Turkish. 6 Answer the following questions. 7 Inflect the words with possessive suffixes.

Boşlukları doldurunuz .

Cümleleri tamamla Kelimeleri/Cümleleri tekrar yaz Yeni kelimeleri öğren Türkçeye çevir Aşağıdaki soruları cevapla Kelimeleri iyelik ekleri ile çekimle



3 First inflect the words with the possessive suffix -im 4f, and then with the plural suffix -ler 2f. um 1 kol

(my arm, my arms) kollarım

2 el



3 göz





4 pantolon





5 ceket







6 kravat







4 Form job names with the suffix -c/çi 4f.

(work → worker)

çi 1 iş



6 gazete

11 oyun

2 ecza

7 dans

12 çift

3 diş

8 çöp

13 gözlük

4 fırın 5 futbol

9 tamir



14 eğitim

10 süt

15 tarih





5 Inflect the words with the possessive suffix -im 4f. Remember that not all word-final hard consonants undergo consonant harmony.

(my book) (my tie)

2 kravat

kitap/bım kravatım

3 yatak



11 halk



4 umut



12 hayat



5 aşk





13 çorap



6 çocuk



14 avukat



7 saç





15 güç



8 ilaç



16 top



1 kitap

buffer



possessive

case

tense negation

person

9 vücut 10 cep

others











Vowel and consonant harmony

29

4

The plural suffix

Almost all nouns in Turkish are singular ‘tekil’ in nature and form the plural ‘çoğul’ by adding -ler 2f: aile



haber resim göz



mobilya



pantolon



balık

çocuk

family news picture eye furniture trousers fish child

→ → → →

aileler meyve haberler ekmek resimler mevsim gözler gün

→ → → →



→ meyveler → ekmekler → mevsimler → günler

fruit bread season day

mobilyalar ağaç

tree → ağaçlar boot (shoe) → botlar balıklar sayı number → sayılar çocuklar duygu feeling → duygular pantolonlar

bot

Note that ● we retain the final l in the singular noun:

el

hand okul school

→ →

eller okullar



10 lira 10 liras



2 saat 10 dakika

kol

arm rule

→ →

kollar

kural kurallar ● we do not add the plural suffix to nouns after a number (bigger than one), or a quantifier like birkaç ‘some, a few, several’. The number or quantifier itself indicates the plurality:

2 hours 10 minutes birkaç elma a few apples birkaç kız ve oğlan several girls and boys

(lit 10 lira) ( 2 hour 10 minute) ( a few apple) ( several girl and boy)

Although we can make almost all nouns plural in Turkish, we cannot count them all. We can, for example, say mobilyalar, but we cannot say bir mobilya, iki mobilya etc. Or when we say bir kahve ‘a coffee’, we mean bir fincan kahve ‘a cup of coffee’ – just like in English. Look also at these phrases: a kilo of apples iki paket bisküvi two packets of biscuits/cookies bir düzine yumurta a dozen of eggs birkaç kutu kibrit several boxes of matches



bir kilo elma



bir bardak/sürahi su iki şişe/kutu/litre süt



bir dilim/parça ekmek iki kavanoz bal

30

eas•y Turkish Grammar

buffer

a glass/jug of water two bottles/cartons/litres of milk a slice/piece of bread two jars of honey possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

adjective + ler/lar We can add the plural suffix to certain adjectives to make them into plural nouns. Adjective + ler/lar usually corresponds to the + adjective in English:





genç yaşlı fakir zengin engelli kör sağır

young old poor rich disabled blind deaf

→ → → → → → →



gençler yaşlılar fakirler zenginler engelliler körler sağırlar

the young the old the poor the rich the disabled the blind the deaf

nationality + ler/lar

We can also add the plural suffix to nationality names:

Türk İngiliz Fransız Japon

Turkish English French Japanese

→ → → →



Türkler İngilizler Fransızlar Japonlar

the Turkish the English the French the Japanese



Amerikalı Meksikalı Alman Suriyeli

American Mexican German Syrian

→ → → →



Amerikalılar Meksikalılar Almanlar Suriyeliler

Americans Mexicans Germans Syrians

See page for countries and nationalities.



Study the following words/phrases with the plural suffix:

iyi sabahlar (= günaydın) günler akşamlar geceler

good morning afternoon; have a good day evening night

iyi tatiller have a good holiday/vacation yolculuklar journey/trip dersler lesson/class (said by students/teachers to each other before the lesson/class). hayırlı işler used to say goodbye to shopkeepers when you are leaving (lit have good business). tebrikler congrats teşekkürler thanks başarılar good luck/best of luck Do exercises on page buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

The plural suffix

31

5

Possessive suffixes

Look at the following table:

Personal pronouns

Possessive adjectives



Benim My -(i)m Senin Your -(i)n Onun His/Her/Its -(s)i

Ben I Sen You O He/She/It



Biz Siz Onlar

We You They

Bizim Sizin Onların

Our Your Their

Possessive suffixes

-(i)miz -(i)niz -leri

A If the noun ends in a vowel, we omit the initial vowel (i) 4f from the 1st and 2nd person possessive suffixes, and we use the buffer letter (s) before the 3rd person singular possessive suffix. Now look at the following examples: (benim) adım (senin) adın (onun) adı



my name your name his/her/its name

(bizim) adlarımız (sizin) adlarınız (onların) adları

our names your names their names

B Possessive adjectives can be omitted, but when the person changes we have to use them:

(Benim) Adım Arhan. Senin adın ne?

My name is Arhan. What is your name?

C The 3rd person plural suffix -leri 2f may also refer to two or more people/things. Therefore, we do not use the plural suffix (NOT adlarları). It can be better understood from the following example: İki kızım var. Adları Su ve Ece. Anneleri ile yaşıyorlar.

I have got two daughters. Their names are Su and Ece. They live with their mother. D When we refer to one person/thing, we can use -(s)i 4f instead of -leri 2f. In this case, we always have to use the 3rd person plural possessive onların to indicate the plural possessor. Compare the following examples: (Onun) Annesi hemşire. Onların annesi hemşire.





His/Her mother is a nurse. Their mother is a nurse.

Even though possessive adjectives may sometimes be redundant, it is safer for you to use them all the time. After all, it will be hard for you at earlier stages to break the habit of using possessive adjectives if you are a native speaker of a language like English that requires them.

32

eas•y Turkish Grammar

buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

vowel harmony

2-fold aıou eiöü e a

Exercises

4-fold ei öü aı ou i ü ı u

consonant harmony

in suffixes word final f s t k ç ş h p +suffix-initial c d g =suffix-initial ç t k

in words word final k t ç p +suffix-initial e 2f i 4f =word-final ğ d c b

1 Make the words plural. 1 denizler



4 harf 7 kadın

2 göl 5 doktor 8 erkek 3 insan

6 çocuk

9 gül



Check in the key.

2 Fill in the gaps with the words from the list. Use each once. dilim 1 bir

kavanoz

şişe

kilo

düzine

şişe ü



bardak



kola

4 bir



patates

2 bir



pasta

5 bir



reçel

3 bir



boya kalemi

6 bir



çay

3 Translate into Turkish.

1 1 2 3 4 5 6

fruit and vegetables five girls two (cups of) coffee several days the young and old Russians



2 1 2 3 4 5 6

























good evening good night thanks congrats have a nice day have a good class

4 Inflect the words with possessive suffixes. You can use the table if you need.

Poss. suf.

unuz 1 sizin pasaport

5 sizin odalar

9 senin karar

2 bizim ev

6 benim kardeşler

3 onların çocuk

7 onun hata 11 senin gözler

4 onun koca

8 bizim öğretmenler



10 benim Twitter hesap 12 onların ad



5 Translate into Turkish.

1 -(i)m 2 -(i)n 3 -(s)i 1 -(i)miz 2 -(i)niz 3 -leri



1 2 3 4 5 6

my money his friends our son your names its price their mother

buffer

possessive

(benim) param







case

tense negation

7 our rights 8 her boyfriend 9 my hands 10 your car 1 1 their pictures 12 its pages

person

others

The plural and possessive suffixes

33

6

Case suffixes

Case ‘hâl/durum’ is changes in the forms of nouns and pronouns with the addition of suffixes. That is, nouns and pronouns change their suffixes depending on their functions in sentences. There are six cases in Turkish, each of which has its own suffix except the nominative case, which is the plain form of nouns and pronouns you will find in a dictionary. In the following examples, notice the function of fotoğraf ‘photograph’ in each case:



Nominative

Cebinden bir fotoğraf çıkardı. Fotoğraf çok eskiydi.

Accusative

Fotoğrafı iki eliyle nazikçe tuttu.

Genitive

Fotoğrafın rengi iyice solmuştu.

Dative

Fotoğrafa hüzünle baktı.

Locative

Fotoğrafta bir kadın ve küçük bir kız vardı.

Ablative

Gözlerini fotoğraftan uzun süre ayıramadı.



He took a photograph out of his pocket. The photograph was too old. He gently held the photograph in both hands.

The photograph’s colour was completely faded. He looked at the photograph sadly. There was a woman and a little girl in the photograph. He couldn’t take his eyes off the photograph for a long time.

For the time being, while studying the examples, you should focus on the case suffixes rather than the tenses.

1



The nominative case

A noun or pronoun in the nominative case ‘yalın hâl/durum’ functions as: 1 the subject ‘özne’. It may take the plural or possessive suffixes, or both: Fotoğraf çok eskiydi. The photograph was too old. Çocuklar ev ödevlerini yapıyorlar. The kids are doing their homework. Annem halıları süpürüyor. (My) Mum is vacuuming the carpets. Anahtarların masada. Your keys are on the table.





2 the indefinite direct object ‘belirtisiz nesne’. It may take the plural suffix only:

Cebinden bir fotoğraf çıkardı. He took a photograph out of his pocket. Babam salonda gazete okuyor. (My) Dad is reading a newspaper in the living Ben yeni yerler görmek istiyorum. I want to see new places.



room.

The indefinite direct object refers to something unspecific or a type of thing. There is also the definite direct object ‘belirtili nesne’, which refers to something specific our readers or listeners know about. It takes the accusative case suffix.

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2

The accusative case

Look at these sentences:



Fotoğrafı iki eliyle nazikçe tuttu. Annem halıları süpürüyor. Televizyonu seyrediyor musun?

He gently held the photograph in both hands. Mum is vacuuming the carpets. Are you watching the television?

In these examples, the accusative ‘belirtme’ case suffix -(y)i 4f function like the English definite article the that comes before direct objects. However, -(y)i does not correspond to the in every instance. We use -(y)i where English does not normally use the before direct objects. We can add -(y)i 4f: 1 to proper nouns (names of people, countries, books, films, sports teams etc):



Ben Ayşe’yi çok seviyorum. Şu sıralar Hamlet’i okuyorum. Melih Galatasaray’ı tutuyor.

I love Ayşe so much. I’m reading Hamlet these days. Melih supports Galatasaray.

2 to nouns with possessive suffixes: Ben karımı çok seviyorum. I love my wife so much. Biz evimizi satıyoruz. We are selling our house. Çocuklar ev ödevlerini yapıyorlar. The kids are doing their homework. Ravza odasını topluyor. Ravza is tidying up her room. Notice that after the 3rd person possessive suffixes we use the buffer letter n instead of y.



3 to nouns modified by demonstrative adjectives (see page 64):

Are you reading this book? Sen bu kitap/bı okuyor musun? Ben bu oyuncak/ğı istiyorum. I want this toy. Çocuklar o çizgi filmi çok seviyorlar. Children love that cartoon very much.



4 to personal and demonstrative pronouns:







Sen beni dinlemiyorsun. Seni çok seviyorum. Ben o oyuncak/ğı değil, bunu istiyorum.

You aren’t listening to me? I love you so much. I don’t want that toy, I want this one.

A: Bu filmi seyredelim mi? B: Ben onu seyrettim.

Shall we watch this film? I have seen that.

See page ; 8 for the use of the adjective bir. page for personal and demonstrative pronouns + case suffixes. buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

Case suffixes

35

3

The genitive case

Look at these nouns in the genitive ‘ilgi’ case: Ahmet’in soyadı Türkiye’nin başkenti



Ahmet’s surname/last name the capital of Turkey

The possessor (Ahmet, Türkiye) always comes before the possessed (soyad, başkent). And they both take a suffix. We always add -(n)in 4f to the possessor, and to the possessed we add the 3rd person possessive -(s)i/-leri. A If the possessor is singular, we add -(s)i 4f to the possessed (singular or plural):

fotoğraf + renk Ece + erkek arkadaş komşu + kedi Mehmet Akif + şiirler film + son ağaç + dallar





→ fotoğrafın renk/gi the photograph’s colour → Ece’nin erkek arkadaşı Ece’s boyfriend → komşunun kedisi the neighbour’s cat → Mehmet Akif’in şiirleri Mehmet Akif’s poetry → filmin sonu the end of the film/movie → ağaç/cın dalları the branches of the tree

B If the possessor is plural, we add -leri 2f to the possessed:

çocuklar + ad askerler + üniforma ağaçlar + gövde evler + çatı







→ → → →

çocukların adları the kids’ names askerlerin üniformaları the soldiers’ uniforms ağaçların gövdeleri the trunks of the trees evlerin çatıları the roofs of the houses

If, however, the possessed is singular, we may add -(s)i 4f instead of -leri 2f (see page 32;D):

çocuklar + anne

→

çocukların annesi/anneleri the kids’ mother



Study also these examples, in which -(n)in 4f is preceded by possessive suffixes: oğlumun okulu my son’s school çocuklarımızın adları our kids’ names babasının arabası his/her father’s car The possessor + possessed act as single units and can take the following case suffixes. The buffer letter n goes in between: Mehmet Akif’in şiirlerini çok seviyorum. (acc) I like Mehmet Akif’s poetry so much. Ece’nin erkek arkadaşının adı ne? (gen) What is Ece’s boyfriend’s name? Şimdi komşunun kedisine süt veriyorum. (dat) I’m giving milk to the neighbour’s cat now. Kız filmin sonunda ölüyor. (loc) The girl dies at the end of the film. Beni oğlumun okulundan aradılar. (abl) They called me from my son’s school.

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4

The dative case

We add the dative ‘yönelme’ case suffix -(y)e 2f: 1 to the indirect object. It usually corresponds to English prepositions at, to and for:

He looked at the photograph sadly. I’m giving milk to the neighbour’s cat now. I buy flowers for my wife every Friday. Grandpa tells us a story every evening.

Fotoğrafa hüzünle baktı. Şimdi komşunun kedisine süt veriyorum. Her cuma karıma çiçek alıyorum. Dedem her akşam bize masal anlatıyor.



2 to the name of a place, area, direction etc to say where someone or something goes, or where something is placed. It usually corresponds to English prepositions to, in(to) and on(to): Biz yarın İzmir'e gidiyoruz. Eti derin dondurucuya koydum. Yine sakızını masaya yapıştırmışsın.





5

We are going to İzmir tomorrow. I have put the meat into the deep freeze. Once again you have stuck your gum on the table.

The locative case

We add the locative ‘bulunma’ case suffix -d/te 2f: 1 to the name of a place, area, container etc. It usually corresponds to English prepositions of place in, on and at:





Fotoğrafta küçük bir kız vardı. Melis odasında müzik dinliyor. Et derin dondurucuda.

There was a little girl in the photograph. Melis is listening to music in her room. The meat is in the deep freeze.

Anahtarların masada. Çocuklar plajda top oynuyorlar. Ben ikinci katta oturuyorum.

Your keys are on the table. The kids are playing ball on the beach. I live on the second floor.

Kapıda bir adam var. Biz şimdi istasyonda bekliyoruz. Bu otobüs Kızılay’da duruyor.

There is a man at the door. We are waiting at the (train) station now. This bus stops at Kızılay [in Ankara].

2 to months, years, centuries and clock times. It usually corresponds to English prepositions of time in, on and at: martta, 15 Mart’ta ’de, ’te



in March, on 15 March in , in

yüzyılda ’te, ’da

in the 20th century at , at

We add -da, or -ın to seasons:



ilkbaharda, sonbaharda in spring, in autumn/fall yazın, kışın in summer, in winter

buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

Case suffixes

37

However, we do not add the locative case suffix -d/te 2f: 1 to days: Ben cuma (günü) Ankara’ya gidiyorum. I’m



going to Ankara on Friday.

Days may be followed by the word günü (gün ‘day’ + ü), literally translating as the day of Friday, Saturday etc. 2 to parts of the day:



Dersler sabah ’da başlıyor. Classes start at in the morning. Biz öğleden sonra alışverişe gidiyoruz. We are going shopping in the afternoon. Akşam buluşuyoruz, değil mi? We are meeting up in the evening, right?



And not to hafta içi ‘weekday’ and hafta sonu ‘weekend’:

Ben hafta içi ’de kalkıyorum. I get up at on weekdays. Sen hafta sonu ne yapıyorsun? What are you doing at the weekend?

6

The ablative case

See page for clock times, and page for days, months, seasons and years.

We add the ablative ‘ayrılma’ case suffix -d/ten 2f, which usually corresponds to English preposition from, to the name of a place, area, container, substance etc, or to the name of a person to say: 1 where someone or something starts, leaves, or comes from:

Bizim trenimiz 2. perondan kalkıyor. Our train departs from platform 2. Sabah evden ’de çıkıyorum. I leave home at in the morning. Öykü hafta sonu Isparta’dan dönüyor. Öykü is returning from Isparta at the weekend. 2 where something is before it is removed:

Cep/binden bir fotoğraf çıkardı. Gözlerini fotoğraftan ayıramadı. On ikiden beşi çıkartın.

He took a photograph out of his pocket. He couldn’t take his eyes off the photograph. Subtract five from twelve.

3 what substance is used to make something: Lokum şeker ve nişastadan yapılıyor. Çocuklar plajda kumdan kule yapıyorlar.



Turkish delight is made from sugar and starch. The kids are building a tower from sand on the beach.

4 who sends or gives something: Her hafta Ece’den mektup alıyorum. O hâlâ babasından harçlık alıyor.



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buffer



I receive a letter from Ece every week. He still gets pocket money from his father.

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

vowel harmony

Exercises

2-fold aıou eiöü e a

4-fold ei öü aı ou i ü ı u

consonant harmony

in suffixes word final f s t k ç ş h p +suffix-initial c d g =suffix-initial ç t k

in words word final k t ç p +suffix-initial e 2f i 4f =word-final ğ d c b

1 Complete the translations with the equivalents of the words in bold. Use the accusative case suffix -(n/y)i 4f. 1 2 3 4

Have you seen Berna today? Sen bugün Berna’yı gördün mü? He loves you so much. O çok seviyor. I don’t know her name. Ben bilmiyorum. Would you turn off the television? Sen kapatır mısın?

2 Use the genitive case suffix -(n)in 1 2 3 4

4f

Check in the key.

and the possessive suffix -(s)i /-leri . 4f

2f

The kids’ rooms are upstairs. üst katta. My cat’s name is Yumak. Yumak. The capital of Australia is Canberra. Kanberra. Have you read Orhan Pamuk’s last novel? okudun mu?

3 Use the dative case suffix -(y)e 2f. 1 1 2 3 4

Give this note to Ömer. Bu notu ver. I didn’t tell them anything. Ben hiçbir şey söylemedim. We will buy a gift for my mum. Biz hediye alacağız. I asked you a question. Ben bir soru sordum.

2 1 2 3 4

We went to Paris last summer. Go straight and then turn right (= sağ). I put my money in the safe (= kasa). They have gone to the cinema.

Biz geçen yaz gittik. Düz gidin sonra dönün. Paramı koydum. Onlar gittiler.

4 Use the locative case suffix -d/te 2f. 1 1 2 3 4

I was born in Ankara. Ben doğdum. The chemist’s is on the left. Eczane There are two people in the photo. iki kişi var. She is waiting at the door now. O şimdi bekliyor.

2 1 2 3 4

I was born in Ben doğdum. Our wedding is on April 12th. Nikâhımız 12 My class starts at in the afternoon. Dersim öğleden sonra başlıyor. We are going to move to Bursa in spring. Biz Bursa’ya taşınacağız.

5 Use the ablative case suffix -d/ten 2f. 1 2 3 4

My dad hasn’t returned from work yet. Babam henüz dönmedi. We will get off the train at the next station. Biz gelecek istasyonda ineceğiz. Did you get permission from your mum? Sen izin aldın mı? Bread is made from flour and water. Ekmek yapılır.

buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

Case suffixes

39

7

Compound nouns

There are two forms of compound nouns: 1 the closed form – no space or hyphen between words. This form, as we call ‘birleşik adlar/isimler’ in Turkish, mostly consists of the combination of noun + noun, or adjective + noun. In some compounds neither of the words takes a suffix whereas the second word takes -i compounds.

4f

in some

i In the following examples, neither of the words has a suffix (the first words are in bold):

anavatan, anayol



önsöz, önyargı



Karadeniz

Kızılay, Kızılhaç

Akdeniz

başkent, başbakan yüzyıl

ilkbahar, sonbahar

anneanne, babaanne



mother country, main road foreword, prejudice the Red Crescent, the Red Cross the Black Sea the Mediterranean capital (city), prime minister century spring, autumn/fall maternal, paternal grandmother

(lit white + sea) ( head + city, minister) ( hundred + year) ( first, last + spring) ( mother, father + mother)

ii In the following examples, the second word has -i 4f (the second words are in bold): mother tongue balayı honeymoon kartopu snowball dizüstü, masaüstü laptop, desktop iş adamı, iş kadını businessman, businesswoman havaalanı/havalimanı airport



anadili

kitabevi atasözü

kahverengi buzdolabı ayçiçeği



Samanyolu

bookshop/store proverb brown fridge sunflower the Milky Way





(lit book + house) ( ancestor + word) ( coffee + colour) ( ice + cupboard) ( moon + flower) ( straw [dry stalks of grain] + way)

As can be seen, the closed form Turkish compounds may translate as ordinary nouns as well as compound nouns (in the closed or open form). You should learn this form of Turkish compounds as a vocabulary item.

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possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

2 the open form – space between words. This form, as we call ‘ad/isim tamlaması’ in Turkish, consists of two nouns. The second noun always takes -(s)i 4f: ev + hanım → ev hanımı housewife diş + macun → diş macunu toothpaste yatak + oda → yatak odası bedroom masa + örtü → masa örtüsü tablecloth







tren + istasyon cep + telefon taksi + şoför Türkçe + öğretmen bilgisayar + mühendis üniversite + öğrenci



→ → → → → →

tren istasyonu railway/train station cep telefonu mobile phone/cellphone taksi şoförü taxi driver Türkçe öğretmeni Turkish teacher bilgisayar mühendisi computer engineer üniversite öğrencisi university student

As can be seen, the open form Turkish compounds translate as compounds (mostly in the open form). And like English compounds, they act as single units and can be modified by adjectives and other nouns:



büyük bir alışveriş merkezi a big shopping centre Samsung cep telefonları Samsung mobile phones/cellphones Look also at the following compound names of places, special occasions, holidays, organizations, mountains etc:





Sultan Ahmet Meydanı Sultan Ahmet Square (in the city of Istanbul) Anneler Günü Mother’s Day Ramazan Bayramı Eid ul-Fitr (celebrated at the end of Ramadan) Ege Üniversitesi Ege University (in the city of İzmir) Dünya Bankası the World Bank Ağrı Dağı Mount Ararat (in the cities of Iğdır and Ağrı)

Note that if the second noun:

● is su ‘water’, the buffer letter y is used instead of s: meyve suyu maden suyu

fruit juice mineral water

kaynak suyu musluk suyu

spring water tap water

● ends in the hard consonant k, t, ç or p, these hard consonants may change to the soft consonants ğ, d, c and b respectively (see pages 27;2 and 28;3 for more information): güneş gözlük/ğü yaya geçit/di

sunglasses pedestrian crossing

elma ağaç/cı gece kulüp/bü

apple tree night club

See page for nationality + noun compounds. buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

Compound nouns

41

Inflection of -i 4f ending compounds 1 For number The plural suffix -ler 2f goes before -i 4f (= leri/ları): işadamı → işadamları ayçiçek/ği → ayçiçekleri yatak odası → yatak odaları meyve suyu → meyve suları → gece kulüpleri gece kulüp/bü

businessmen sunflowers bedrooms fruit juice(s) night clubs

Notice that because -ler 2f begins with a (soft) consonant: ● the buffer letter s or y is not used. ● word-final hard consonants (k t ç p) do not change to the soft consonants (ğ d c b). 2 For possession Possessive suffixes replace -(s)i 4f: →



yatak odası

yatak odam

my bedroom yatak odan your yatak odası his/her yatak odamız/odalarımız yatak odanız/odalarınız yatak odaları

our bedroom/bedrooms your their

Notice that ● with the 3rd person singular, we do not double -sı (NOT odasısı). ● with the 3rd person plural, we do not use the plural suffix to indicate the plurality (NOT odalarları).



3 For case The buffer letter n goes between compounds (singular or plural) and the case suffixes: masa örtülerini alışveriş merkezinin buzdolabına yatak odasında İstanbul Üniversitesi’nden

(acc) (gen) (dat) (loc) (abl)

the tablecloths of the shopping centre into the fridge in the bedroom from Istanbul University

Now look at these compounds inflected for:



+ number

sınıf arkadaşı arkadaşları yatak odası odaları

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buffer

+ possession

+ case

arkadaşlarım arkadaşlarımın odalarımız odalarımızda odaları odalarında

possessive

case

tense negation

my classmates’ in our bedrooms

in their bedroom(s)

person

others

vowel harmony

Exercises

2-fold aıou eiöü e a

4-fold ei öü aı ou i ü ı u

consonant harmony

in suffixes word final f s t k ç ş h p +suffix-initial c d g =suffix-initial ç t k

in words word final k t ç p +suffix-initial e 2f i 4f =word-final ğ d c b

1 Match and make compound nouns.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

çilek uçak spor fotoğraf İnternet çınar içme

e

a b c ç d e f





suyu ağaç/cı ayakkabısı sitesi makinesi reçeli Check in the key. bileti

2 Make as many compound nouns as you can with the following nouns.

Türkçe, müzik, 1 dersi meyve, portakal, 2 suyu mühendisi, programı, 3 bilgisayar

4 sinema filmi, bileti,



5 üniversite öğrencisi, eğitimi,



3 Make the compound nouns in the first group plural and make the ones in the second group singular.

1 1 Avrupa ülkesi 2 3 4 5

kitabevi yağmur ormanı kaynak suyu atasözü

2 2

Avrupa ülkeleri

1 2 3 4 5

su bardak/ğı su bardakları seyahat acenteleri havaalanları portakal ağaçları milletvekilleri

4 Rewrite the compound nouns with possessive suffixes.



1 2 3 4 5 6 7

kol saati sağlık sigortası sınıf arkadaşları uçak bileti ders kitapları Türkçe öğretmeni güneş gözlüğü

kol saatim benim senin benim onların sizin bizim onun

Poss. suf. 1 -(i)m 2 -(i)n 3 -(s)i 1 -(i)miz 2 -(i)niz 3 -leri

5 Translate into Turkish.

1 my bank account 2 in their bedrooms 3 human rights buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

4 television ads 5 at traffic lights 6 the Olympic Games others

Compound nouns

43

8

There is

For both there is and there are, we use the adjective var (lit existent) in Turkish. For the negative, we simply replace var with yok (lit nonexistent). The word order is usually: place name + locative case suffix /subject /var (or yok)



Study the following examples:



Havaalanında postane var. Yerde birkaç demir para var. Sınıfımda üç Erasmus öğrencisi var.

There is a post office at the airport. There are some coins on the floor. There are three Erasmus students in my class.



Bu sokakta eczane yok. Tuvalette tuvalet kâğıdı yok. Alışveriş merkezinde hiç ATM yok.

There isn’t a chemist’s/drugstore in this street. There isn’t toilet paper in the toilet. There aren’t any ATM’s in the shopping centre.



Notice that ● the buffer letter n goes between compound nouns and the locative case suffix. ● nouns that follow birkaç, üç and hiç are not made plural (see page 30). Look also at these examples:

Yakında bir eczane var. Bugün İzmir’e hiç uçak yok.

There is a chemist’s near here. There aren’t any flights to İzmir today.

Interrogatives The interrogatives are var mı? and yok mu? The word order remains the same:

Havaalanında postane var mı? Sınıfında hiç Erasmus öğrencisi var mı?

Is there a post office at the airport? Are there any Erasmus students in your class?



Bu sokakta eczane yok mu? Evde hiç ağrı kesici yok mu?

Isn’t there a chemist’s/drugstore in this street? Aren’t there any painkillers in the house?



Notice that yok mu? is a negative interrogative.

Look also at these examples: O kutuda ne var? What is (there) in that box? Buzdolabında kaç yumurta var? How many eggs are there in



the fridge?

Short answers

A: Bu caddede çiçekçi var mı? B: Evet, var. / Hayır, yok.

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buffer

possessive

Is there a florist’s in this street? Yes, there is. / No, there isn’t. case

tense negation

person

others

vowel harmony

2-fold aıou eiöü e a

Exercises

4-fold ei öü aı ou i ü ı u

consonant harmony

in suffixes word final f s t k ç ş h p +suffix-initial c d g =suffix-initial ç t k

in words word final k t ç p +suffix-initial e 2f i 4f =word-final ğ d c b

1 Complete the sentences with the words from the lists.

Ay’da

Türkçede

Dünyada ü

İnternet’te

İstanbul’da

ada 1 Düny beş kıta var. 2



hayat yok.

3



q, x ve w harfleri yok.

4



milyarlarca web sitesi var.

5



çok tarihî eser var: saraylar, camiler, çarşılar

harf

yağmur

6 Bu şişede hiç

film



7 Türkçede 8 sesli, 21 sessiz 9 Bugün Antalya’da

virüs

yok. Boş.



8 Akşam televizyonda güzel bir 10 Bilgisayarınızda

süt

Check in the key.

var.







var.

yok. Hava açık ve güneşli.

var.

2 Put the words in order. 1 evimizde / yok / bizim / televizyon.



2 hiç / meyve / buzdolabında / yok mu?



3 küçük / kasabada / bir otel / var.



4 C vitamini / çok / kivi meyvesinde / var.



5 yok / vejetaryen yemeği / menüde / hiç.



6 sizin / var mı / x harfi / anadilinizde?



3 Translate into Turkish. 1 2 3 4 5 6

There are several children in the street (= sokak). There are beautiful beaches in Antalya. Is there a coach/bus to Diyarbakır this evening? Isn’t there any butter (= tereyağı) in the fridge? There is nobody (= hiç kimse) at home. How many people (= kişi) are there in the queue?



4 Write the things you have in your house using var/yok.

buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

There is

45

9

Have got

For have got/has got, we also use the adjective var, and we use yok for the negative. The word order is usually:



subject + genitive case suffix / object + possessive suffix / var (or yok)

Look at the following sentences whose subjects are personal (subject) pronouns:



Benim kız arkadaşım var. Senin güzel gözlerin var. Onun çok parası var.

I have got a girlfriend. You have got beautiful eyes. S/he has got a lot of money.



Bizim arabamız yok. Sizin bugün dersiniz yok. Onların köpekleri yok.

We haven’t got a car. You haven’t got a lesson/class today. They haven’t got a dog.

As can be seen, in var/yok sentences the genitive personal pronouns translate as subject pronouns I, you, he, she etc (see page for personal pronouns + case suffixes). Now look at the following sentences whose subjects are (proper) nouns: The boss has got three cars. My students have got financial problems.

Patronun üç arabası var. Öğrencilerimin maddî sorunları var.



Annemin hiç erkek kardeşi yok. My mother hasn’t got any brothers. Sevgi’nin sürücü ehliyeti yok. Sevgi hasn’t got a driving/driver’s licence. Note that if the object is a phrase made up of possessor + possessed, the subject takes the locative case suffix, not the genitive:



Esra’da Tarkan’ın bütün albümleri var. Esra has got all Tarkan’s albums. Bende senin hiç fotoğrafın yok. I haven’t got any pictures of yours.





Interrogatives



Pardon, saatiniz var mı? Sizde Ahmet Altan’ın son romanı var mı?



Ayşegül’ün erkek arkadaşı yok mu? Onur’da senin numaran yok mu?



Excuse me, have you got the time? Have you got Ahmet Altan’s last novel?



Hasn’t Ayşegül got a boyfriend? Hasn’t Onur got your number?



Short answers

A: Twitter hesap/bın var mı? B: Evet, var. / Hayır, yok.



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buffer

Have you got a Twitter account? Yes, I have. / No, I haven’t. possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

vowel harmony

2-fold aıou eiöü e a

Exercises

4-fold ei öü aı ou i ü ı u

consonant harmony

in suffixes word final f s t k ç ş h p +suffix-initial c d g =suffix-initial ç t k

1 Fill in the gaps with the genitive case and the correct possessive suffix respectively.

in words word final k t ç p +suffix-initial e 2f i 4f =word-final ğ d c b



’in çok güzel gözleri var. 1 Deniz

5 Ben bir kız kardeş var.

2 Senin Facebook hesap/bın yok mu?

6 Emre çok ateş var.

3 Karım onlarca çift ayakkabı var.

7 O restoran otopark yok.

4 Onlar İstanbul’da iki daire var.

8 Bebek uyku var.

Check in the key.

2 Translate into Turkish.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Poss. suf. 1 -(i)m 2 -(i)n 3 -(s)i

She has beautiful green eyes. How many brothers or sisters have you got? Hasn’t Tim got the house key? They have got financial problems. I haven’t got Suzan’s phone number. Sibel hasn’t got a boyfriend. I have a date (= bir randevu) in the evening.

1 -(i)miz 2 -(i)niz 3 -leri



3 Write about yourself using var/yok.

4 Complete the sentences with the words from the lists. (Var/yok may mean there is/isn’t or have/haven’t got.) kişi

süt

boş vaktim

anahtarı

mesajınız ü

1 (Sizin) Yeni bir mesajınız var. 2 Benim bugün hiç 3 Arabada üç





4 Buzdolabında bir şişe 5 Sende evin mobilya 6 Bizim iki 7 Senin





erkek arkadaşın



8 Merve’nin kahverengi iri 9 Otelin

buffer

gözleri

case

çocuğumuz

yüzme havuzu

var. Bir kız, bir erkek.

var mı? var.

yok.



possessive

var.

yok mu?





10 Odada hiç

yok.

var. Birisi kadın, diğer ikisi erkek.

yok. Sadece, yerde bir halı var.

tense negation

person

others

Have got

47

10 1

Personal pronouns and suffixes

Personal pronouns

As we studied in unit 5, personal pronouns ‘şahıs/kişi zamirleri’ are: 1 Ben 2 Sen 3 O

I You He/She/It

1 2 3

Siz Onlar

We You They

Biz

We use siz also for the 2nd person singular when talking in a polite or formal way:

İyiyim, teşekkür ederim. Siz nasılsınız?

2

Personal suffixes

I’m fine, thank you. How are you?

Look at the following examples, both of which are in the present continuous: Ben Türkçe öğreniyorum. I am learning Turkish. Sen Türkçe öğreniyorsun. You are learning Turkish. Person and number are primarily expressed with personal suffixes, which change according to tense and person (subject). We have two separate sets of personal suffixes, each of which is used with certain tenses:

Set A



Ben



-(y)im



Sen



-sin



O



Ø



Biz



-(y)iz



Siz



-siniz

Onlar



-ler

İ’s

Set B

-m



-n

(no suffix)

Ø







(no suffix)







-k



-niz



-ler

follow the rule of 4-fold vowel harmony, and e’s follow the rule of 2-fold vowel harmony.

We use Set A personal suffixes with these tenses:

present continuous simple present -miş past future

We use Set B personal suffixes with -di past tense only.

48

eas•y Turkish Grammar

buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

3

Omission of personal pronouns

As person and number are clearly indicated by personal suffixes, we do not usually use personal (subject) pronouns. Look at the following conjugation (inflection) table:

(Ben) Türkçe öğreniyorum. (Sen) öğreniyorsun. (O) öğreniyor. (Biz) (Siz)

(Onlar)

öğreniyoruz. öğreniyorsunuz. öğreniyorlar.

We are You are They are





I am learning Turkish. You are S/he is

Look also at these examples:



(Ben) Öğrenciyim. (Ben) Ankara Üniversitesi’nde hukuk okuyorum.



I’m a student. I’m studying law at Ankara University.



Uma ve Kim İstanbul’dalar. (Onlar) Türkçe öğreniyorlar.



Uma and Kim are in Istanbul. They are learning Turkish.

However, when the subject changes, we have to use the personal pronoun:

(Ben) İyiyim. Sen nasılsın?

I’m fine. How are you?

See page for personal pronouns + case suffixes.

4

Use of the 3rd person personal suffix

We do not always use the 3rd person personal suffix -ler 2f. Its use depends on the subject. A If the subject is human, we may omit -ler 2f. Look again at the example we have studied above:

Uma ve Kim İstanbul’da(lar). Onlar Türkçe öğreniyor(lar).

Uma and Kim are in Istanbul. They are learning Turkish.

However, we cannot omit the pronoun onlar and the suffix -ler 2f at the same time. We have to use either onlar or -ler 2f to refer to the 3rd person plural. Compare the following examples:

Türkçe öğreniyor. Türkçe öğreniyorlar.

buffer

possessive

case

S/he is learning Turkish. They are learning Turkish. tense negation

person

others

Personal pronouns and suffixes

49

Note that we never add -ler 2f to the verb if the subject is: ● a numeral/quantifier + noun: İki/Birkaç çocuk sokakta oynuyor.



Two/Several children are playing in the street.

● a collective noun such as aile ‘family’, orkestra ‘orchestra’ and takım ‘team’: Ailem Ankara’da oturuyor. My family lives in Ankara. Orkestra çok güzel çalıyor, değil mi? The orchestra is playing very beautifully, isn’t it?



B If the subject is non-human, we do not add -ler 2f to the verb: Bu çiçekler çok güzel kokuyor. These flowers smell so sweetly. Kediler kanepenin altında uyuyor. The cats are sleeping under the sofa. Ayaklarım ağrıyor. My feet are aching.







Note that if we omit the personal pronoun onlar, we have to add -ler 2f to the verb – whether the subject is human or non-human:

‘Bu çiçekler çok güzel kokuyor, değil mi?’

‘Evet, çok güzel kokuyorlar.’

These flowers smell so sweetly, don’t they? Yes, they smell so sweetly. All in all, you may omit -ler 2f whether it refers to a human or non-human subject, provided you use the personal pronoun onlar.



5 Compound subjects joined by ve or -(y)le Both ve and the suffix -(y)le 2f mean and, and they can usually be used instead of each other (see pages ). With such compound subjects, verbs take the 1st, 2nd or 3rd person plural personal suffix. A If the subject is sen/siz/o/onlar + ve/(y)le + ben/biz, the verb takes the 1st person plural suffix -iz 4f or -k, depending on the tense: Sen ve ben farklıyız. Onlarla biz iyi komşuyuz. Eda’yla ben dün sinemaya gittik.





You and I are different. They and we are good neighbours. Eda and I went to the cinema yesterday.

B If the subject is o/onlar + ve/(y)le + sen/siz, the verb takes the 2nd person plural suffix -siniz -niz 4f, depending on the tense: O ve sen çok farklısınız. S/he and you are very different. Onlarla siz komşu musunuz? Are they and you neighbours? Eda’yla sen dün sinemaya gittiniz mi? Did Eda and you go to the cinema





4f

or

yesterday?

C If the subject is noun + ve/(y)le + o/onlar or noun + ve/(y)le + noun, the rules we have studied in the previous part apply to the 3rd person plural suffix -ler 2f: Sibel’le o iyi arkadaş(lar). Ellerim ve ayaklarım çok üşüyor.





50

eas•y Turkish Grammar

buffer

possessive

Sibel and s/he are good friends. My hands and feet are too cold. case

tense negation

person

others

vowel harmony

2-fold aıou eiöü e a

Exercises

4-fold ei öü aı ou i ü ı u

consonant harmony

in suffixes word final f s t k ç ş h p +suffix-initial c d g =suffix-initial ç t k

in words word final k t ç p +suffix-initial e 2f i 4f =word-final ğ d c b

1 Complete the translations with the equivalents of the words in bold. (You can use the table on page ) Ben seni 1 I love you so much. çok seviyorum. 2 He makes me sick. hasta ediyor. 3 It is your idea. fikrin. 4 Has she got a boyfriend? erkek arkadaşı var mı? 5 We don’t know them. tanımıyoruz. 6 I want to help you. yardım etmek istiyorum. 7 We got an e-mail from her. bir e-posta aldık. 8 Do you have the house key? evin anahtarı var mı? 9 He is staring at us. bakıyor. 10 Do you know his name? adını biliyor musunuz? 11 They didn’t get permission from us. izin almadılar. 12 I don’t understand you. Check in the key. anlamıyorum.



2 It is wrong to use the personal suffix -lar with some of the following subjects. Which ones? My feet are aching badly. Bizim takım çok iyi oynuyorlar. Our team is playing very well. Melis’le Ozan evleniyorlar. Melis and Ozan are getting married. Çocuklar çizgi film seyrediyorlar. The kids are watching a cartoon. İki kişi buraya geliyorlar. Two people are coming here. Kadınlar daha uzun yaşıyorlar. Women live longer. Ağaçlar yapraklarını döküyorlar. The trees are shedding their leaves. Birkaç polis hırsızları arıyorlar. Several police officers are looking for the thieves. Arkadaşlarım akşam bana geliyorlar. My friends are coming to my place in the evening. Otobüsler bugün çalışmıyorlar. The buses aren’t running today.

1 Ayaklarım çok ağrıyorlar. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10



3 Fill in the gaps as in the examples. You can use the table for the personal suffixes. 1 Kız kardeşim ve ben

= Biz

2 Ayşe’yle sen

= Siz gidiyor sunuz .

gidiyor uz . (We

are going etc.)

Set A per.

=



4 Ahmet’le o

1 -(y)im gidiyor 2 -sin 3 Ø = gidiyor

5 Onlarla siz

=



6 O ve ben

=



=



8 Melisa ve siz

=



9 Ablam ve eniştem

=



=



3 Biz, siz ve onlar

7 Onlarla Mehmet



10 Onlarla biz

buffer

possessive

case

gidiyor

1 -(y)iz 2 -siniz 3 -ler

gidiyor gidiyor gidiyor gidiyor gidiyor

tense negation

person

others

Personal pronouns and suffixes

51

11

Ek-fiil tenses

As we explained briefly in How Turkish works at the very beginning of the book, ek-fiil functions like the verb be in English. It exists in the form of suffixes, which we add to predicative words such as nouns and adjectives. Ek-fiil

has the simple present, -di and -miş past forms.

A In the simple present, ek-fiil exists in the form of Set A personal suffixes. The personal suffixes refer to the time as well as the persons; there is no separate tense suffix: Ben mutluyum. I am happy. Biz arkadaşız. We are friends. Onlar evde(ler). They are at home. B In the -di and -miş past, ek-fiil exists in the form of the tense suffix -(y)d/ti by Set B and Set A personal suffixes respectively:

4f

and -(y)miş 4f, followed

Ben mutluydum. I was happy. Biz eskiden arkadaştık. We were friends in the past. Onlar hafta sonu evdeymiş(ler). They were at home at the weekend. Sen dün hastaymışsın. You were sick yesterday. We will study the difference between the two past tenses in units 13 and

Negatives of ek-fiil For the negatives, we use the word değil (pronounced as deyil, or di:l), which corresponds to English not. We add ek-fiil and personal suffixes to değil:

simple present -di past -miş past



Ben mutlu değilim. I am not happy. Biz eskiden arkadaş değildik. We were not friends in the past. Onlar hafta sonu evde değilmiş(ler). They were not at home at the weekend.

Interrogatives For the interrogatives, we use the interrogative particle mi. It is always preceded by space, and like suffixes it undergoes vowel harmony (4-fold). We add ek-fiil and personal suffixes to mi 4f:

simple present -di past -miş past

Sen mutlu musun? Are you happy? Siz eskiden arkadaş mıydınız? Were you friends in the past? Onlar hafta sonu evde miymiş(ler)? Were they at home at the weekend?

Notice that the buffer letter y goes between the interrogative particle and the past tense suffixes.

52

eas•y Turkish Grammar

buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

Negative interrogatives In the negative interrogatives, değil goes between the predicative word and the interrogative particle, which harmonizes as mi, in the ordinary interrogative:

Sen mutlu değil misin? Are you not happy? Siz eskiden arkadaş değil miydiniz? Were you not friends in the past? Onlar dün evde değil miymiş(ler)? Were they not at home yesterday?

simple present -di past -miş past

See page for the inflection of ek-fiil in all forms and persons. pages for the adverbs of time.

Short answers

Look at the affirmative (yes ‘evet’) and negative (no ‘hayır’) answers to the interrogatives we have studied on the previous page:

simple present

Sen mutlu musun?

-di



Evet, mutluyum.

Yes, I am. (lit Yes, I am happy.)

past

Siz eskiden arkadaş mıydınız?



Evet, arkadaştık.

Yes, we were. (lit Yes, we were friends.)





-miş

Hayır, değilim.

No, I am not.

past

Hayır, değildik.

No, we weren’t.

Onlar dün evde miymiş(ler)?



Evet, evdeymişler.

Yes, they were. (lit Yes, they were at home.)

Hayır, değilmişler.

No, they weren’t.

Notice that we repeat the predicative words in the affirmative answers.

Question tag With both positive and negative statements, we use değil mi? as question tag. It does not change according to tense and person: Sen mutlusun, değil mi? You are happy, aren’t you? The kids are in their rooms, aren’t they? Çocuklar odalarında, değil mi? Siz eskiden iyi arkadaştınız, değil mi? You were good friends in the past, weren’t Ece was at work yesterday, wasn’t she? Ece dün işteymiş, değil mi?







Meşgul değilsiniz, değil mi? Sen bana kızgın değilsin, değil mi? Sınav zor değildi, değil mi? Kapı kilitli değilmiş, değil mi?

buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

you?

You aren’t busy, are you? You aren’t angry with me, are you? The exam wasn’t hard, was it? The door wasn’t locked, was it? person

others

Ek-fiil tenses

53

12 1

Ek-fiil simple present tense

Form

We add Set A personal suffixes to the predicative word. The personal suffixes refer to the time as well as the persons. Set A personal suffixes harmonize with the predicative word as: Last vowel of the predicative word +

e-i

ö-ü a-ı o-u

Singular persons 1 (y)im (y)üm (y)ım (y)um 2 sin sün sın sun 3 Ø (no suffix)



Plural persons

2

1 (y)iz (y)üz 2 siniz sünüz 3 ler ler

(y)ız

(y)uz

sınız

sunuz

lar

lar

Use

We use ek-fiil simple present tense in the same way as English be simple present tense. i Study the following affirmatives and negatives: I am a university student. You are very understanding. Annem diş hekimi. My mum is a dentist. Melek’le ben aynı sınıftayız. Melek and I are in the same class. Çocuklar okulda(lar). The kids are at school. Küpelerin çok güzel. Your earrings are so beautiful. Ben aç değilim, anne. I am not hungry, Mum. Hiç komik değilsin. You aren’t funny at all. Biz Alman değiliz, Avusturyalıyız. We aren’t German, we are Austrian. Onlar evde değil(ler). They aren’t at home. Bu bardaklar temiz değil. These glasses aren’t clean. Ben üniversite öğrencisiyim.







Sen çok anlayışlısın.

Unlike in English, we do not make the nouns plural in the following examples: (NOT öğrencileriz) We are students. ( gazeteciler misiniz) Are you journalists? Onlar yakın arkadaşlar. ( arkadaşlarlar) They are close friends. Biz öğrenciyiz.





Siz gazeteci misiniz?

The same is true for ek-fiil past tenses.

54

eas•y Turkish Grammar

buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

ii Study the following interrogatives:







Beyefendi, siz doktor musunuz? Melis odasında mı? Hazır mıyız, millet? Siz ikiniz kuzen misiniz? Çocuklar okulda mı(lar)? Bardaklar bulaşık makinesinde mi? Balinalar memeli mi?

Sir, are you a doctor? Is Melis in her room? Are we ready, guys? Are you two cousins? Are the kids at school? Are the glasses in the dishwasher? Are whales mammals?

Yemek hazır değil mi? Sen aç değil misin? Ben çok açım. Siz partiye davetli değil misiniz? Onlar evli değil mi(ler)?

Isn’t the meal ready? Aren’t you hungry? I am very hungry. Aren’t you invited to the party? Aren’t they married?

Hava çok sıcak, değil mi? Siz gazetecisiniz, değil mi?

The weather is too hot, isn’t it? You are journalists, aren’t you?

Meşgul değilsin, değil mi? Ben kilolu değilim, değil mi?

You aren’t busy, are you? I’m not overweight, am I?

Notice the difference between these examples in the 3rd person singular: Kapı kilitli değil mi? Kapı kilitli, değil mi?

Isn’t the door locked? The door is locked, isn’t it?

Study also these examples. Notice the use of formal and informal 2nd person singular:

A: Adın ne? What’s your name? B: Demir. Senin adın ne? Demir. What’s your name?



A: Nasılsın? How are you? B: İyiyim. Sen nasılsın? I’m fine. How



A: Ne iş yapıyorsunuz? What do you do for a living? B: Öğretmenim. Siz ne iş yapıyorsunuz? I’m a teacher. What do you do



A: Nerelisiniz? Where are you from? B: Alman’ım. Siz nerelisiniz? I’m German. Where are



A: Kaç yaşındasın? How old are you? B: 15 yaşındayım. Sen? I’m 15 years old. How

are you? for a living?

you from?

about you?



See page for numbers. page for countries and nationalities. buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

Ek-fiil simple present tense

55

ek-fiil simple present + dir We generally use the suffix -d/tir 4f in affirmatives and negatives in the 3rd person singular/plural. It expresses: 1 an opinion, idea, state etc in a clear and strong way:

O çok dürüsttür. Anne ve babam kuralcı(lar)dır. Sigara sağlık/ğa zararlıdır. Hiçbir şey imkânsız değildir. İki kere iki dörttür. Ben dikkatli bir şoförümdür.









S/he is very honest. My mum and dad are strict. Smoking is harmful for health. Nothing is impossible. Two times two is four. I am a careful driver.

Anlaşılmak bir lükstür.

It is a luxury to be understood. (R. Waldo Emerson) Cennet annelerin ayakları altındadır. Heaven lies under the feet of mothers. (Hz Muhammed sav)

Look also at these examples with var/yok:

Her dilin kendi gramer kuralları vardır. Yerin kulak/ğı vardır.

Every language has its own rules of grammar. Walls have ears. (lit The ground has ears.)



Ahmaklık/ğın sınırı yoktur. Terörün dini yoktur.

There is no limit to stupidity. Terrorism has no religion.

2 a guess, expectation, speculation etc. We usually begin the sentence with belki (de) ‘maybe, perhaps’; inşallah ‘God willing, I hope’ and the like: Belki de sen haklısındır. Maybe you are right. İnşallah mutlulardır. I hope they are happy. Aysun bugün evdedir. Aysun should be at home today. Belki müsait değildir, meşguldür. Maybe s/he is not available, maybe s/he is busy. A: Onun erkek arkadaşı vardır. B: Belki yoktur. Şansımı deneyeceğim.

56

eas•y Turkish Grammar

buffer

I suppose she has got a boyfriend. Maybe she hasn’t. I’ll take my chance.

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

vowel harmony

Exercises

2-fold aıou eiöü e a

4-fold ei öü aı ou i ü ı u

consonant harmony

in suffixes word final f s t k ç ş h p +suffix-initial c d g =suffix-initial ç t k

in words word final k t ç p +suffix-initial e 2f i 4f =word-final ğ d c b Set A per.

1 Fill in the gaps with ek-fiil simple present.



1 2 3 4 5



Benim adım Kim. Ben Japon’um 6 Gözlerin çok güzel Ø . Hava bugün çok soğuk 7 Karım ve ben öğretmen Sen hasta mı? 8 Eski gazeteler balkonda Ben çok yorgun 9 Biz kardeş değil, kuzen Abdullah Bey odasında değil 10 Eda ile sen aynı sınıfta değil mi?

2 Complete the questions. Then answer them both in the affirmative and negative.

1 -(y)im 2 -sin 3 Ø 1 -(y)iz 2 -siniz 3 -ler

Check in the key.



misiniz ? 1 A: Siz İngiliz 3 B: Evet, (biz) İngiliz’iz. Hayır, değiliz . Amerikalıyız. 2 A: Annen evde değil ? 4 B: Evet, Mutfakta. Hayır, Dışarıda.

A: Sen öğrenci ? B: Evet, Tıp fakültesinde. Hayır, A: Ben takımda değil ? B: Evet, ama yedeksin. Hayır, maalesef

3 Match the exchanges. 1 2 3 4 5 6

Nasılsın? Kaç yaşındasın? Adın/İsmin ne? Nerelisin? Ne iş yapıyorsun? Tanıştığımıza memnun oldum.

d a Fransız’ım. Sen nerelisin?



b c ç d e

Pierre. Senin adın/ismin ne? Doktorum, ya sen? Ben de (memnun oldum). İyiyim, teşekkür ederim. Sen nasılsın? 27 (yaşındayım).

4 Translate into Turkish. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

I’m an English teacher. We are just (= sadece) friends. Su, your keys are in the drawer. My parents (= Anne ve babam) are out. Our daughter is five years old. Is he Melisa’s boyfriend? You are ready (= hazır), aren’t you? Time is money (= nakit). I hope (= Umarım) she is fine.



5 Write about yourself. Your name, age, job and family.

buffer

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

Ek-fiil simple present tense

57

13 1

Ek-fiil -di past tense

Form

We first add the tense suffix -(y)d/ti 4f and then Set B personal suffixes to the predicative word. The predicative word, tense and Set B personal suffixes harmonize with each other as: Last vowel of the predicative word +

Tense suffix





e-i



ö-ü

(y)d/ti (y)d/tü



a-ı

o-u

(y)d/tı



(y)d/tu

+ Singular persons

1 m m m m 2 n n n n 3 Ø (no suffix)

Plural persons

1 k k k k 2 niz nüz nız nuz 3 ler ler lar lar

2 Use

We use the -di past: 1 to talk about something that we saw or experienced at first hand. Therefore, in Turkish we also call this tense görülen geçmiş zaman, literally translating as the seen past tense: Müsait değildim, duştaydım. Bence matematik sınavı kolaydı.





Biz hafta sonu evde değildik.



I wasn’t available, I was in the shower. I think the maths exam was easy. We weren’t at home at the weekend.

Study also these examples with var/yok: Dün sınıfta 17 öğrenci vardı. Bugün hiç boş vaktim yoktu.



There were 17 students in the class yesterday. I didn’t have any free time today.

In questions, the tense suffix -(y)d/ti conveys the same meaning. That is, the speaker knows or assumes that his/her listener is the very original source of the information: A: Kapı kilitli değil miydi? Wasn’t the door locked? B: Evet, kilitliydi. Ben kendim kilitledim. Yes, it was. I locked it myself. 2 to talk about something that we know for sure through our education, the news media etc, even though it is not something we saw or experienced ourselves:

Atatürk Türkiye’nin ilk cumhurbaşkanıydı. Mozart Alman değildi, Avusturyalıydı. Dünya Kupası Brezilya’daydı.



58

eas•y Turkish Grammar

buffer

possessive

Atatürk was the first president of Turkey. Mozart wasn’t German, he was Austrian. The World Cup was (held) in Brazil. case

tense negation

person

others

vowel harmony

Exercises

2-fold aıou eiöü e a

4-fold ei öü aı ou i ü ı u

consonant harmony

in suffixes word final f s t k ç ş h p +suffix-initial c d g =suffix-initial ç t k

in words word final k t ç p +suffix-initial e 2f i 4f =word-final ğ d c b Set B per. 1 -m 2 -n 3 Ø

1 Fill in the gaps with ek-fiil -di past tense. 1 Hakan Şükür çok iyi bir futbolcu 4 Hava sabah çok soğuk 2 Pencereler kapalı, açık değil 5 Kadir, sen dün derste ? 3 Siz öğleden sonra evde değil ? 6 Benim sabah biraz işim var

2 Complete the questions. Then answer them both in the affirmative and negative. 1 A: Sen dün hasta mıydın ? B: Evet, hastaydım. değildim. Niye? Hayır, 2 A: Kadir, sen dün derste değil ? B: Evet, Arkadaydım. Hayır, , öğretmenim. Hastaydım.





1 -k 2 -niz 3 -ler

Check in the key.

3 A: Yazılı soruları zor ? B: Evet, bence. Hayır,



4 A: Sence ben haksız ? B: Evet, Hayır, O haksızdı.



3 Fill in the gaps with ek-fiil simple present or -di past tense. 1 2 3 4

Şimdi iyi yim ama dün çok ateşim var dı. Ben 17 yaşındayım. Sen kaç yaşında? Aristo, Eflatun’un öğrencisi Ben geçen yaz 57 kilo Şimdi 61 kilo

5 6 7 8

Biz evli değiliz, nişanlı Türkiye’nin başkenti Ankara Dün hiç boş vaktim yok Çok meşgul Sen ’de lisede ?

4 Translate into Turkish. 1 2 3 4 5

All (= Bütün) windows were open. I was a student at university in Were you in İzmir last summer? The film was too (= çok) boring, wasn’t it? Michael Jackson was the king of pop music.



5 Answer the questions. 1 Dün bu saatlerde neredeydiniz? (Where

were you at this time yesterday?)



2 Ve kiminleydiniz?



(And who were you with?)



3 İlk öğretmeninizin adı neydi?

(What was your first teacher’s name?)



4 John Lennon kimdi?

(Who was John Lennon?)



5 Yuri Gagarin nereliydi?

(Where was Yuri Gagarin from?)



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14

Ek-fiil -miş past tense

1 Form We first add the tense suffix -(y)miş 4f and then Set A personal suffixes to the predicative word. The predicative word, tense and Set A personal suffixes harmonize with each other as: Last vowel of the predicative word +

Tense suffix





e-i



ö-ü

(y)miş (y)müş



a-ı

o-u

(y)mış



(y)muş

+ Singular persons

1 im üm ım 2 sin sün sın 3 Ø (no suffix)

Plural persons

1 iz üz ız uz 2 siniz sünüz sunuz sunuz 3 ler ler lar lar

um sun

2 Use We use the -miş past: 1 to talk about something that we did not see or experience ourselves but we heard through other people. Therefore, in Turkish we also call this tense duyulan geçmiş zaman, literally translating as the heard past tense. Look at the following example conversation: Hakan: Dün okulda değildin. Sinem: Hastaydım. Hakan: Ya, bilmiyordum.

You weren’t at school yesterday. I was sick. Oh, I didn’t know that.

some time later Hakan talks to Damla, a common friend of Sinem’s and his:

Sinem dün hastaymış. Sinem was sick yesterday. As can be understood from the conversation, Hakan knows at first hand that Sinem wasn’t at school yesterday (so he uses the -di past when talking to Sinem herself), but he does not know that she was sick (so he uses the -miş past when talking to Damla about Sinem). This difference in use draws the line between the -di and -miş past. The corresponding English meaning of the -miş past is usually conveyed by the introductory sentences such as I hear, I gather, they/people say and rumour has it that, or by the adverbs such as reportedly and allegedly, or by the preposition according to. Or it can be conveyed through the context.

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Study also the following example conversations:



A: Su’yla sen eskiden nişanlıymışsınız. B: Sana kim söyledi? A: Doğru mu, değil mi?

(They say) Su and you were engaged in the past. Who told you that? Is it true or not?



A: Hırsız 30 yaşlarında bir adammış. B: Hayır. Daha gençti. A: Sen de mi gördün?

(They say) The burglar was a man in his 30s. No. He was younger. You saw him too?



A: Ali öğleden sonra ofiste değilmiş. B: Sen neredeydin? Ofiste değil miydin? A: Ben de dışarıdaydım.

(Thay say) Ali wasn’t in the office in the afternoon. Where were you? Weren’t you in the office? I was out too.



A: Sen geçen yaz Bodrum’daymışsın. (I hear) You were in Bodrum last summer. B: Sen de mi Bodrum’daydın? Were you in Bodrum too? A: Evet. Yalıkavak’taydım. Yes. I was in Yalıkavak [in Bodrum]. A: Babam hiç okula gitmemiş. (I am told) My father never went to school. B: Niye? Why? A: O zaman köylerinde okul yokmuş. There wasn’t a school in their village then.

In questions, the tense suffix -(y)miş conveys the same meaning. That is, the speaker knows or assumes that his/her listener is not the very first source of the information. Look at the following example:



A: Kapı kilitli değil miymiş? Wasn’t the door locked?

B: Evet, kilitliymiş. Hırsız kilit/di kırmış. Yes, it was. The burglar smashed the lock. 2 to express what we notice, infer or find out ourselves, usually at the moment of speaking. It conveys the sense of I found out, it seems, apparently etc:

A: Az önce buradaymış. B: Nereden biliyorsun? A: Kahve fincanı hâlâ sıcak.

S/he was here a second ago. How do you know that? The coffee cup is still hot.

A: Kolyeni bulmuşsun. B: Evet. Çekmecedeymiş.

You found your necklace. Yes. It turned up in the drawer.

A: Sana inandım. Ne kadar aptalmışım. B: Ama doğru söylüyorum.

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person

I believed you. How stupid I was. But I’m telling the truth.

others

Ek-fiil -miş past tense

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Also, we use the -miş past to talk about present time. The meaning remains the same. i Study the following examples for the 1st meaning of -(y)miş we studied on the previous page: A: Sen evliymişsin. I hear you are married. B: Yalan, aşkım. It’s a lie, my love. A: Kapa çeneni, pis yalancı! Shut up, you dirty liar! A: Ahmet Altan’ın son romanı güzelmiş. B: Evet, güzel. Ben okudum.

They say Ahmet Altan’s last novel is good. Yes, it is. I’ve read it.

A: Söylentiye göre o eski bir suçluymuş. B: Her duyduğuna inanma.

Rumour has it that s/he is an ex-criminal. Don’t believe everything you hear.





A: Berk Bey şu anda toplantıdaymış. B: Sekreteriyle mi konuştun.

Mr Berk is in a meeting at the moment. Did you talk to his secretary?



A: Onların maddî sorunları varmış. B: Biliyorum. Bankaya çok borçları var.

They have got financial problems. I know. They owe a lot of money to the bank.

Note that there may be confusion between past and present meanings if the time for the present or past is not mentioned. For example:

‘Su’yla sen nişanlıymışsınız.’

may mean:

(They say) Su and you are engaged. or (They say) Su and you were engaged. If the speaker is talking about the past, s/he must provide a reference for the past (see again the first example on the previous page). ii Study the following examples for the 2nd meaning of -(y)miş we studied on the previous page: 1

Çorba çok sıcakmış.

2

A! Sen de buradaymışsın. Yeni mi geldin? Ah! You are here too. You have just arrived?



3 4

The soup is too hot.

Yeni müdür tam bir kazmaymış.

The new boss turned out to be a total jerk. Buzdolabında bir kutu süt varmış.

There is a carton of milk in the fridge.

5 -miş’li geçmiş zaman zor değilmiş, kolaymış, değil mi? -miş past tense isn’t difficult (to learn), it’s easy, isn’t it?

In these examples we can replace the -miş past with the simple present without much, if any, difference in meaning: 1 sıcak 2 buradasın 3 kazma 4 var 5 değil, kolay

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Exercises

2-fold aıou eiöü e a

4-fold ei öü aı ou i ü ı u

consonant harmony

in suffixes word final f s t k ç ş h p +suffix-initial c d g =suffix-initial ç t k

in words word final k t ç p +suffix-initial e 2f i 4f =word-final ğ d c b

1 Fill in the gaps with ek-fiil -miş past.

Set A per.



1 O restoran çok pahalı 2 Sen haklıymışsın. Bu çanta çakma 3 Ben küçükken çok yaramaz

4 Biraz ileride eczane var 5 Siz lisede aynı sınıfta 6 Elbisen çok şık Yeni mi?

Check in the key.

2 Report the sentences using ek-fiil -miş past.

1 Ömer to Can: Ben hafta sonu evdeydim. Can to Ayhan: Ömer hafta sonu evdeymiş.

1 -(y)im 2 -sin 3 Ø 1 -(y)iz 2 -siniz 3 -ler Set B per.

2 Nazan to Ece: Berk’le ben yılbaşında Paris’teydik. Ece to Su and Melis:

1 -m 2 -n 3 Ø

3 Her mum to Miray: Anahtar paspasın altında. Miray to her sister:

1 -k 2 -niz 3 -ler

4 Furkan to Ali: Karım hamile. Ali to a common friend of theirs: 5 Melek to Ecrin: Benim annem Alman. Ecrin to her own mum: 3 Translate the parts in italics. 1 They say he is married and has two children.

ve iki çocuğu varmış.

2 I understand that it wasn’t your fault. I’m sorry.

Özür dilerim.

3 Serkan is in the shower. His sister answered his phone.

Telefonunu kız kardeşi açtı.

4 When I was born, my dad was in France. Ben doğduğumda,

.



5 ‘You owe Hasan liras.’



‘Did Hasan tell you that?’

‘Sana Hasan mı söyledi?’

4 Fill in the gaps with ek-fiil -di or -miş past. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

ymuş.’ ‘Sen hafta sonu İstanbul’da değil miydin ‘Hava hafta sonu yağmurlu ?’ ‘Emin misin?’ ‘Aynştayn (Einstein) aslen Alman’ ‘Bak, bu fotoğrafta 2 yaşında’ ‘A, (sen) çok tombul!’ Siz öğleden sonra nerede? Sibel ile ben üniversitede çok yakın arkadaş ‘Evet, beyaz altın.’ ‘Kolyen çok güzel Altın mı?’ Benim eski arabam da sedan ‘Bence dedikodudur. İnanma!’ ‘Onlar sevgili’ Telefonun öğleden sonra kapalıydı. Toplantıda ? Söylentiye göre onun eskiden çok parası var

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15 1

Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns

Demonstrative adjectives

Turkish demonstrative adjectives ‘işaret sıfatları’ bu, şu and o have no plural forms (i.e. they stand the same before both singular and plural nouns), unlike English demonstrative adjectives: bu kutu/kutular this box/these boxes şu kutu/kutular that box/those boxes o kutu/kutular that box/those boxes We use şu to refer to a person/thing that is not near us, and we use o to refer to a person/thing that is much more distant. Therefore, şu may also translate as this when compared to o: Sir, is this car yours? These glasses aren’t clean. Şu çocuklara bak. Çok şirinler, değil mi? Look at those kids. They are so cute, aren’t they? Şu kırmızı çanta ne kadar? How much is that red handbag/purse? O kutuda ne var? What is (there) in that box? O koltuk dolu, ama şu (koltuk) boş. That seat is occupied, but this (seat) is free.

Beyefendi, bu araba sizin mi? Bu bardaklar temiz değil.







You should not confuse the demonstrative o with the 3rd person singular personal pronoun o:

O araba benim.



O doktor.

That car is mine. S/he is a doctor.

Study also these examples of bu and o:



This song is so beautiful. Where were you this morning? O kadın eski karın mıydı? Was that woman your ex-wife? Ben o gece evde değildim, dışarıdaydım. I wasn’t at home that night, I was out.

2

Demonstrative pronouns



Bu Batuhan. Okuldan arkadaşım.



O kutular ağır. Sen bunları taşı.



Tabaklar o dolapta değil, şunda.



Bu elbise güzel, ama şu daha güzel.



Bu kitaplar benim. Onlar Alp’in.



Bu şarkı çok güzel.

Sen bu sabah neredeydin?



Demonstrative pronouns ‘işaret zamirleri’ have the same forms as the demonstrative adjectives bu, şu and o. They may inflect for number and case (see page ):

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This is Batuhan. He is my friend from school. Those boxes are heavy. You carry these. The dishes aren’t in that cupboard, they are in this one. This dress is beautiful, but that is more beautiful. These books are mine. Those are Alp’s.

possessive

case

tense negation

person

others

vowel harmony

2-fold aıou eiöü e a

Exercises

4-fold ei öü aı ou i ü ı u

consonant harmony

in suffixes word final f s t k ç ş h p +suffix-initial c d g =suffix-initial ç t k

in words word final k t ç p +suffix-initial e 2f i 4f =word-final ğ d c b

1 Mark the words in bold as adjective ‘sıfat’ or pronoun ‘zamir’. 1 2 3 4 5



sıfat zamir sıfat O benim sözlüğüm. 6 O kadın kimdi? Bu ayakkabılar çok pahalı. 7 O ne? Şu çanta Yeliz’in, değil mi? 8 Şu senin araban mı? Bu bizim trenimiz. 9 Bu akşam toplantım var. Şu kutularda ne var? 10 Bu benim nişanlım Can.

□ □ □ □ □

□ □ □ □ □

□ □ □ □ □

zamir

□ □ □ □ □

Check in the key.

2 Underline the correct word. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Bu/Şu çiçekler çok güzel. Teşekkür ederim, aşkım. Bu/Şu kırmızı araba Furkan’ın mı? ‘O/Bu elindeki ne?’ ‘Bu benim astım spreyim.’ Benim çantam burada. Bu/O benim değil. Dinle, bu/o şarkı çok güzel. O kahve şekerli. Şu/O senin, koyu ve şekersiz. Bu/O restoran çok pahalıydı. Servisi de kötüydü.

3 Complete the translations with the equivalents of the words in bold. (You can use the table on page ) 1 Could you bring that box to me?

Şu/O kutuyu bana getirir misin?



2 I don’t believe these. They are all urban myths. Ben



inanmıyorum. Hepsi şehir efsanesi.

3 There are old photos in this box. What is (there) in that? Bu kutuda eski fotoğraflar var.



ne var?

4 I wasn’t in Turkey that summer. I was abroad. Ben



yaz Türkiye’de değildim. Yurtdışındaydım.

5 These are my classmates Serkan and Murat.

sınıf arkadaşlarım Serkan ve Murat.

6 Excuse me, are those seats free? Affedersiniz,



koltuklar boş mu?

7 Listen, you will laugh at this joke so much. Dinle,



fıkraya çok güleceksin.

8 Do you remember those French girls that we met last summer? Geçen yaz tanıştığımız

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case

Fransız kızları hatırlıyor musun?

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Comparative adjectives

Look at the comparative of the following adjectives:

adjective



genç güzel

young beautiful

comparative

younger more beautiful

daha genç

daha güzel

We simply form the comparative of all adjectives (short or long) putting the adverb daha before adjectives. The word order is usually: first element (subject)/second element + d/ten 2f/comparative adjective

Miray Sezen’den daha güzel.

Miray is more beautiful than Sezen.



Notice that the second element comes before the comparative adjective, which is the opposite in English, and the ablative case suffix -d/ten 2f functions like English preposition than:

Study also these examples: Nil Nehri Amazon Nehri’den daha uzun. The Nile River is longer than the Amazon River. Annem babamdan daha kuralcı. My mother is stricter than my father. O, karısından 10 yaş daha gençmiş. They say he is 10 years younger than his wife. Rakip takım bizden daha güçlü değildi. The rival team wasn’t stronger than us.



Comparison with kadar We use kadar to say that people and things are the same in some way. It corresponds to English expression as as with an adjective in between. The word order is usually: first element (subject)/second element/kadar + adjective Deniz Melisa kadar çalışkan.

Deniz is as hard-working as Melisa.



Study also these examples:



Sosyal medya geleneksel medya kadar etkili. Fransızcam İngilizcem kadar iyi. Babam annem kadar kuralcı değil.

Social media is as effective as traditional media. My French is as well as my English. My father isn’t as strict as my mother.

Kardeşim Metin benim kadar uzun. Biz onlar kadar zengin değiliz.

My younger brother Metin is as tall as me. We aren’t as rich as them.

Note that when the second element is a personal pronoun, it appears in the genitive case except the 3rd person plural (benim, senin, onun, bizim, sizin, onlar). These personal pronouns correspond to English object pronouns me, you, him, her etc:

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Exercises

2-fold aıou eiöü e a

4-fold ei öü aı ou i ü ı u

consonant harmony

in suffixes word final f s t k ç ş h p +suffix-initial c d g =suffix-initial ç t k

in words word final k t ç p +suffix-initial e 2f i 4f =word-final ğ d c b

1 Write the opposites. kısa tall; long uzun x big büyük x clean temiz x young genç x fast hızlı x rich zengin x good iyi x happy mutlu x hot sıcak x strong güçlü x

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

expensive easy safe beautiful interesting generous hard-working talkative near high

pahalı

x



kolay x



güvenli x



güzel x



ilginç x



cömert x



çalışkan

x



konuşkan x



yakın x



yüksek x



Check in the key.

2 Put the beginnings, middles and ends together. 1 2 3 4 5 6



Bugün hava İstanbul Facebook Ben Bence basketbol Zeytinyağı

1

a b c ç d e

erkek arkadaşımdan tereyağından futboldan Twitter’dan dünden İzmir’den

1







f g ğ h ı i

daha eğlenceli bir spor. daha sıcak. daha pahalı bir şehir. daha popüler bir paylaşım sitesi. daha sağlıklı. daha uzunum.

3 Rewrite the sentences with kadar or daha. 1 Ayşenur Demet’ten daha sosyal.

Demet Ayşenur kadar sosyal değil.

2 Ben senin kadar sabırlı değilim.



3 Hasan, ikizi Hüseyin’den daha konuşkan.



4 İngilizcem Fransızcamdan daha iyi.



5 Zenginler fakirler kadar cömert değiller.







4 Translate into Turkish. 1 Your English is better than mine (= benimkinden).

2 In marriage (= Evlilikte) respect is as important as love (= sevgi).



3 Big cities aren’t as safe as small cities.



4 I think (= Bence) this dress is more beautiful.



5 In Turkey football is more popular (= popüler) than basketball.



6 He is as mean as Molière’s Harpagon, even (= hatta) meaner. buffer

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Superlative adjectives

Look at the superlative of the adjectives we studied in unit

comparative

genç güzel

young beautiful



daha genç daha güzel

superlative

younger more beautiful



en genç en güzel

the youngest the most beautiful

We form the superlative of all adjectives (short and long) putting the adverb en before adjectives. The word order is usually: subject/place/group name + (n)in 4f/superlative adjective/noun + (s)i 4f

Kaya bizim takımın en genç oyuncusu.

Kaya is the youngest player in our team.

Notice that in Turkish the place/group name comes before the superlative adjective, which is the opposite in English. Here are more examples: Mount Ağrı (Ararat) is the highest mountain in Turkey. Nil dünyanın en uzun nehri. The Nile is the longest river in the world. Ben evin en küçük çocuk/ğuyum. I am the youngest child in the family. Kahvaltı günün en önemli öğünüdür. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Ağrı Dağı Türkiye’nin en yüksek dağı.







Tuğba okulun en güzel kızıydı.

O günler hayatımın en mutlu günleriydi. O, dünyanın en güvenli arabasıymış.

Tuğba was the most beautiful girl at school. Those days were the happiest days of my life. It is allegedly the safest car in the world.

Study also the following examples:

Mehmet Ali benim en iyi arkadaşım. Bence o ’nin en kötü filmi. En küçük çocukları henüz iki yaşında.



En yakın benzinlik 5 km ileride.



O, bu yıl seyrettiğim en kötü filmdi. Sen gördüğüm en güzel kızsın.



Bu duyduğum en saçma mazeret.

Mehmet Ali is my best friend. In my opinion, that is the worst film of Their youngest child is only two years old. The nearest petrol/gas station is 5 km away. That was the worst film I have seen this year. You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. This is the most ridiculous excuse I have ever heard.

(Hz Muhammed sav) The most auspicious of people is the one who is beneficial to other people.



İnsanların en hayırlısı (= en hayırlı olanı) insanlara faydalı olandır.



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person

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vowel harmony

2-fold aıou eiöü e a

Exercises

4-fold ei öü aı ou i ü ı u

consonant harmony

in suffixes word final f s t k ç ş h p +suffix-initial c d g =suffix-initial ç t k

in words word final k t ç p +suffix-initial e 2f i 4f =word-final ğ d c b

1 Put the beginnings, middles and ends together. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Pele a İngiliz edebiyatının g 21 Haziran b İnternet’in ğ 1 c tüm zamanların h Brezilya ç yılın ı Burç Halife d yeryüzünün i İstanbul e Güney Amerika’nın j Facebook 1 f Türkiye’nin k Shakespeare









en pahalı şehri. en uzun günü. en büyük ülkesi. en popüler web sitesi. en ünlü yazarı. en yüksek binası. en büyük futbolcusu.

Check in the key.

2 Fill in the gaps with -(n)in 4f, en and -(s)i 2f respectively. 1 2 3 4 5 6

Şubat yıl ın en kısa ay ı. Kızılırmak Türkiye uzun ırmak Onun dedesi bizim köy zengin adam İstanbul Avrupa kalabalık şehir Bence Banu okul gözde kız Real Madrid dünya büyük futbol kulüp

3 Translate into Turkish. 1 I think (= Bence) Tarkan is the best pop (= pop) singer in Turkey.

2 Our oldest (= en büyük) daughter is a university student.

3 Vatican City (= Vatikan) is the smallest country in the world.

4 Monday is the most boring day of the week.

5 The nearest chemist’s/drugstore is at the end (= sonunda) of the street.

6 Now (= Şu anda) I’m the happiest person (= insan) in the world.

7 You are the worst liar I have ever seen.



4 Fill in the gaps. Choose a comparative or a superlative. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Çin dünya nın en kalabalık ülke si. daha pahalı bir şehir. İstanbul, Ankara ve İzmir'den Biz rakip takım güçlüyüz. Serra sınıf sessiz öğrenci Jüpiter güneş sistemi büyük gezegen Arabada bir kadın ve bir erkek vardı. Erkek kadın gençti. Türkiye turistik üç şehir İstanbul, Nevşehir ve Muğla’dır.

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Verb tenses

Turkish verbs appear with the ending -mek or -mak in a dictionary: gitmek okumak



to go to read

gelmek yazmak

to come to write

When we conjugate (inflect) a verb for tense and persons, we first remove -mek or -mak and then add the tense and personal suffixes to the remaining part, for which we will hereafter use the term verb stem. Look at the following table: present continuous simple present -di past -miş past future

Git/diyorum. Git/derim. Gittim. Gitmişim. Git/deceğim.

I am going. I go. I went. I went. I will go.

Negatives of tenses The negation suffix -me goes between the verb stem and the tense suffix. The negation suffix follows the rule of 4-fold vowel harmony in the present continuous whereas it follows the rule of 2-fold vowel harmony in all other tenses:

present continuous simple present -di past -miş past future

Gitmiyorum. Gitmem. Gitmedim. Gitmemişim. Gitmeyeceğim.

I am not going. I do not go. I did not go. I did not go. I will not go.

Interrogatives present continuous Git/diyor muyum? Am I going? Gitmiyor muyum? Am I not going? simple present

Git/der miyim? Gitmez miyim?

Do I go? Do I not go?

-di past

Gittim mi? Gitmedim mi?

Did I go? Did I not go?

-miş past future

Gitmiş miyim? Gitmemiş miyim?



Did I go? Did I not go?

Git/decek miyim? Gitmeyecek miyim?



Will I go? Will I not go?

Notice that in the -di past tense the personal suffix comes before the interrogative particle, which is exactly the opposite in all other tenses.

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See page for the inflection of gitmek in all forms and persons. pages for the adverbs of time. pages for verb forming suffixes.

Short answers Look at the affirmative (yes ‘evet’) and negative (no ‘hayır’) answers to the following interrogatives, in the 2nd person singular: present continuous

Gidiyor musun?

Evet, gidiyorum. Hayır, gitmiyorum. Yes, I am. (lit Yes, I am going.) No, I am not. (lit No, I am not going.) simple present

Gider misin?

Evet, giderim. Hayır, gitmem. Yes, I do. (lit Yes, I go.) No, I don’t. (lit No, I don’t go.)



-di



past

Gittin mi?

Evet, gittim. Hayır, gitmedim. Yes, I did. (lit Yes, I went.) No, I didn’t. (lit No, I didn’t go.) -miş

past

Gitmiş misin?



Evet, gitmişim. Hayır, gitmemişim.

future

Gidecek misin?

Yes, I did. (lit Yes,

I went.)

No, I didn’t. (lit No, I didn’t go.)

Evet, gideceğim. Hayır, gitmeyeceğim. Yes, I will. (lit Yes, I will go.) No, I won’t. (lit No, I won’t go.) Notice that we repeat the verbs in the answers. There are no words in Turkish that correspond to English auxiliary verbs am, do, did etc.

Question tag

With verb tenses the question tag is also değil mi? It does not change according to tense, form and person (see page 53 for the question tag with ek-fiil): Çocuklar uyumuş, değil mi? Balık seversin, değil mi? Furkan yemek/ğe kalacak, değil mi?



The kids have gone to sleep, haven’t they? You like fish, don’t you? Furkan will stay for the meal, won’t he?

Çocuklar henüz uyumamış, değil mi? The kids haven’t gone to sleep yet, have Sen beni dinlemiyorsun, değil mi? You aren’t listening to me, are you? Seni üzmedim, değil mi? I didn’t upset you, did I?

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19 1

Present continuous tense

Form

To form present continuous tense ‘şimdiki zaman’ follow these steps. 1 To verb stems: i that end in a consonant, add -iyor as the tense suffix. Only the vowel i undergoes vowel harmony (4-fold): git go → yap do, make →

git/diyor gül yapıyor

konuş

laugh → speak, talk →

gülüyor konuşuyor

ii that end in a vowel – other than a and e, add only -yor as the tense suffix: eri melt → eriyor yürü walk → yürüyor taşı carry → taşıyor oku read → okuyor With verb stems that end in a or e, replace a with ı or u, and replace e with i or ü. To do this omit a or e and add -i 4f + yor. The vowel -i 4f harmonizes with what is now the last vowel of the verb stem: başla oyna

begin → başl başlıyor dinle listen play → oyn oynuyor söyle say, tell

→ dinl dinliyor → söyl söylüyor

In the following monosyllabic verb stems, e is replaced by i: eat

ye

→

yiyor

de

say

→

diyor

For convenience we will keep highlighting the vowel changes in verb stems as in the above examples. 2 Add Set A personal suffixes (see the table on page ).

Negative Add respectively: 1 the negation suffix -mi (-mı, -mü, -mu) to all verb stems: yemi





oynamı

yürümü

konuşmu

2 the tense suffix. It is only -yor as the negation suffix ends in a vowel:

yemiyor

oynamıyor

yürümüyor

konuşmuyor



3 Set A personal suffixes.

Interrogatives The personal suffixes are added to the interrogative particle.

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Use

A Like in English, we use the present continuous: 1 to talk about actions which are happening now: Evdeyim, televizyon seyret/diyorum. I am at home watching TV. Bugün çalışmıyorum. I am not working today. Sessiz ol! Çocuklar uyuyor(lar). Be quiet! The kids are sleeping. ‘Benimle mi konuşuyorsun?’ You talking to me? (Taxi Driver, ) Note that unlike in English, we can use every verb, without exception, in the present continuous: Seni şimdi daha iyi anlıyorum. Bu çiçekler çok güzel kokuyor. Çocuklar dondurma istiyor(lar). Bana inanmıyorsun, değil mi? Telefonun çalıyor. Duymuyor musun?







I understand you better now. These flowers smell so sweetly. The kids want ice cream. You don’t believe me, do you? Your phone is ringing. Can’t you hear it?

want/would like to do something We use this form: verb stem + mek/mak / iste ‘want/would like’ + tense and personal suffix Seninle konuşmak istiyorum. Birkaç dakikan var mı?



I would like to talk to you. Do you have a couple of minutes?



Beren bugün okula gitmek istemiyor. Uyumak istiyor.

Beren doesn’t want to go to school today. She wants to sleep.

2 to talk about actions happening about this time but not necessarily at the moment of speaking: Siz okulda Türkçe öğreniyor musunuz?





Are you learning Turkish at school?





Yeğenim Esra Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi’nde tıp okuyor. My niece Esra is studying medicine at Cumhuriyet University.



I am not doing any exercise these days.

Bugünlerde hiç egzersiz yapmıyorum.

3 to talk about fixed arrangements in the near future. Like in English, we must always mention the time for the future:

Aysun hafta sonu parti veriyor. Geliyor musun?

Aysun is throwing a party at the weekend. Are you coming?

Biz bu akşam yemek/ğe çıkıyoruz.



We are going out for a meal this evening.



Anne ve babam yarın Konya’dan dönüyorlar.

My mum and dad are returning from Konya tomorrow.

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B Unlike in English, we use the present continuous: 1 to talk about actions that began in the past and are still continuing, for which English uses the present perfect or present perfect continuous. We add -d/ten 2f beri, or -d/tir 4f to time expressions. These suffixes correspond to English prepositions since and for respectively:

’dan beri İstanbul’da yaşıyorum/oturuyorum.



Öğrencilerim üç aydır Türkçe öğreniyorlar.

I have lived in Istanbul since

My students have been learning Turkish for three months.

We can also use -d/ten beri and -d/tir with ek-fiil simple present, and ek-fiil -miş past with present meaning: Deniz’le ben 4. sınıftan beri aynı sınıftayız.

Deniz and I have been in the same class since the 4th year/grade. Onlar geçen yazdan beri ayrıymış.

(They say) They have been separated since last summer. Ne kadar zamandır is

the question word we use to ask how long something has been happening:

‘Ne kadar zamandır Türkçe öğreniyorsun?’





How long have you been learning Turkish?

‘Geçen eylülden beri./Beş aydır.’

Since last September./For five months.

We can also use kaç gündür/haftadır/aydır/yıldır ‘how many days/weeks/months/years’ as a question word: ‘Siz kaç yıldır evlisiniz?’ ‘14 yıldır.’ How many years have you been married? For 14 years.





2 to talk about things that are true about our lives, for example things we do repeatedly, or the kinds of things we like (doing). We can also use the simple present in this meaning (see page 80; A1): Ben her sabah 'da kalkıyorum. Biz cuma akşamları dışarıda yiyoruz.

Melis et yemiyor. Vejetaryen. Sen her sabah traş oluyor musun? Ben edebiyat derslerini seviyorum.



I get up at every morning. We eat out on Friday evenings. Melis doesn’t eat meat. She is vegetarian. Do you have a shave every morning? I like literature classes.

love/like doing something We use this form: verb stem + meyi/mayı / sev ‘love/like’ + tense and personal suffix Ben boş vakitlerimde şiir okumayı seviyorum. I like reading poetry in my free time. Oğlum

My





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çizgi film seyretmeyi çok seviyor.

son loves watching cartoons so much.

Karım yemek yapmayı sevmiyor. Genellikle dışarıda yiyoruz.

My wife doesn’t like cooking. We usually eat out. eas•y Turkish Grammar

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vowel harmony

2-fold aıou eiöü e a

Exercises

4-fold ei öü aı ou i ü ı u

Selamlasma(while meeting) Merhaba(Labas) Iyi gunler(Laba diena) Iyi aksamlar(Labas vakaras) Gunaydin(Labas rytas) Ayrilirken(while leaving) Gorusmek uzere(iki) Gorusuruz(iki) Iyi gunler(Geros dienos) Iyi aksamlar(Geros vakaro) Iyi geceler(Laba naktis) Hosca kal(in)(Viso gero) Gule gule(Viso gero) Asking for name Adin(iz) ne?(what is your name) you(very much)) Adim..(my name is..) lot)) Soyadin(iz)ne?(what is your surname?) welcome) My surname is ..(soyadim.) welcome) Tanistigimiza memnun oldum(nice to meetyou) pleasure for me) Memnun oldum(nice to meet you) Ben de memnun oldum(nice to meet you, too) Ben de(me too) How are you? Nasilsin(iz)?(how are you?) Iyiyim(I am fine) Welcome Hos geldin(iz)(welcome) Hos bulduk(thank you) To thank (cok)tesekkur ederim(thank (cok)tesekkurler(thanks (a Bir sey degil(youre Onemli degil(youre Rica ederim(it ws a

Sen(siz) nasilsin(iz)?(how about you?) Ben de iyiyim.(I am fine too) Fena degil(not bad) TURKISH ALPHABET Vowels; a e i o u Consonants; b c d e f g h j k l m n p r s t v y z TO MAKE PLURAL A I O U takes LAR E takes LER SUBJECT PRONOUNS IMPORTANT Ben (I) Sen (you) O (he she t) Biz(we) Siz(you) Onlar(they) (ktapLAR okulLAR doktorLAR) (kalemLER retmenLER renciLER) POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES Benim (my) Senin(your) Onun(his her its) Bizim(our) Sizin(your) Onlarn(their) A/I takes I E/ takes O/U takes U / takes

ADDINGS FO POSSESIVE ADJECTIVES If the noun ends with a vowel Benim masaM Senin masaN Onun masaSI (M) (N) (S+vowel) If the noun ends with a consonant Benim kalemM(vowel+M) Senin kalemN(vowel+N) Onun kalem(vowel) Bizim

Bizim masaMIZ (M+vowel+Z) kalemMZ(vowel+Mvowel+Z)

Sizin masaNIZ (N+vowel+Z) kalemNZ(vowel+N+vowel+Z) Onlarn masaLARI (LARI/LER)

Sizin Onlarn kalemLER(LARI/ LER)

P T K/ B C D : Benim ktaBm Onun kaD TO BE PRESENT: Affirmative: Ben avukatIM(vowel+M) before the suffix Sen avukatSIN(S+vowel+N) O avukat(no adding) Biz avukatIZ(vowel+Z)

Senin aaCn

Bizim ieimiz

NOTE: For BEN and BZ add Y if the word end with a vowel Ben anneYM Biz renciYZ

Siz avukatSINIZ(S+vowel+N+vowel+Z) Onlar avukat(lar)(LAR/ LER) Negative: DEL=NOT We add deil at the end of the sentence. And this time we add the suffix of subject pronoun o deil. Ben anneYM. Sen uzunSUN. Biz alkanz. BR-OK We add bir (a-an) before singular personal pronouns and ok (very) before adjectives. O bir doktor.(He is a doctor) beautiful) O ok gzel.(she is very Ben anne deilM. Sen uzun deilSN. Biz alkan deilZ.

Ben bir avukatm.(I am an advocator) very clever)

Siz ok zekisiniz.(You are

*We can also use them together: O ok iyi bir anne.(she is a very good mother) Sen ok alkan bir rencisin.(you are a very hardworking student) Countries and Nationalities: Kta: continent Millet: nationality Nerelisin: where are you from Hangi millettensin:

lke: country Dil: Language what nationality are you

Nerelisin?: the answer will be country+l/li/lu/l+suffix of subject pronouns Sen nerelisin? Siz nerelisiniz? O nereli? Onlar nereliler? Ben Litvanyalym. Biz Trkiyeliyiz. O inli. Onlar Rusyallar

Hangi millettensin?: Some countries have special names for their nationalities(Litvanya/Litvan Trkiye/Trk Rusya/Rus). But some do not. In this case we add l li lu l again.(in/inli sve/Isveli) Sen hangi millettensin? Ben Almanm. Onlar Norveli(ler)

Onlar hangi milletten(ler)?

Hangi dili konuuyorsun?: We add ce ca e a to the nationality or sometimes to the country if that country does not have a special name for the nationality. Ben Litvanca konuuyorum. Onlar Trke konuuyorlar. Biz ince konuuyoruz A I O U takes CA /A F S T K H P take E takes CE/ E E /A Words ending with

ArapA Almanca

ngilizCE TrkE

RusA sveE