This thread is for Turkish lessons, and any questions that you might have about the language. Anyone's welcome to answer, but please be 100% of your answer so that we don't confuse anyone

This is not a translation thread, please check here if you have any translation request.

Reminder of rules
All SS-Board rules apply.
This is for Basic Turkish.
Questions can be asked in English, but please only answer if you are a native speaker and/or fluent in the language.
NO chatting.

An overview of Turkish...

• Turkish comes from Ural-Altai Language Family, so it is very different from the European languages. It is related to Finnish, Hungarian, Japanese from the Middle Asia; and it has gone through the effect of Persian and Arabic.

• In Turkish, there is no prefix, but the language is based on suffixes. We usually don't have many helping words such as "to be" in English, we add the tense, the person meanings and the affix to the end of the verbs. Therefore we don't usually use the subject in the daily language. We use it for some rare moments of confusion, or more usually for emphasize.

• As the language is full of suffixes, it is enough to know the stem. Then by adding the suitable suffixes, you can have as many words as you can.

Ex: Göz-lük: Eye-glasses.
Göz-le-m-le(mek): Eye-to watch (sb)-observation-to observe (infinitive)

• Turkish is based on sound compatibility. The vowels are grouped in two: "soft vowels: e, i, ö, ü" and the "thick vowels: a, ı, o, u". Usually, the word is either made up of the soft group or the hard group. So are the suffixes, and therefore not every suffix suits every word, but every suffix has its varietions for different vowels.
  Thus, the consonants are grouped too. "Ç, F, T, H, S, K, P, Ş" consonants are "thick", and they harden the following suffix if it starts with "B, C, D, G/Ğ" into "P, Ç, T, K" in respective order.

• In Turkish, vowels are very important, and every word consists many.

• Turkish does not have articles, therefore no "gender" of the words.

• The order of sentence is: (Subject-not necessary)/object/verb. However, this order may not be followed in unofficial language, and you can order it in anyhow you wish as long as you don't break down any groups. This is widely used in poems and daily language.

A few interesting facts about the language

• There are approximately 104.500 words in the language. However, with numerous suffixes that can be added to words, this number goes up to as much as 2.000.000. So we can say that it is a rich and useful.

• The sound "ı" can only be seen in Turkish, other languages does not consider it as a seperate sound.

• Turkish alphabet contains every basic sound the language has. So Turkish is written as it is read&pronounced, and it is read&pronounced as it is written.

Posted Lessons
The Alphabet&Basic greetings
Personal Description
Colours&Numbers
A few new words and plural forms

PS: I'll try to include the pronunciations.

*grins broooooaaaadly*

OHmegosh! its up! yaaay!

CONGRATS Deniz!!!!!!!!

Congrats Deniz

when is our first lesson ?

^ I hope you learn Turkish I think it's not so hard.

OMG you guys totally made my day

I plan to put up the lesson #1 tomorrow

Yay! I will totally try and check this thread! Learning new languages is fun!

Ders 1

Alphabet&Pronunciation in English equivalent

A a--arm
B b--black
C c--jacket
Ç ç--chocolate
D d--door
E e--elephant
F f--four
G g--get
Ğ ğ--though
H h--he
I ı--delegate, participant
İ i--important
J j--garage [French "j"]
K k--king
L l--long
M m--massive
N n--neat
O o--old
Ö ö--sir (German "ö")
P p--pay
R r--right
S s--see
Ş ş--she
T t--tea
U u--bull
Ü ü--[similar to] bureaucracy, costume, cure (German "ü")
V v--vet
Y y--year
Z z--zoo

Special Sounds
The "^" is used on "a, u" and depends on the word, it entends the word or it softens the previous letter. This is rarely used, so you don't have to worry.

In Turkish, words are read as they are written. You just combine the voices of the letters.

Not all keyboards support our letters, so you can use here:
ş--sh
ç--ch
ö--oe
ü--ue
ğ-gh
ı--I or i

----------------------------------------

Basic Turkish

Hello/Hi
Merhaba/Selam
[Mer-ha-ba/Se-laam]

Good morning
Günaydın
[Gün-aidon]

Good evening
İyi akşamlar
[Ee-y-ee aq-sham-lar]

Good night
İyi geceler
[Ee-y-ee ge-je-ler (g should be like in "goose")]

Thank you/Thanks
Teşekkür ederim/Teşekkürler
[Tesheck-cure ed-erim. (i should be like impossible)/Tesheck-cure-ler]

You're welcome
Rica ederim/Bir şey değil
[Ree-ja ed-erim/Bir shei deghyll.]

Please
Lütfen
[Lütfen.]

What's up/How are you/How do you do
N'aber (ne haber)/Nasılsın/Nasılsınız
[N'a-ber (ne ha-ber)/Nasylsyn(yz)]

Excuse me/Sorry
Afedersiniz
[Af-ed-er-synyz]

My name is ...
(Benim) Adım ...
[Benym a-dam ...]

Good luck to everyone who wants to learn Turkish

yesh yesh i'm defenitely learning
It's very good so far Deniz!

our first lesson Ders=lesson right sounds a bit like Arabic

Hello/Hi
Merhaba/Selam >>> like arabic too , and i heard Lufen and *Teşekkürler* before !!!

so i'll start with :
Merhaba , Benim Manal and i wanna learn turkish

Perfect first lesson to learn Turkish

Yeah, you'll see that some sounds Arabic

Now, "Benim Manal" is wrong, because ugh... it's complicated, but I'll try my best to explain:
As I've written in the "overview of Turkish", we use suffixes to indicate the person in everything. "Benim" means "my", but also "ad-ı-m" means "my name". So you don't have to use the special person words everytime. We rarely use them actually, and they are usually used for emphasize. I hope that makes sense!

----------------------------------------

Ders 2: Kişisel Bilgi (Personal Description)

Q: Nasıl birisin? (What are you like?)
Q: Dış görünüşün/Tipin nasıl? (What do you look like?)

Now, answers are tricky. As I've already mentioned before, the sound compatibility is very important in Turkish. So, depending on your adjective's last vowel, the suffix changes. And if the word ends with a vowel, it the suffix takes a helping consonant (Y, Ş, S, N). If the word ends with P, Ç, T, K letters, they change into B, C, D, G/Ğ in respective order. In this case, "I am" is "-ım/-im/-um/-üm" in Present Simple.

You'll see what I mean in the examples:

I am;
impatient: Sabırsız-ım.
lazy: Tembel-im.
rude: Kaba-y-ım.
thin: Zayıfım.
fat: Şişmanım.
short: Kısa-y-ım.
tall: Uzun-um.
young: Genç-im--> Gencim.
old: Yaşlıyım.
blond: Sarışınım.
red-head: Kızılım.
strong: Güçlü-y-üm.
quiet: Sessizim.
athletic: Atletik-im--> atletiğim
tidy: Düzenli-y-im.
untidy: Düzensizim.
intelligent: Zeki-y-im.
artistic: Artistik-im--> Artistğim.
funny: Komik-im--> Komiğim.
brunette: Esmerim.

------------------------------------

Note about the first post: As I've written the general facts, I'll update my first post when I think of something worthy to write, so be sure to check there too.

ooh i'll try to sum up how i am using these words

Selam,
(i don't get the whole , i am... thing so i skipped it )

Nasil birisin?:

Tembel-im
Sessizim
Düzensizim
Artistik-im
Sabirsiz-im

Düzensizim
Düzensizim
Düzensizim


not really picture perfect huh?

i didn't get the I am thing too
so i'll say :
Sabırsız-ım
Zayıfım
Komiğim
Sessizim .
btw i got the *adim thing * so adim manal
SELAM

Tembelim, artistiğim, sabırsızım. Good
Sabırsızım. You guys are doing good.

-----------------------------------------------------

Okay, I'll try to explain "I am" thing again:
Let's say "I am lazy." The subject is "I", and the verb is "be (am, in this case)" right? And as I've mentioned before, Turkish is all about the suffixes. So, the suffix for the first person plus the present simple verb is "-im". Lazy is tembel, and if you add -im to tembel, you have the meaning of "I am lazy: Tembelim." Am I making sense?

oh yes i got it , but how we can say he / she / they ... ?

he/she : ''O''
There's no masculine or feminine pronoun in Turkish. ''O'' is genderless.

She is a doctor : O bir doktor

And they is ''Onlar''

They are students : Onlar öğrenciler.

p.s : I thought you were asking only the meaning of the pronouns. I also can help if you wanna learn further about the use.

I almost forgot about this thread xd
thank you for the help Lara_the_Firelady .. I understand now


turkish isn't easy

Ders 3: Renkler&Sayılar (Colours&Numbers)

Yeşil
Green

Gri
Gray

Turuncu
Orange

Kırmızı
Red

Sarı
Yellow

Mor
Purple

Pembe
Pink

Siyah
Black

Mavi
Blue

Kahverengi
Brown

Beyaz
White

---------------------------------------------------

bir: one
iki: two
üç: three
dört: four
beş: five
altı: six
yedi: seven
sekiz: eight
dokuz: nine
on: ten

The rest is pretty simple. Ex: 11: on + bir = on bir.
12: on + iki = on iki
13: on + üç = on üç

So on, so forth.

yirmi: twenty
otuz: thirty
kırk: forty
elli: fifty
altmış: sixty
yetmiş: seventy
seksen: eighty
doksan: ninety
yüz: a hundred

Just like in "ten"s, you can combine the numbers pretty easily.
46: kırk + altı = kırk altı
199: yüz + doksan + dokuz = yüz doksan dokuz
105: yüz + beş = yüz beş

bin: a thousand

1234: bin + iki yüz +otuz dört = bin iki yüz otuz dört

2000: iki bin
9000: dokuz bin
30000: otuz bin
700000: yedi yüz bin

Etc.

bir milyon: a million
bir milyar: a billion

Ders 4: Birkaç sözcük ve çoğul yapma (A few words and plural forms)

YÜKLEMLER (Verbs)
yapmak: to do
olmak: to be
söylemek: to say
gitmek: to go
gelmek: to come
yemek: to eat
konuşmak: to speak, talk
sevmek: to love
ihtiyacı olmak: to need
istemek: to want
sahip olmak: to have
bilmek: to know

(-mak, -mek is the infinitive form)

ADLAR (Nouns)
ekmek: bread
ev: home
çorba: soup
makarna: pasta
televizyon: television
telefon: telephone
arkadaş: friend
dost: close friend
anne: mother
baba: father
ağabey ("abi" for short): big bother
abla: big sister
dayı: mother's brother
amca: father's brother
teyze: mother's sister
hala: father's sister
kardeş: sister/brother
kuzen: cousin
anneanne: mother's mother
babaanne: father's mother
dede: grandpa
öğrenci: student
okul: school
İngilizce: English
tükenmez kalem: pen
kurşun kalem: pencil
zaman: time
saat: hour

I know there are adverbs too, but adverbs are a little tricky, and I can write a detailed lesson to those wishing to learn. Also, I think I've already written enough adjectives in the previous lessons. :]

ÇOĞUL YAPMA (Making plural)
As I've already mentioned in the Overview, Turkish is all about sound compatibility. Therefore the suffixes always have two (or more) forms for words (with an exception of just 5-6 suffixes). If we come to the suject of making plurals, there are two suffixes for this aim: -ler, -lar. This one is the easiest subject: just add -ler to the words whose previous syllable contains either of the "e, i, ü, ö".
Ex: yiyecekler (foods)
defterler (notebooks)
silgiler (rubbers)
üzümler (grapes)
etc.

OR, add -lar to the words whose previous syllable contains either of the "a, ı, o, u".
Ex: yastıklar (pillows)
bilgisayarlar (computers)
sular (waters)
televizyonlar (televisions)
etc.

PS: I've also updated the overview section.