Speaking Turkish in 30 Days Update 1.0

- “Speaking Turkish in 30 Days”
Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 6
Day 1 – The Turkish Alphabet.................................................................................................................. 7
Day 2 – Vowel Harmony & Consonant Assimilation ............................................................................... 9
Back Vowel Harmony Rules (a, ı, o, u) ............................................................................................... 10
Front Vowel Harmony Rules (e, i, ö, ü).............................................................................................. 10
Consonant Mutation ......................................................................................................................... 11
Day 3 – Present Tense “To Be” .............................................................................................................. 12
Negative Statement Sentences ......................................................................................................... 13
Positive Questions ............................................................................................................................. 14
Negative Questions ........................................................................................................................... 15
Day 4 – Past Tense “To Be” ................................................................................................................... 16
Negative Statement Sentences ......................................................................................................... 17
Day 5 – Verbs ......................................................................................................................................... 19
Infinitive Verbs .................................................................................................................................. 19
Auxiliary Verbs ................................................................................................................................... 20
Reflexive Verbs .................................................................................................................................. 21
Reciprocal Verbs ................................................................................................................................ 21
Subjunctive Verbs .............................................................................................................................. 21
Day 6 – Present Simple (Aorist) Tense .................................................................................................. 22
Verbs Ending With a Vowel (-r) ......................................................................................................... 22
One Syllable Verbs Ending in a Consonant (-ar/-er) .......................................................................... 23
Multi Syllable Verbs Ending in a Consonant (-ır/-ir/-ur/-ür) ............................................................. 23
Negative Sentences ........................................................................................................................... 24
Day 7 – Genitive Case & Possesive ........................................................................................................ 26
Consonant Assimilation and the Possesive Marker .......................................................................... 27
Possesive Marker and The Existential “var/yok”............................................................................... 27
Day 8 – Present Continuous Tense ........................................................................................................ 28
Exceptions for Certain Verb Conjugations (Vowel Replacement) ..................................................... 28
1
Special Questions with Present Continuous Tense ........................................................................... 30

Day 9 – Case Markers ............................................................................................................................ 32
Dative Case ........................................................................................................................................ 32
Locative Case ..................................................................................................................................... 34
Ablative Case ..................................................................................................................................... 35
Accusative Case ................................................................................................................................. 36
Day 10 – Spatial Postpositions .............................................................................................................. 37
Day 11 – Past Simple Tense ................................................................................................................... 39
Consonant Mutation in Past Simple Tense ....................................................................................... 39
The Perfect Aspect in Past Simple ..................................................................................................... 40
Day 12 – Question Words...................................................................................................................... 43
Tag Questions .................................................................................................................................... 44
Day 13 – Adjectives ............................................................................................................................... 45
Other Usages of Adjectives ............................................................................................................... 46
Adjectives Made From Nouns ........................................................................................................... 46
Opposites Adjectives ......................................................................................................................... 47
Day 14 – Determiners ............................................................................................................................ 48
Other Determiners in Turkish ............................................................................................................ 49
Day 15 – Adverbs Part -1 ....................................................................................................................... 50
Adverbs of Manner............................................................................................................................ 50
Adverbs of Place and Direction ......................................................................................................... 51
Adverbs of Time ................................................................................................................................ 52
Day 16 – Adverbs Part - 2 ...................................................................................................................... 54
Adverbs of Quantity .......................................................................................................................... 54
Adverbs of Question .......................................................................................................................... 55
Day 17 – Numbers and Measurements ................................................................................................. 56
Measurements in Turkish: ................................................................................................................. 57
Day 18 – Past Continuous ...................................................................................................................... 58
When and While Usage ..................................................................................................................... 59
2
Day 19 – Conjunctions – Part 1 ............................................................................................................. 62

The conjunctions “Ve” , “-de/-da” , and “hem... hem de” ................................................................ 62
The conjunctions “ya... yada”, “veya”, and “ne ... ne de” ................................................................. 63
The conjunctions “ile”, “ama”, “ancak”, and “buna rağmen”........................................................... 64
The conjunctions “buna rağmen”, “bununla birlikte” and “bununla beraber” ................................ 65
Day 20 – Conjunctions – Part 2 ............................................................................................................. 66
The conjunctions “ne varki”, “ne yazık ki”, “halbuki”, and “güya” ................................................... 66
The conjunctions “ise”, “meğer”, and “yoksa” ................................................................................. 67
The conjunctions “çünkü”, “zira” and “bu yüzden” .......................................................................... 68
Day 21 – Future Tense ........................................................................................................................... 69
Day 22 – Modal Suffixes ........................................................................................................................ 73
“Can” Modal Suffix “-ebil/-abil” ........................................................................................................ 73
“Must” Modal Verb “-meli/-malı” ..................................................................................................... 74
“Have To” Modal Verb “Verb Root + -me/-ma + personal suffix + lazım” ........................................ 75
“Need To” Modal Verb “Verb Root + -me/-ma + personal suffix + gerekiyor” ................................. 76
“Want To” Modal Verb “infinitive verb + istiyor + personal suffix” .................................................. 77
Day 23 – Gerunds – Part 1 ..................................................................................................................... 78
Linking Gerunds ................................................................................................................................. 78
Gerunds of State................................................................................................................................ 79
Time Expressing Gerunds .................................................................................................................. 79
Time-Related Gerunds Suffixes ......................................................................................................... 80
For ‘-ince/-ınca’ as ‘when’ ................................................................................................................. 80
For ‘-ir ..-mez’ as ‘as soon as’ ............................................................................................................ 80
For ‘-diği/-dığı/... zaman’ as ‘when’................................................................................................... 80
For ‘-diği/-dığı/… sırada‘ as ‘at the time when’ ................................................................................. 80
For ‘-dığında/-diğinde/…’ as ‘when’ .................................................................................................. 80
For ‘-madan/-meden önce’ to say ‘before’ the action occurs.......................................................... 81
For ‘-dikten/-dıktan sonra’ to say ‘after’ the action occurs.............................................................. 81
For ‘-ana kadar’ and ‘-ıncaya kadar’, to say ‘until’ the action occurs ............................................... 81
For ‘-dıkça’ to say ‘as’ and ‘-dığı sürüce’ for ‘as long as’ ................................................................... 81
Day 24 – Gerunds – Part 2 ..................................................................................................................... 82
Reason Expressing Gerunds .............................................................................................................. 82
For ‘-dığı için’ as ‘because’................................................................................................................. 82
3
For ‘-dığından’ as ‘because’ ............................................................................................................... 82

For ‘-acağı için’ as ‘because’ .............................................................................................................. 82
For ‘-mak üzere’ as ‘in order to’ ....................................................................................................... 83
For ‘-dığına göre’ as ‘since’ ................................................................................................................ 83
For ‘-acağına göre’ as ‘since’ ............................................................................................................. 83
Comparison Gerunds ......................................................................................................................... 83
For ‘-dığı kadar’ as ‘as much as’......................................................................................................... 83
For ‘-acak kadar’ as ‘as that… ............................................................................................................ 84
For ‘-dığı gibi’ as ‘as is’ ....................................................................................................................... 84
For ‘-cesine’ as ‘to …’ ......................................................................................................................... 84
Contrasting Gerunds.......................................................................................................................... 84
For ‘-acağına’ as ‘instead of’ .............................................................................................................. 84
For ‘-dığı halde’ as ‘in spite of’ .......................................................................................................... 85
For ‘-masına rağmen’ as ‘in spite of’ ................................................................................................. 85
For ‘-mektense’ as ‘rather than’ ........................................................................................................ 85
Day 25 – Causatives ............................................................................................................................... 86
The “-dır” suffix ................................................................................................................................. 86
The “-t” suffix .................................................................................................................................... 87
The “-ıt” suffix.................................................................................................................................... 87
The “-ır” suffix ................................................................................................................................... 88
The “-ar/-er” suffixes ......................................................................................................................... 88
Double Causatives ............................................................................................................................. 88
Day 26 – Passive Voice – Part 1 ............................................................................................................. 89
Negative Present Simple Sentences .................................................................................................. 90
Question Sentences........................................................................................................................... 91
Present Continuous Tense................................................................................................................. 91
Negative Passive Voice in Present Continuous ................................................................................. 92
Passive Voice Questions for Present Continuous Tense ................................................................... 92
Day 27 – Passive Voice – Part 2 ............................................................................................................. 93
Negative Passive Voice for Past Simple Sentences ........................................................................... 94
Passive Voice Questions for the Past Simple Tense .......................................................................... 94
Day 28 – Conditional Sentences – Part 1............................................................................................... 95
The Real Conditional ......................................................................................................................... 95
Negative Real Conditionals................................................................................................................ 96
Unreal Conditionals ........................................................................................................................... 97
Negative Unreal Conditional ............................................................................................................. 98
4
Day 29 – Conditional Sentences – Part 2............................................................................................... 99

Negative Past Unreal Conditional ................................................................................................... 100
Other Conditional Sentence Types .................................................................................................. 101
Day 30 – Reported Speech .................................................................................................................. 103
The “-miş” Reported Speech ........................................................................................................... 103
The Negative “-miş” Reported Speech ........................................................................................... 104
Positive Question “-miş” Reported Speech ..................................................................................... 105
Negative Question “-miş” Reported Speech ................................................................................... 106
The “-diğini söyledi” Reported Speech ............................................................................................ 107
5
Introduction
Welcome to the Speaking Turkish in 30 Days video course. In this video course series I will teach you
the basics of Turkish language and you will be able to understand and do conversational Turkish.
Turkish language is a logical language and this course aims to show you just that. Think of Turkish as
playing with legos, you simply put more blocks on top of each other to make more diverse and rich
sentences. Turkish is a language that relies on suffixes. Once you know which suffix represent which
shape of lego brick, you can build beautiful sentece structures in a really short amount of time.
Please be aware that this course will mostly cover some of the grammar topics of the Turkish
language, not everything will be covered. Another thing is, even if the title says “in 30 days”, you
don’t have to hurry and try to learn every new topic in a day. If the topics are too much for you in
one go, simply pace the courses into every 3 or 4 days. Try to practice everything that you learned
daily to reach fluency in a shorter amount of time. If you have Turkish friends, practice speaking with
them or find people whom you can speak online with.
Finally, be sure to watch all the videos until the end and subscribe to the Turkishaholic channel. If you
liked this video our any of the videos you’ll watch be sure to like and comment.
Have fun learning Turkish!
6
Day 1 – The Turkish Alphabet

The first thing to know about Turkish is that it uses a modified version of the Latin alphabet. There
are 29 letters in the Turkish alphabet. Inside these 29 letters, there are 8 vowels. Vowels are
categorized according to the position of the tongue and shape of the mouth. We categorize vowels
because it is an important aspect of Vowel Harmony. You will learn about Vowel Harmony in the next
day. Let’s take a look at all the vowels in the Turkish alphabet. I’ll describe everything that you see in
the chart in our next lesson, don’t worry.
Tongue Position Unrounded Rounded

Back a ı o u
Front e i ö ü
It is important to know that Turkish has long vowels as well. They are basically the same vowels
pronounced in a longer way. Unfortuanetly, there are no indicators to see whether a vowel is short
or long. The only way to know is by opening a dictionary with IPA symbols and see their written
pronunciation.
Turkish is a phonetical language and every letter you’ll see in the alphabet has only one reading.
Some of them will sound similar to the English sounds but there are some that may sound different.
Like Vowels, we also categorize consonants according to how they are voiced. Consonants are
categorized because it is essential for Consonant Assimilation.
Voiced Consonants Voiceless Consonants

b,d,g,v,z,c,ğ,j,l,m,n,r,y p,t,k,s,ş,ç,h,f
The pronunciation of most consonant sounds are similar to that in English. The only exceptions are
the “Çç, Ğğ, İi, Şş, Üü” sounds. You will hear all the pronunciations of these sounds in just a moment.
The “Ğğ” (Yumuşak G/Soft G) sound has no sound, it only lengthens the vowel that it follows.
Now, let’s see all the letters of the Turkish alphabet in action:
Letters Pronunciation Letters Pronunciation

A a u as in uncle M m m as in mess
B b b as in bed N n n as in net
C c j as in jet O o o as in oat
Ç ç ch as in chance Ö ö i as in bird (British)
D d d as in day P p p as in pet
E e e as in end R r r as in red
F f f as in fat S s s as in said
G g g as in get Ş ş sh as in share
Ğ ğ makes preceding vowel long T t t as in take
H h h as in hay U u oo as in wood
I ı e as in open Ü ü u as in cute
İ i i as in finish V v we as in wet
J j su as in measure Y y y as in yet
K k k in king Z z z as in zip
L l l as in lemon
7
You might have noticed that the Turkish alphabet doesn’t have the Xx and Ww letters. When we
want to translate and pronounce foreign words that have these letter the Xx is usually written as iks
and the Ww is written as Vv.
It is also important to note that Turkish doesn’t have two lettered sounds (consonant clusters) like th,
ch, sh, wh sounds you would see in English. Every letter is pronounced in Turkish.
Most English speakers mispronounce the letter Iı with İi. Look at the word examples again and review
it as much as possible.
As I mentioned before, the Ğğ (Soft G) sound is not pronounced but used after a vowel sound like Aa,
Ee, Iı, İi, Oo, Öö, Uu, Üü to make the sound longer.
Let’s see some examples:
Ağaç Beğen Doğu Öğlen

Uğraş Iğdır Ciğer Düğüm
Now that you know how to pronounce the letters in the Turkish alphabet, you can immediately start
practicing by reading things written in Turkish or by trying to listen to someone speaking in Turkish
and trying to write the words they’ve spoken on a piece of paper.
8
Day 2 – Vowel Harmony & Consonant Assimilation
Now that you know how to read and write the Turkish alphabet, the second most important thing
you will learn in this lesson is called Vowel Harmony. I’ve mentioned before that Turkish is a
phonetical language. In order to correctly form grammatical structures in Turkish, you need to
understand how the vowel harmony in Turkish works.
Almost all words in Turkish can be changed by adding suffixes (certain letters) added at the end of a
word. Vowel Harmony is used to decided which vowels should be used when adding suffixes. There
are two types of Vowel Harmony: Internal Vowel Harmony which is the harmony of the vowels in a
word and External Vowel Harmony, which is used for suffixes.
For Internal Vowel Harmony, a word can either have all front vowels or all back vowels in Turkish. A
word can’t have both a back and front vowel inside it. The only words that have both front and back
vowels are borrowed words from other languages.
Internal Vowel Harmony isn’t something that you should be worried about, you should put your
focus on External Vowel Harmony. It is important that you master External Vowel Harmony as soon
as possible.
In Turkish, we add suffixes to a word to change it from a Noun to an Adjective or an Adverb. We can
also change a noun to a Verb with suffixes. When you add a suffix to a word, you need to look at the
last vowel of the word before you attach the suffix.
First let’s remember the 8 vowels in the Turkish alphabet:
Tongue Position Unrounded Rounded

Back a ı o u
Front e i ö ü
Look at these examples and see how words change with the addition of certain suffixes:
Noun Adjective Adjective Adverb

Hız (speed) Hızlı (speedy) Zeki (Smart) Zekice (Cleverly)
Güneş (Sun) Güneşli (Sunny) Yavaş (Slow) Yavaşça (Slowly)
Öfke (Anger) Öfkeli (Furious) Ucuz (Cheap) Ucuzca (Cheaply)
One way to turn a noun into an adjective is by adding the suffix “-lı/li” to the end of a noun. If you
want to turn an adjective into an adverb, the suffix “-ce/ca” is added to the end of an adjective.
As you can see from the above examples, if the last vowel of the word is a front vowel, the suffix will
also need to have a front vowel inside it. Similarly, if the last vowel of the word is a back vowel, suffix
also has to have a back vowel in it.
Let’s look at Back and Front Vowel Harmony in more detail.
9
Back Vowel Harmony Rules (a, ı, o, u)
If the last vowel of a word has a back vowel, the suffix can only have back vowels inside it.
Here are some words with back vowels inside them. Let’s try add different types of suffixes to the
end of these words.
1) The “-ler/lar” suffix adds (plural) meaning to a noun:
Singular Plural
Arkadaş (Friend) Arkadaşlar (Friends)
Hayvan (Animal) Hayvanlar (Animals)
Araba (Car) Arabalar (Cars)
Kadın (Woman) Kadınlar (Women)
2) The “ça/ca/ce” suffix turns an adjective into an adverb of manner:
Adjective Adverb
Yavaş (Slow) Yavaşça (Slowly)*
Hızlı (Fast) Hızlıca (Quickly)
* The reason we have “-ça/ca” is because of Consonant Mutation. I will describe this topic in just a
moment.
This rule applies to almost all the suffixes that you will later see.
Front Vowel Harmony Rules (e, i, ö, ü)
If the last vowel of a word has a front vowel, the suffix can only have front vowels inside it.
Here are some words with back vowels inside them. Let’s try add different types of suffixes to the
end of these words.
1) The “-ucu/ücü/ici” suffix turns verbs into nouns:
Verb Noun
Sür (drive) Sürücü (driver)
Böl (divide) Bölücü (divider)
Ez (crush) Ezici (crusher)
2) The “-suz/süz” suffix turns nouns into adjectives:
Noun Adjective
Süt (Milk) Sütsüz (Without Milk)
Gürültü (Noise) Gürültüsüz (Without Noise)
Öğretmen (Teacher) Öğretmensiz (Without Teacher)
10
There are some exceptions to vowel harmony that I will explain in the later lessons, you needn’t
worry about them for now. Now let’s look at the topic of Consonant Mutation.
Consonant Mutation
In Turkish, there are certain consonants than need to be replaced with other letters when suffixes
are added to them. We call this phenomena “Consonant Mutation” or “Consonant Assimilation”.
When we add a suffix to words that end with the below consonants, they change:
Before Mutation After Mutation

p b
ç c
t d
k ğ/g
Let’s see some examples of Consonant Assimilation when we add the “Accusative Suffix” –ı/-i/-u/-ü,
which you will learn later on in this course:
- Ayşe’nin kitabı (kitap) – Ayşe’s book

- Arabanın rengi (renk) – The car’s color
- Arkadaşımın çocuğu (çocuk) – My friends’ child
- Zeynep’in sözlüğü (sözlük) – Zeynep’s dictionary
Words that aren’t affected by consonant mutation are single syllable words, borrowed words and
proper nouns (people, thing or place names).
11
Day 3 – Present Tense “To Be”
When we want to make a To Be sentence in English, the sentence will start with a personal pronoun
like “I, You, He, She, etc.”, then we would need to add a to be verb “am/is/are” and finally add the
noun or adjective to the end of the sentence.
If we want to make a To Be sentence in Turkish, the order and the usage of some words differ. The
verb “to be” doesn’t actually exist in Turkish. The sentence first starts with a personal pronoun like
“ben, sen, o, etc.”, then the noun or adjective is added, but at the end of the noun or adjective we
use the personal suffix associated with our personal pronoun (which makes it similar to a To Be
Verb).
Here are the Personal Pronouns in Turkish:
English Pronouns Turkish Pronouns

I Ben
You Sen
He / She / It O
We Biz
You (Plural / Polite Speech) Siz
They Onlar
Turkish doesn’t have a gender specific personal pronoun like “He/She” in English. The pronoun “O” is
used for both male, female, animals and objects.
While the pronoun “Sen” is the second person singular, the pronoun “Siz” is the second person plural
for the English pronoun “You”. “Siz” is also used in polite/formal speech.
Just a quick note, if you haven’t watched or skipped “Day 2 – Vowel Harmony & Consonant
Mutation”, I would advise that you look at it again before continuing this lecture because we will use
our knowledge from that lesson in a moment.
Let’s first try to make a positive sentence. Look at the example sentence below and see how a
statement (Present - To Be) sentence is made in Turkish:
- Ben bir doktorum. (I am a doctor)
Ben bir doktor um

Personal Pronoun Article “a” Noun/Adjective Personal suffix
Each personal suffix that is associated with the personal pronoun has different spelling. In order to
choose the correct form for the personal suffix, we look at the last vowel of the noun or adjective
inside the sentence.
12
Look at the chart to see which options you have for suffixes:
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -(y)ım -(y)im -(y)um -(y)üm
Sen -sın -sin -sun -sün
O -(dır) -(dir) -(dur) -(dür)
Biz -(y)ız -(y)iz -(y)uz -(y)üz
Siz -sınız -siniz -sunuz -sünüz
Onlar -(dir)ler -(dır)lar -(dur)lar -(dür)ler
Let’s go back to our earlier example. The reason we chose the suffix “um” for the noun “doktor” is
that we first look at which personal pronoun we used and later look at the last vowel of the noun,
which is “o”. The suffix associated with the “o” vowel sound for the “Ben” personal pronoun is the “-
(y)um” suffix.
For the personal suffix of the “Onlar” personal pronoun, you can either use as “-dırlar/-dirlar” or
simply as “-ler/-lar”.
If the noun or the adjective ends in a consonant sound, we don’t add the “-(y)” consonant sound,
otherwise we would have added as “-yum” instead of “-um”.
Here are some more examples. Look at the personal pronoun and the personal suffix carefully:
- O bir doktordur – He/She is a doctor.

- Biz öğrenciyiz – We are students.
- Onlar güzeller – They are beautiful.
- Sen mutlusun – You are happy.
Negative Statement Sentences
If you want to make negative statement (To Be) sentences, you need to add the negation “değil”
meaning “not”, right after the noun or the adjective. In negative sentences, the personal suffix is not
added after the noun or the adjective but after the negation “değil”.
- Ben bir doktor değilim. (I am not a doctor)
Ben bir doktor değil im

Personal pronoun Article “a” Noun / Adjective Negative (Not) Personal Suffix
Because we add the personal suffix right after the “değil”, the vowel harmony is only limited to one
choice for each personal pronoun:
Personal Pronoun Negative + Personal Suffix

Ben değilim
Sen değilsin
O değil(dir)
Biz değiliz
Siz değilsiniz
Onlar değiller
13
Here are some more examples. Look at the personal pronoun and the personal suffix carefully:
- Ben bir öğretmen değilim – I am not a teacher.

- O güzel değil – She is not pretty.
- Sen hasta değilsin – You are not sick.
- Onlar öğrenci değiller – They are not students.
For the “O” personal pronoun, it is possible to use just the negative word “değil” and no personal
suffix.
Positive Questions
Making positive statement questions require you to add the question word “-mı/-mu/etc” variation
to the end of the noun or the adjective. Instead of adding the personal suffix to the end of the noun
or the adjective, we add it to the end of the question word with respect to vowel harmony for both
the question and the personal suffix:
- Ben bir avukat mıyım? (Am I a lawyer?)
Ben bir avukat mıyım?

Personal pronoun Article “a” Noun / Adjective Question Word + Personal Suffix
Look at the chart to see more examples for conjugation of the suffix after the question word:
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -mıyım -miyim -muyum -müyüm
Sen -mısın -misin -musun -müsün
O -mı -mi -mu -mü
Biz -mıyız -miyiz -muyuz -müyüz
Siz -mısınız -misiniz -musunuz -müsünüz
Onlar -mı -mi -mu -mü
In some resources, the personal suffix for the “O” personal pronoun as “-mıdır/-midir/etc” but it
actually sounds unnatural in Spoken Turkish so I would advise you avoid it.
Here are some more examples. Look at the personal pronoun, the vowel harmony for the question
word and the personal suffix closely:
- Onlar öğrenci mi? – Are they students?

- Sen mutlu musun? – Are you happy?
- O heyecanlı mı? – Is he excited?
- Onlar polis mi? – Are they police?
14
Negative Questions
The last section of this lessons is about making negative statement questions. You can ask negative
statement questions to someone to confirm an information that was previously answered or asked.
When making negative questions, you combine the “değil” (not) with the question word “-mı/-
mi/etc”. Like positive questions, we add the personal suffix at the end of the question word.
- Sen bir doktor değil misin? (Aren’t you a doctor?)
Sen bir doktor değil misin?

Personal pronoun Article “a” Noun / Adjective Negative Word Question Word + P.
(Not) Suffix
Look at the chart to see more examples for conjugation of the suffix after the question word:
Negation + Q. Word + P. Suffix

Ben değil miyim
Sen değil misin
O değil mi
Biz değil miyiz
Siz değil misiniz
Onlar değil mi
You might have noticed that this chart resembles to the negative statement sentences we learned
earlier. Because the negation stays the same, there is only one way to conjugate the personal suffix
after the “Not” word.
Let’s see some more examples:
- Sen mutlu değil misin? – Aren’t you happy?

- Siz Ahmet değil misiniz? – Aren’t you Ahmet?
- Biz İngiliz değil miyiz? – Aren’t we British?
- Onlar öğrenci değil mi? – Aren’t they students?
You now know how to make statement sentences and their questions in Turkish. Isn’t it nice?
15
Day 4 – Past Tense “To Be”
In this lesson, we will continue from where we left with “To Be” sentences. We learned how to make
statement sentences in the Present Tense, now we will learn how to make them in Past Tense.
We learned that the sentence order for making To Be sentences in the Present Tense was “Pronoun +
Noun/adjective + personal suffix”. The sentence order for making statement sentences in the past
tense is also similar, the only difference is the personal suffix.
Let’s look at the chart to see how the personal suffix is conjugated in the Past Tense:
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -(y)dım -(y)dim -(y)dum -(y)düm
Sen -(y)dın -(y)din -(y)dun -(y)dün
O -(y)dı -(y)di -(y)du -(y)dü
Biz -(y)dık -(y)dik -(y)duk -(y)dük
Siz -(y)dınız -(y)diniz -(y)dunuz -(y)dünüz
Onlar -(y)dılar -(y)diler -(y)dular -(y)düler
The Past Tense personal suffix always starts with the “-dı/-di/-du/-dü” letters. If the noun or the
adjective end in a vowel, we have to insert the buffer letter “-y” to make it easier for the sound to
glide. This is also related to the topic of Vowel Harmony.
If the noun or the adjective ends in the consonants “ç,f,h,k,p,s,ş,t” we need to change the “-d” letter
inside the suffix to a “-t” letter because of similar pronunciation (the articulation of the letters) and
easier gliding of the sounds.
Let’s see some positive statement sentence examples:
- Ben bir öğretmendim – I was a teacher.

- Sen mutluydun – You were happy.
- Onlar heyecanlıydı – They were excited.
- Biz başarılıydık – We were successful.
16
Negative Statement Sentences
If you want to make negative past statement sentences, you need to include the “değil” word which
means “not” in Turkish, plus the past tense personal suffix. The sentence structure is similar to what
we learned in the Negative Present Statement sentences.
Negative + Personal Suffix

Ben değildim
Sen değildin
O değildi
Biz değildik
Siz değildiniz
Onlar değildiler
Here are some sentence examples:
- Ben (bir) asker değildim – I wasn’t a soldier.

- Sen rahat değildin – You weren’t relaxed.
- O (bir) doktor değildi – He wasn’t a doctor.
- Onlar Türk değildiler – They weren’t Turkish.
Positive Questions
Now that you know about positive past statement sentences, lets learn how to make some positive
past questions. If you remember from the Day 3 lesson, the sentence order and most of the structure
for making question sentences is the same with past questions, the only difference is the personal
suffix “-dı/di” which we add right after the question word “-mı/-mi/-mu”.
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -mıydım -miydim -muydum -müydüm
Sen -mıydın -miydin -muydun -müydün
O -mıydı -miydi -muydu -müydü
Biz -mıydık -miydik -muyduk -müydük
Siz -mıydınız -miydiniz -muydunuz -müydünüz
Onlar -mıydılar -miydiler -muydular -müydüler
Most people have problems memorizing or basically understanding the vowel harmony for personal
suffix and it may take some time until you can automatically place the correct personal suffix. But
once you understand it, you won’t forget it that easily.
Let’s see some sentence examples:
- Sen rahat mıydın? – Were you comfortable?

- Siz misafir miydiniz? – Were you guests?
- Onlar çalışan mıydı? – Were they employees?
- O bir tavşan mıydı? – Was it a rabbit?
17
Negative Questions
For this last part of this lecture, lets learn how to make negative past statement questions. The same
rules apply for this type of question. Basically, the sentence starts with a personal pronoun, then an
noun or an adjective, followed by the negation “değil” meaning “not” and finally the question word
“-mi” followed by the past personal suffix.
Personal Pronoun Negative + Personal Suffix

Ben değilmiydim
Sen değilmiydin
O değilmiydi
Biz değilmiydik
Siz değilmiydiniz
Onlar değilmiydiler
Here are some examples sentences:
- Sen Ali değilmiydin? – Weren’t you Ali?

- O (bir) profesör değilmiydi? – Wasn’t she a professor?
- Siz hasta değilmiydiniz? – Weren’t you sick?
- Onlar Avusturyalı değilmiydiler? – Weren’t they Australians?
You should be able to start making simple sentences thanks to these last four lectures. Coming up,
we will learn how to make Present Simple sentences and some Wh- questions to go along with them.
18
Day 5 – Verbs
On tomorrow’s lesson we will start learning our first tense that uses action verbs. Before that lesson,
we will learn the different types of verbs in Turkish and how they are conjugated to take on different
meanings.
In this lesson we will look at these verb types:
- Infinitive Verbs
- Auxiliary Verbs
- Reflexive Verbs
- Reciprocal Verbs
- Subjunctive Verbs
There are many more types of verbs that we will later see on different lesson days because we need
more knowledge of the Turkish grammar to understand them.
Infinitive Verbs
Before verbs start their journey and change into different tenses or uses, they start in their infinitive
forms they have no conjugation. Infinitive verbs are made by adding the suffix “-mak/-mek” to the
verb root. The correct suffix is added by looking at the last vowel of the verb root.
a, ı, o, u e ,i ,ö ,ü
-mak -mek
Here are some verbs in their infinitive form:
Verb Root Infinitive Form

Yap (do) Yapmak (to do)
Çiz (draw) Çizmek (to draw)
İç (drink) İçmek (to drink)
Oku (read) Okumak (to read)
Kullan (use) Kullanmak (to use)
Hazırla (prepare) Hazırlamak (to prepare)
Just like in English where we erase the “to” infront of the verb to conjugate a tense, we simply erase
the “-mek/-mak” to use the verb in different uses. There are some times where we use the verb in
it’s infinitive form without erasing the infinitive suffix. You will see these usages in our later classes.
The negative infinitive is made by adding the “-ma/-me” in between the verb root and the infinitive
suffix. We still follow the vowel harmony to select the correct infinitive and negative suffix:
Verb Root Negative Infinitive Form

Yap (do) Yapmamak (to not do)
Gör (see) Görmemek (to not see)
Pişir (cook) Pişirmemek (to not prepare)
19
Auxiliary Verbs
You will see some verbs in Turkish that are compromised of two words, a noun and a verb.
Sometimes these verbs are only a single verb in English when translated, so be careful.
The primary auxiliary verbs in Turkish are:
- Etmek (to do/to make/to perform)

- Olmak (to be/to become/to happen/to occur)
Let’s first look at some verbs that are formed with the verb “etmek”:
Auxiliary Verb Auxiliary Verb

teşekkür etmek To thank arzu etmek To desire
ısrar etmek To insist kaybetmek To lose
fark etmek To notice merak etmek To wonder
halletmek To solve (an issue) seyretmek To watch
belli etmek To reveal zannetmek To suppose
You might have noticed that some verbs can also be formed as single words. There are so many
words that are made with the auxiliary “etmek”. Simply open your Turkish dictionary and you’ll see.
The other auxiliary verb used in combination with a noun is the verb “olmak”:

Hakim olmak To prevail (something) Pişman olmak To regret
Sahip olmak To own Var olmak To exist
Mecbur olmak To be obliged to Sebep olmak To cause
Belli olmak To be understood Mezun olmak To graduate
Yok olmak To disappear Neden olmak To lead (to something)
There are many other auxiliary verbs that you may see in this course:

Yanlış yapmak To misdo Gebe kalmak To conceive
Bol gelmek To be loose-fitting Ricada bulunmak To request
Denk gelmek To run into (someone) Hazır bulunmak To attend/to assist
Geç kalmak To get late Kabul eylemek/etmek To accept
20
Reflexive Verbs
Reflexive verbs are usually made to show that the subject and the object are in the same sentence. In
English we use “myself” in combination with a reflexive verb, in Turkish we simply add the suffix
“-(i/e/ü/...)n” to give the same meaning that “myself” gives in English:
Active Verb Reflexive Verb

Gezmek to visit / to stroll Gezinmek To stroll oneself
Söylemek To say / to tell Söylenmek To mutter to oneself
Kaçmak To run away Kaçınmak To avoid something
Sarmak To wrap Sarınmak To wrap oneself
Hazırlamak To prepare Hazırlanmak To prepare oneself
Reciprocal Verbs
Reciprocal Verbs indicate that the action is done together with another person. In English we
generally add “one another” after the verb, in Turkish the suffix “-(i/e/ü)..ş” added right after the
verb root can give the same meaning to a verb:
Active Verb Reciprocal Verb

Bulmak to find Buluşmak To meet (each other)
Söylemek To say / to tell Söyleşmek To talk together
Kaçmak To run away Kaçışmak To run away together
Aramak To call Araşmak To call each other
Sevmek To love Sevişmek To make love
Subjunctive Verbs
If you want to suggest or desire something in your action, you can use Subjunctive Verbs. Subjunctive
Verbs basically mean “let someone do ...” in English. We make a verb subjunctive by adding the suffix
“-(y)eyim/-(y)ayım” for oneself action or “-(y)elim/-(y)alım” for more than one person and erasing
the infinitive suffix “-mek/-mak”.
a, ı, o, u e ,i ,ö ,ü
-(y)ayım -(y)eyim
-(y)alım -(y)elim
Active Verb Subjunctive Verb

Konuşayım Let me speak
Konuşmak To talk
Konuşalım Let’s speak
Alayım Let me buy
Almak To buy
Alalım Let’ buy
Göreyim Let me see
Görmek To see
Görelim Let’s see
Seveyim Let me love
sevmek To love
Sevelim Let’s love
Bulayım Let me find
Bulmak To find
Bulalım Let’s find
21
Day 6 – Present Simple (Aorist) Tense
Starting with this lecture, we will learn how to conjugate verbs into whichever tense we want. We
will start out with making Present Simple (Aorist) Tense sentences.
We learned “To Be” sentences to make statements without any action inside them. If we want to do
an action, we need to start off with making Present Simple tense sentences. A typical English
sentence would be written in the “Subject-Verb-Object” order, whereas in Turkish this order is
changed to “Subject-Object-Verb”.
The Present Tense with the Aorist is used to talk about general facts, polite requests and questions,
probable situations, uncertain plans, guesses, habits, likes, and dislikes. The basic rule for adding a
tense conjugation to a verb is by erasing the infinitive suffix (mek/mak) from the end of the verb and
adding the required tense suffix in addition to the personal suffix.
Infinitive Form Root Form Infinitive Form Root Form

Okumak (to read) Oku (read) Yemek (to eat) Ye (eat)
Forming Present simple tense with the “Aorist Suffix” requires that you to know the three ways of
conjugating these verbs from their root form:
1) Verbs Ending With a Vowel (-r)

2) One Syllable Verbs Ending in a Consonant (-ar/-er)
3) Multi Syllable Verbs Ending in a Consonant (-ır/-ir/-ur/-ür)
Verbs Ending With a Vowel (-r)
For verbs that end with a vowel (regardless of their syllable count), we add the “-r” to the end of the
root of the verb in addition to the personal suffix right after the “-r” vowel.
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -rım -rim -rum -rüm
Sen -rsın -rsin -rsun -rsün
O -r -r -r -r
Biz -rız -riz -ruz -rüz
Siz -rsınız -rsiniz -rsunuz -rsünüz
Onlar -rlar -rler -rlar -rler
- Ben yemek yerim – I eat food.

- Onlar futbol oynar – They play football.
- O akşam uyur – He sleeps at night.
- Biz maç izleriz – We watch a match.
22
One Syllable Verbs Ending in a Consonant (-ar/-er)
For verbs that that one syllable and end in a consonant, we add the “-ar/-er” to the end of the root of
the verb in addition to the personal suffix right after this “present simple tense” suffix.
a/ı/o/u e/i/ö/ü
Ben -arım -erim
Sen -arsın -ersin
O -ar -er
Biz -arız -eriz
Siz -arsınız -ersiniz
Onlar -arlar -erler
Here are some examples:
- Ben kitap yazarım – I write books.

- O resim çizer – She draws pictures.
- Biz erken yatarız – We sleep early.
- Ayşe hergün yüzer – Ayşe swims everyday.
Multi Syllable Verbs Ending in a Consonant (-ır/-ir/-ur/-ür)
If a verb has more than one syllable and ends in a consonant, we add the “-ır/-ir/-ur/ür” to the end of
the root of the verb in addition to the personal suffix right after it.
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -ırım -irim -urum -ürüm
Sen -ırsın -irsin -ursun -ürsün
O -ır -ir -ur -ür
Biz -ırız -iriz -uruz -ürüz
Siz -ırsınız -irsiniz -ursunuz -ürsünüz
Onlar -ırlar -irler -urlar -ürler
- Ben araba kullanırım – I drive a car.

- Ayşe evde oturur – Ayşe sits at home.
- O hep düşünür – He always thinks.
- Biz yabancı dil öğreniriz – We learn foreign languages.
23
Negative Sentences
Unlike positive present simple tense sentences, it is actually a lot easier to make negative sentences.
We only add either “-maz” or “-mez” right after the root of the verb in addition to the personal suffix,
added right after the negative present simple suffix.
a/ı/o/u e/i/ö/ü
Ben -mam -mem
Sen -mazsın -mezsin
O -maz -mez
Biz -mayız -meyiz
Siz -mazsınız -mezsiniz
Onlar -mazlar -mezler
- Onlar bisiklet kullanmazlar – They don’t use bicycles.

- Ben brokoli sevmem – I don’t like brocolli.
- Aslı televizyon izlemez – Aslı doesn’t watch television.
- Annem çalışmaz – My mother doesn’t work.
Positive Questions
If you remember from our last lecture video, the question words were the “-mu/-mi/-mı/-mü”
variations. These question words always come right after the verb. We don’t add a personal suffix to
the verb here, only the positive present simple suffix. We add the personal suffix right after the
question word. Let’s see how we add the question word with the personal suffix:
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -mıyım -miyim -muyum -müyüm
Sen -mısın -misin -musun -müsün
O -mı -mi -mu -mü
Biz -mıyız -miyiz -muyuz -müyüz
Siz -mısınız -misiniz -musunuz -müsünüz
Onlar -lar mı -ler mi -lar mı -ler mi
- Sen kitap okur musun? – Do you read books?

- O resim çizer mi? – Does he draw pictures?
- Siz okula gider misiniz? – Do you go to school?
- Onlar kebap yerler mi? – Do they eat kebap?
24
Negative Questions
If you want to make negative present simple tense questions, you need to include the “-mez/-maz”
negative present simple tense suffix right after the root of the verb. The rest of the sentence
structure stays the same as a positive present simple tense question.
a/ı/o/u e/i/ö/ü
Ben -maz mıyım -mez miyim
Sen -maz mısın -mez misin
O -maz mı -mez mi
Biz -maz mıyız -mez miyiz
Siz -maz mısınız -mez misiniz
Onlar -mazlar mı -mezler mi
- Onlar futbol oynamazlar mı? – Don’t they play football?

- Siz yemek yemez misiniz? – Won’t you eat (food/dinner)?
- O hiç kitap okumaz mı? – Doesn’t he read any books?
- Ali ödev yapmaz mı? – Doesn’t Ali do homework?
You might have noticed that I’m also adding some adverbs into the sentences to make them sound
less generic. Be sure to take notes of all the vocabulary you’ve seen in these lessons. You will see
more of them in the future lessons.
25
Day 7 – Genitive Case & Possesive

In English, if we wanted to mark a noun as the possessor (the owner) of another noun, we do it by
adding “-‘s” to the possessor noun (the first noun) and that would be enough. If you want to show
possesion in Turkish, we need to add a Genitive Case suffix to the possessor and the possesive
marker to the possessed noun:
The Possessor (Genitive Case) The Possessed (Possesive Marker)

Ben im My araba m car
Ayşe ‘nin Ayşe’s kalem i pencil
Please look at the chart to see how possessive adjectives are made:
Personal Pronouns Personal Adjectives

Ben I Benim My
Sen You Senin Your
O He/She/It Onun His/Her/Its
Biz We Bizim Our
Siz You Sizin Your
Onlar They Onların Their
The possesed markers that come after the possessive adjectives change according to the possessor
adjectives and the Vowel Harmony of the noun:
Possessive Adjectives Markers after a consonant Markers after a vowel

Benim -im / -ım / -um / -üm -m
Senin -in / -ın / -un / -ün -n
Onun -i / -ı / -u / -ü -si / -sı / -su / -sü
Bizim -imiz / -ımız / -umuz / -ümüz -miz / -mız / -muz / -müz
Sizin -iniz / -ınız / -unuz / -ünüz -niz / -nız / -nuz / -nüz
Onların -i / -ı / -u / -ü or -leri / -ları -si / -sı / -sü or -leri / -ları
To make more sense of this chart, let’s see some sentence examples:
- Benim arabam – My car - Onun adı – His name

- Senin bisikletin – Your bicycle - Sizin arkadaşınız – Your friend
- Onların okulu – Their school - Senin ablan – Your sister
- Bizim evimiz – Our home - Benim hayatım – My life
We don’t always have to use possessive adjectives infront of a possessed noun, because the case
markers after the possessed, already indicates who it belongs to:
- Arabam – My car
- Bisikletin – Your bicycle
26
Apart from personal adjectives, the Genetive Case can also be used with proper nouns:
- Ahmet’in arabası – Ahmet’s car.

- Burak’ın annesi – Burak’s mother.
- Ayşe’nin evi – Ayşe’s home
- Leyla’nın arkadaşı – Leyla’s friend
When we’re using the genetive case marker with special names, an apostrophe needs to be used
between the marker and the noun. If you also noticed the last two examples, if the possessor ends in
a vowel, then a buffer letter “-n” is added between the noun and the marker to create a harmony.
Consonant Assimilation and the Possesive Marker
Another point you need to be careful with is when you add the Possesive marker to a word ending
with a consonant, be aware of Consonant Assimilation. If you remember from the “Vowel Harmony &
Consonant Assimilation” topic, you need to change the sounds “p,t,ç,k” to “b,d,c,ğ” whenever you
add a suffix to it:
- Ayşe’nin kitabı (kitap) – Ayşe’s book

- Arabanın rengi (renk) – The car’s color
- Arkadaşımın çocuğu (çocuk) – My friends’ child
- Zeynep’in sözlüğü (sözlük) – Zeynep’s dictionary
Possesive Marker and The Existential “var/yok”
In order to indicate that you have or don’t have a possesion of something, you can use the existential
words “var” meaning “have” and “yok” meaning “don’t have”.
- Ayşe’nin kitabı var – Ayşe has a book

- Arkadaşımın çocuğu yok – My friend doesn’t have a child
- Zeynep’in sözlüğü var – Zeynep has a dictionary
- Benim kedim yok – I don’t have a cat.
27
Day 8 – Present Continuous Tense

In today’s lecture, we will learn one of the most important tenses you need, to do conversational
Turkish, the Present Continuous Tense. Because you’re accustomed to conjugating tense sentences
from our Present Simple Tense lesson, you will be able to quickly pick up the rules to making
sentences about actions happening now.
The Present Continuous (or Progressive) Tense is used to talk about general habits and everyday
actions. If you remember the word order of a sentence with an action verb, Present Continuous
Tense also follows the same order. The only difference we have when making such sentences is we
have to add or change certain vowel sounds at the end of a verb and add the tense suffix to “-yor” to
make it in continuous.
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -ıyorum -iyorum -uyorum -üyorum
Sen -ıyorsun -iyorsun -uyorsun -üyorsun
O -ıyor -iyor -uyor -üyor
Biz -ıyoruz -iyoruz -uyoruz -üyoruz
Siz -ıyorsunuz -iyorsunuz -uyorsunuz -üyorsunuz
Onlar -ıyorlar -iyorlar -uyorlar -üyorlar
- Ahmet akşam yemeği yapıyor – Ahmet is making dinner.

- Biz ders çalışıyoruz – We are studying.
- Kedi süt içiyor – The cat is drinking milk.
- Makine ekmek kesiyor – The machine is cutting bread.
Exceptions for Certain Verb Conjugations (Vowel Replacement)
There are some verbs that need to follow some simple rules in order to be correctly conjugated in
the Present Continuous Tense.
If the root of a verb ends with the vowel “-e”, we drop it and replace it with either “-i” or “-ü” and
later add the Present Continuous suffix “-yor” and finally the personal suffix. Look at our previous
chart to choose the correct sound, according to the Vowel Harmony.
- Ahmet, Ayşe’yi bekliyor (beklemek) – Ahmet is waiting for Ayşe.

- Annem elma yiyor (yemek) – My mom is eating an apple.
- O, köpeği besliyor (beslemek) – He is feeding the dog.
- Ablam müzik dinliyor (dinlemek) – My sister is listening to music.
The reason we changed the “-e” to an “-i” in “dinle/besle/ye/bekle” is because it’s an unrounded
front vowel like the “-e” sound. It makes the pronunciation easier and fluent when we change it.
Let’s look at other variations of Vowel Replacement for the Continuous Tense.
28
The below example is of a rounded back vowel. The “-e” is replaced by “-ü”, as they are both
rounded back vowels:
- Teyzem şarkı söylüyor (söylemek) – My aunt is singing.
In the below example, the verb “ara” looses its “-a” sound and its replaced with an “-ı” sound:
- Arkadaşımı arıyorum (aramak) – I’m calling my friend.
Finally, root of the verbs that end in a “-t” are usually changed to a “-d” sound. There are some verbs
that don’t follow this rule and unfortuanetly you simply have to memorize them:
- Amcam işe gidiyor (gitmek) – My uncle is going to work.

- Mehmet televizyon seyrediyor (seyretmek) – Mehmet is watching television.
- Adam tarak satıyor (satmak) – The man is selling combs (EXCEPTION)
- Büyük gemi batıyor (batmak) – The big ship is sinking (EXCEPTION)
Negative Sentences
If you want to make a negative present continuous sentence, you need to insert the “-mi/-
mı/mu/mü” suffixes after the root of the verb, right before present continuous marker “-yor”.
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -mıyorum -miyorum -muyorum -müyorum
Sen -mıyorsun -miyorsun -muyorsun -müyorsun
O -mıyor -miyor -muyor -müyor
Biz -mıyoruz -miyoruz -muyoruz -müyoruz
Siz -mıyorsunuz -miyorsunuz -muyorsunuz -müyorsunuz
Onlar -mıyorlar -miyorlar -muyorlar -müyorlar
Here are some example sentences:
- Seni anlamıyorum – I don’t understand you.

- Ayşe spor yapmıyor – Ayşe isn’t doing sports.
- Ali beni sevmiyor – Ali doesn’t like me.
- O gelmiyor – He isn’t coming.
The verb “sevmek” and “anlamak” are used in the Present Continuous tense in Turkish while they are
used in the Present Simple Tense in English. There are many other verbs in Turkish that may be used
in a different tense in English. This will only be a bit problematic if you’re doing translation work but
otherwise you will understand the difference in time.
Like with positive sentences, there are also rules for vowel and consonant changes when conjugating
verbs in negative present continuous sentences. But because the negative tense marker always starts
with the “-m” letter, you only need to focus on the basic Vowel harmony to choose the correct tense
and personal suffix.
29
Positive Questions
When making positive questions in present continuous, we include the question particle “-mu/-mı”
at the end of the sentence, right before the personal suffix.
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -ıyor muyum -iyor muyum -uyor muyum -üyor muyum
Sen -ıyor musun -iyor musun -uyor musun -üyor musun
O -ıyor mu -iyor mu -uyor mu -üyor mu
Biz -ıyor muyuz -iyor muyuz -uyor muyuz -üyor muyuz
Siz -ıyor musunuz -iyor musunuz -uyor musunuz -üyor musunuz
Onlar -ıyorlar mı -iyorlar mı -uyorlar mı -üyorlar mı
- Bu akşam basketbol oynuyor muyuz? – Are we playing basketball tonight?

Evet, oynuyoruz! – Yes, we’re playing!
- Bu kitabı okuyor musun? – Are you reading this book?

Hayır, okumuyorum. – No, I’m not reading it.
- Annemle alışverişe gidiyor musun? – Are you going shopping with mom?
Evet, gidiyoruz. – Yes, we’re going.
Special Questions with Present Continuous Tense
We can add more detail to our question sentences by using the below question words right before
the verb. When using these words, you don’t write the “-mu/-mı” question particle.
Ne What Nasıl How

Nerede Where Ne Zaman When
Kim Who Niye / Neden Why
- Nereye gidiyoruz (gitmek)? – Where are we going?

- Ne yiyorsun (yemek)? – What are you eating?
- Neden koşuyorsun (koşmak)? – Why are you running?
- Ne zaman dönüyorsun (dönmek)? – When are you returning?
- Kim geliyor (gelmek) – Who’s coming?
- Bunu nasıl açıyorsun (açmak) – How do you open this?
30
Negative Questions
If you want to make negative questions, you basically make a normal negative present continuous
sentence plus the question particle and the personal suffix right at the end of the sentence.
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -mıyor muyum -miyor muyum -muyor muyum -müyor muyum
Sen -mıyor musun -miyor musun -muyor musun -müyor musun
O -mıyor mu -miyor mu -muyor mu -müyor mu
Biz -mıyor muyuz -miyor muyuz -muyor muyuz -müyor muyuz
Siz -mıyor musunuz -miyor musunuz -muyor musunuz -müyor musunuz
Onlar -mıyorlar mı -miyorlar mı -muyorlar mı -müyorlar mı
- Sen televizyon izlemiyor musun? – Aren’t you watching television?

- Ahmet okula gitmiyor mu? – Isn’t Ahmet going to school?
- Beni hiç düşünmüyor musun? – Don’t you ever think about me? (TENSE DIFFERENCE)
- Ayşe ile konuşmuyor musun? – Aren’t you talking to Ayşe?
31
Day 9 – Case Markers

Starting with this lesson we will learn how to use Prepositional suffixes in Turkish. In this video
lecture we will learn about the Dative, Locative, Ablative and Accusative Cases. On the next part of
this lecture, we will so how other prepositions are used in Turkish.
Dative Case
The dative case suffix is used to show motion towards something or someone. In Turkish, the dative
case suffix can be used by adding the “-e/-a” to the end of a noun. These suffixes equal to the
prepositions “to” in English.
Words with the last vowels “a/ı/o/u” take the “-a” ending, while words with the last vowels “e/i/ö/ü”
take the “-e” ending.
- Esin okula gidiyor – Esin is going to school.

- Hergün işe araba sürüyorum – Everyday I drive to work.
- Bugün pazara gidiyor musun? – Are you going to the bazaar today?
- Ayşe yarın İstanbul’a seyahat ediyor – Ayşe is travelling to Istanbul tomorrow.
In the last example, if you use a dative case suffix with a proper noun, you need to use an apostrophe
between the noun and the suffix.
Don’t forget that some words have Consonant Mutation when a suffix is added:
- Lütfen kitaba (Kitap) bak – Please look at the book.

- Sözlüğe (Sözlük) yazı yazıyor – He is writing on the dictionary
- Çocuğa (Çocuk) şeker verdi – She gave the kid candy.
You might have noticed from the last two examples that sometimes a Turkish sentence with a dative
case suffix may not equal to it having any preposition when translated into English.
If a word ends in a vowel, we insert the buffer letter “y” between the dative case suffix and the noun:
- Ayşe arabaya biniyor – Ayşe is getting on the bus.

- Bu akşam partiye gidiyor musun? – Are you going to the party tonight?
32
Question words like “to where” and “to whom” are also made by adding the dative case suffix to the
end of the words “Nere”and “Kim”:
- Nereye gidiyorsun? – Where are you going?

Okula gidiyorum – I’m going to school.
- Kime bakıyorsun? – Who are you looking at?

Ayşe’ye bakıyorum – I’m looking at Ayşe.
Personal Pronouns can also use the dative case:
Personal Pronouns Dative Case Personal Pronous

Ben Bana (To Me)
Sen Sana (To You)
O Ona (To He/She/It)
Biz Bize (To Us)
Siz Size (To You)
Onlar Onlara (To Them)
- Baba bana oyuncak al! – Dad buy me a toy!

- Teyzemler bize geliyor – My aunts are visiting us.
Finally, the dative case can also be used with post-positions of direction by changing it to “-e/a
doğru” meaning “towards” and “-e/a kadar” meaning “until” or “as far as”.
- Üniversiteye doğru koşuyorum – I’m running towards the university.

- Lütfen Cuma’ya kadar ödevini bitir – Please finish your homework until Friday.
- Bu otobüs Fatih’e kadar gidiyor – This bus goes as far as Fatih.
33
Locative Case
The locative case is used to indicate the place where the action occurs. It can also be used to indicate
the time the action occurs. The locative case marker in Turkish is “-de/-da/-te/-ta” which is usually
“in/at/on” in English.
-de/-da after soft consonants b/c/d/g/ğ/j/l/m/n/r/v/y/z

-de/-da after vowel e/i/ö/ü/a/ı/o/u
-te/-ta after hard consonants ç/f/h/k/p/s/ş/t
- Ben Ankara’da yaşıyorum – I live in Ankara.

- Hergün işte çok çalışıyorum – Everyday, I work a lot at work.
- Ahmet arabada uyuyor – Ahmet is sleeping in the car.
- Kitapta ne yazıyor? – What’s writing on the book?
- Kedi ağaçta bekliyor – The cat is waiting on the tree.
If you’re going to use a personal suffix right after a noun with a locative case, we add the buffer letter
“-y” before the “I” personal suffix:
- Bugün evdeyim – Today, I’m at home.

- Ben işteyim, sen nerdesin? – I’m at work, where are you?
Similarly to the dative case, Personal Pronouns can also be followed by the locative case “-de/-da”:
Personal Pronouns Locative Case P. Pronous

Ben Bende (On Me)
Sen Sende (On You)
O Onda (On Him/Her/It)
Biz Bizde (On Us)
Siz Sizde (On You)
Onlar Onlarda (On Them)
- Evin anahtarı bende – The house’s keys are on me / I have (got) the house’s keys.
- Bugün sizde ne yapacağız? - What are we going to do at your place?
- Onlarda kalem yok – They don’t have a pencil.
We can also make locative question words. The words “Nerede” meaning “Where” and “Kimde”
meaning “On Whom” or “Who’s got” are made by adding “-de” suffix to “Nere” and “Kim”:
- Annem nerede? – Where’s my mom?

- Kumanda kimde? – Who has (got) the remote?
34
Ablative Case
We use the ablative case to talk about a point of a depature, “place of which” and indicating a
comparison. The Turkish suffix for the ablative case is “-den/-dan/-ten/-tan” which corresponds to
“from” in English.
-den/-dan after soft consonants b/c/d/g/ğ/j/l/m/n/r/v/y/z

-den/-dan after vowel e/i/ö/ü/a/ı/o/u
-ten/-tan after hard consonants ç/f/h/k/p/s/ş/t
- Okuldan eve dönüyorum – I’m returning from school.

- Marketten birşey istiyor musun? – Do you want anything from the market?
- Benim arabam, o arabandan daha güzel – My car is prettier than that car.
- Yağmurdan nefret ediyorum – I hate the rain.
- Yorgunluktan başım ağrıyor – I have a headache from tiredness.
You can also make the question words “From Where” and “From Whom” by adding the ablative
case suffix to the question words “Nere” and “Kim”, making them “Nereden” and “Kimden”:
- Nereden geldin? – Where did you come from?

İstanbul’dan geldim – I came from Istanbul
- O hediye kimden? – Who’s that present from?

Arkadaşımdan – From my friend.
35
Accusative Case
Nouns that are affected by the action of a verb use the accusative case. The accusitve case is used to
show the definite object of a verb. The accusative case can be found by answering the questions
“Kimi” meaning “who” and “neyi” meaning “what”.
After words ending in vowels yı/yi/yu/yü

After words ending in consonants ı/i/u/ü
- Ayşe gazete okuyor – Ayşe is reading (a) book.

Ayşe gazeteyi okuyor – Ayşe is reading the book.
- Ben brokoli yemek istemiyorum – I don’t want to eat broccoli.

Ben brokoliyi yemek istemiyorum – I don’t want to eat the broccoli.
- Ben sandviç istiyorum – I want a sandwich.

Ben sandviçi istiyorum – I want the sandwich.
Don’t forget to use the aposthrope with proper nouns:
- Dün Ahmet’i gördün mü? – Did you see Ahmet yesterday?

- Ahmet Selin’i seviyor – Ahmet loves Selin
Personal Pronouns can also be followed by the Accusative case:
Personal Pronouns With Accusative Case

Ben Beni (Me)
Sen Seni (You)
O Onu (Him/Her/It)
Biz Bizi (Us)
Siz Sizi (You)
Onlar Onları (Them)
- Seni seviyorum – I love you.

- Bizi sakın unutma – Don’t ever forget us.
36
Day 10 – Spatial Postpositions

We learned about the Genetive Case and the Possesive Marker in the earlier lessons. If you want to
describe the position of a certain object or an action in relation to that object, you need to use a
Genetive-Possessive compound structure. While the complement takes the genetive case, the
postposition (words describing the position) take the possessive marker.
Let’s see the list of Postpositions for this lesson:
İç In/Inside
Üst / Üzeri On/Over
Yukarı Up/Above
Aşağı Down/Below
Alt Under
Dış Outside
Ön Infront
Arka Behind/Back
Yan Beside/Next to
Yakın Near
Karşı Opposite
Ara Between
Basically, if we want to say that something is somewhere an example sentence will be like this:
- Top arabanın altında – The ball is under the car.
Top arabanın altında

Subject Noun + Genetive Case Postposition + Possesive Marker + Locative Case
It is really important that you’ve master the “Genetive Case & The Possesive” topic before you
continue with this lesson. If you haven’t understood it enough please go back to “Day 6” to review it.
Let’s see some more sentence examples:
- Silgi kitabın altında – The eraser is under the book.

- Çiçek vazonun içinde – The flower is inside the vase.
- Bizim evimiz sizin evinizin karşısında – Our house is opposite your house.
- Kedi nerede? – Where’s the cat?
Kedi arabanın üstünde. – The cat’s on top of the car.
37
From these sentences, the object that is the center of focus is at the start of the sentence. There are
also other ways to make such sentences. You can use “var” or “yok” meaning “is/are” or
“isn’t/aren’t” to indicate whether the object is present or not:
- Arabanın üstünde kedi var – There is a cat on top of the car.

- Kitabın arasında kalemim yok – My pencil is not in between the book.
You can also include action verbs into these sentences:
- Kedi arabanın yanında ne yapıyor? – What’s the cat doing next to the car?
Kedi arabanın yanında uyuyor – The cat is sleeping next to the car.
- Güneş nerede? – Where is the sun?

Evimizin üstünde/yukarısında – It’s above our house.
It is also possible to use the other case markers like the Ablative Case or the Dative Case for
use with the postposition.
- Buzdolabın içinden dondurma aldı – He took an ice-cream from inside the fridge.
- Buzdolabın içine dondurma koydu – He put an ice-cream inside the fridge.
38
Day 11 – Past Simple Tense

After 10 Days, we finally came to the Past Simple Tense. There is actually a logical reason why it took
us 10 lessons to come to this subject because we needed to learn certain subjects like the “Genetive
Case” and “Spatial Postpositions” to make our lessons and examples richer in context. There are so
many parts of speech in Turkish that we have yet to uncover. We will cover all the fundamental
topics that need to be covered in these 30 days.
You should now have understood the basic principals of verb conjugation with the earlier “Present
Simple” and “Present Continuous” tenses in Turkish. The rules are going to be always similar and
logical from now on.
As you know, we use the Past Simple Tense to talk about actions someone did or witnessed in the
past. Making Past Simple sentences in Turkish is pretty simple, we add the “-di/-dı/-du/-dü” or “-ti/-
tı/-tu/-tü” to the end of the root of the verb in addition to the personal suffix which is added right
after the Past Tense suffix.
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -dım -dim -dum -düm
Sen -dın -din -dun -dün
O -dı -di -du -dü
Biz -dık -dik -duk -dük
Siz -dınız -diniz -dunuz -dünüz
Onlar -dılar -diler -dular -düler
Consonant Mutation in Past Simple Tense
If the last syllable of the verb ends in the consonants “f/s/t/k/ç/ş/h/p” we change the “-d” to a “-t” in
the above chart. A nice way to memorize this rule is remembering the phrases “Fıstıkçı Şahap” or
“Çift Haseki Paşa”.
Let’s seem some examples. This time the examples will get a bit more complex, using the grammar
that we’ve learned so far:
- Dün, okul arkadaşım Ali’den kitap ödünç aldım (ödünç almak).

(Yesterday, I borrowed a book from my school friend Ali)
- Babam eski arabasını sattı (satmak).

(My father sold his old car)
- Bir kuş kafamın üstüne sıçtı (sıçmak - slang).

(A bird shat on my head)
39
Just a small reminder, Turkish doesn’t have the “Present Perfect” tense where we talk about action
that have been completed but still have its effects (like experiences). Instead, we use additional
words to convey the “Perfect Aspect” in Turkish.
- Bu kitabı daha önce okudum (okumak) – I have read that book

- Amerika’ya önceden gittim (gitmek) – I have visited United States.
Negative Sentences
Making negative past simple sentences is similar to making a negative sentence in any Turkish tense.
We add the “-ma/-me” negative suffix between the root of the verb and the Past Tense suffix.
a/ı/o/u e/i/ö/ü
Ben -madım -medim
Sen -madın -medin
O -madı -medi
Biz -madık -medik
Siz -madınız -mediniz
Onlar -madılar -mediler
- Bu sabah kahvaltı yapmadım. (yapmak)

(I didn’t have breakfast this morning.)
- Dün gece ödevimi bitirmedim. (bitirmek)

(Last night, I didn’t finish my homework.)
- Hakan geçen haftasonu partiye katılmadı. (katılmak)

(Hakan didn’t attend the party last weekend)
The Perfect Aspect in Past Simple
As I mentioned earlier with positive sentences, Turkish doesn’t have the “Perfect Tense”. In order to
make negative perfect tense sentences in Turkish, you can use the words “daha/henüz” meaning
“yet” to convey the “Perfect Aspect”.
- Film daha/henüz bitmedi.

(The film hasn’t ended yet.)
- Arkadaşlarım daha/henüz tatilden gelmedi.

(My friends haven’t come back from holiday yet)
40
Positive Questions
In order to make positive question sentences in Past Simple, we add the “mi/mı/mu/mü” question
particles after the conjugated verb.
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -dım mı? -dim mi? -dum mu? -düm mü?
Sen -dın mı? -din mi? -dun mu? -dün mü?
O -dı mı? -di mi? -du mu? -dü mü?
Biz -dık mı? -dik mi? -duk mu? -dük mü?
Siz -dınız mı? -diniz mi? -dunuz mu? -dünüz mü?
Onlar -dılar mı? -diler mi? -dular mı?* -düler mi?*
- Dün Can ile okulda görüştün mü (görüşmek)?

(Did you meet with Can at school yesterday?)
- Yemeğini bitirdin mi?

(Did you finish your meal?)
- Aşkım, bana doğum günü hediyesi aldın mı?

(Did you buy me a birthday present, my love?)
You can also use the question words “Ne/Nerede/Kim/Nasıl/Ne Zaman/Niye or Neden” meaning
“What/Where/Who/How/When/Why” to make question sentences in Past Tense. In this case, you
don’t use the question particle “mi/mı/mu/mü”. The verb comes after the question word here:
- Dün gece neden gelmedin (gelmek)?

(Why didn’t you come last night?)
- Yeni arabanla dünya turu ne zaman yaptın (yapmak)?

(When did you do a world tour with your new car?)
- Ayşe ile nasıl tanıştınız (tanışmak)?

(How did you meet Ayşe?)
41
Negative Questions
When making negative questions in Past Simple, you simply add the question particle “-ma/-me”
after a negative sentence:
a/ı/o/u e/i/ö/ü
Ben -madım mı? -medim mi?
Sen -madın mı? -medin mi?
O -madı mı? -medi mi?
Biz -madık mı? -medik mi?
Siz -madınız mı? -mediniz mi?
Onlar -madılar mı? -mediler mi?
- O kitabı okumadın mı?

(Didn’t you read that book?)
- O kitabı henüz okumadın mı?

(Haven’t you read that book yet?)
- Ofise daha gelmedin mi?

(Haven’t you come to the office yet?)
- Ayşe daha eve dönmedi mi?

(Hasn’t Ayşe returned back home yet?)
The negative question for Past Simple will be more functional if you include the “Perfect Aspect”
words that we’ve learned. Eventhough you can still make them without these words, the negative
question sentences in Past Simple in Turkish are usually literally translated into the English Negative
Present Perfect Tense Questions a lot.
42
Day 12 – Question Words

Today’s lesson focuses on a more basic but still important part of the Turkish language, questions
words. We have already seen how question sentences are formed in Turkish. There are ‘To Be’ type
questions (also called conditional type questions) that only uses the question particle ‘mi/mu’ and
the question words that are used with action verbs. Let’s see the list of all the question words
available in Turkish.
Question Word English Meaning

Ne What
Nerede Where
Nereden From Where
Nereye To Where
Ne zaman When
Neden / Niye / Niçin Why
Hangi Which
Hangisi Which one
Kim Who
Kimin Whose (is it)
Kime To Whom
Nasıl How
Ne Kadar How much / How many
Ne Sıklıkla How often
Kaç tane How many
When making question sentences in Turkish with action verbs, most of the sentences start with an
Object, then the question words and finally the action verb conjugated into the appropriate tense
and personal suffix.
- Bugün akşam yemeği için ne yapıyorsun?

(What are you doing for dinner today?)
- Baban işten ne zaman geldi?

(When did your father came from work?)
- Arkadaşım Ahmet’in arabasını kim kullanıyor?

(Who is using my friend Ahmet’s car?)
- Pazardan ne kadar elma aldın?

(How many apples did you buy from the bazaar?)
- Arabada kaç tane top var?

(How many balls are in the car?)
- Ne sıklıkla basketbol oynarsın?

(How often do you play basketball?)
43
Tag Questions
Sentences with tag questions are also frequently used in conversational Turkish. You simply add
‘değil mi?’ to the end of the sentence regardless of the personal pronoun, the tense and whether it’s
a positive or a negative sentences.
- Yarın ablam geliyor, değil mi?

(Tomorrow, my sister is coming, isn’t she?)
- Ödevini yapmadın, değil mi?

(You didn’t do your homework, didn’t you?)
- Evde dondurma var, değil mi?

(There is ice-cream at home, isn’t there?)
44
Day 13 – Adjectives
As you know, adjectives are used in front of nouns to describe the color, shape, property, number
and many more details of a noun.
Adjectives in Turkish are also placed right infront of nouns like in English. They are never conjugated,
never get the plural suffixes ‘-ler/-lar’ at the end and have no gender specific form like in other
languages. Adjectives can be formed from both nouns and verbs.
Here is a list of the most common adjectives with their opposite forms:
Adjectives Opposite Adjective

Güzel Beautiful / Pretty Çirkin Ugly
Ucuz Cheap Pahalı Expensive
Büyük Big Küçük Small
Kolay Easy Zor Hard
İyi Good Kötü Bad
Yavaş Slow Hızlı Fast
Hafif Light Ağır Heavy
Genç Young Yaşlı Old (Person)
Yeni New Eski Old (Thing)
İnce Thin Kalın Thick
Kısa Short Uzun Long
Zengin Rich Fakir Poor
Sıcak Hot Soğuk Cold
Dar Narrow Geniş Wide
Tatlı Sweet Acı Bitter
Islak Wet Kuru Dry
Boş Empty Dolu Full
Temiz Clean Pis Dirty
Aydınlık Bright Karanlık Dark
Although there are no gender-specific nouns in Turkish, you can use the nouns that indicate gender
to be used as adjective infront of another noun.
- Kız öğrenci derse geç geldi.

(The female student came to class late)
- Erkek bir öğretmen sınıfa geldi.

(A male teacher came to the class.)
45
Other Usages of Adjectives
You can use nouns as adjectives to indicate a persons’ nationality or occupation:
- İngiliz yazar, Türkiye’yi ziyaret etti.

(The English writer visited Turkey.)
- Yazar kız Türkiye hakkında kitap yazdı.

(The writer girl / The girl who is a writer wrote a book about Turkey)
Adjectives Made From Nouns
It is possible to create adjectives out of nouns by adding certain suffixes.
If you add the suffix ‘-lı/-li/-lu/-lü’ to the end of a noun, you can make adjectives that mean ‘with ..’
or ‘dressed in ..’ meaning adjectives:
Noun Adjective
Hız Speed Hızlı Speedy
Şeker Sugar Şekerli Sugary
Akıl Mind Akıllı Intelligent / Clever
Şans Luck Şanslı Lucky
Et Meat Etli Meaty
Sağlık Health Sağlıklı Healthy
Yağ Fat Yağlı Fatty
Tuz Salt Tuzlu Salty
Yağmur Rain Yağmurlu Rainy
Güneş Sun Güneşli Sunny
Sis Fog Sisli Foggy
Güç Power Güçlü Powerful
Umut Hope Umutlu Hopeful
Endişe Anxiety Endişeli Anxious
- Tuzlu yemek yemeyi seviyorum.

(I like eating salty foods)
- Yağmurlu günlerde dışarı çıkmam.

(I don’t go out on rainy days)
- Ahmet çok endişeli bir adamdır.

(Ahmet is a really anxious man)
46
Opposites Adjectives
The opposite of adjectives with the ‘-lı/-li/-lu/-lü’ suffix is the ‘-siz/-sız/-suz/-süz’ ending adjectives
meaning ‘without …’:
Adjective Opposite Adjective

Şekerli Sugary Şekersiz Without Sugar
Akıllı Intelligent / Clever Akılsız Stupid
Şanslı Lucky Şanssız Unlucky
Etli Meaty Etsiz Without Meat
Sağlıklı Healthy Sağlıksız Unhealthy
Yağlı Fatty Yağsız Without Fat
Tuzlu Salty Tuzsuz Without Salt
Yağmurlu Rainy Yağmursuz Without Rain
Güneşli Sunny Güneşsiz Without Sun
Sisli Foggy Sissiz Without Fog
Güçlü Powerful Güçsüz Powerless
Umutlu Hopeful Umutsuz Hopeless
Endişeli Anxious Endişesiz Without Anxiety
- Ben sağlıksız yemekler yemem Şanslıyız! Bugün yağmursuz bir gün!

(I don’t eat unhealthy food.) (We’re lucky! It’s a rainless day!)
- Endişesiz bir gün geçirmek istiyorum.

(I want to spend a day without anxiety.)
You can also add “-siz/-sız/-suz/-süz” to Pronouns and names:
Bensiz Without Me
Sensiz Without You
Onsuz Without Him/Her/It
Bizsiz Without Us
Sizsiz Without You
Onlarsız Without Them
- Sensiz bu filmi izlemem.

(I won’t watch this film without you)
- Onlarsız mutsuz olurum.

(I would be sad without them.)
- Ahmet’siz partiye gittik.

(We went to the party without Ahmet)
- Melisa’sız ne yapacaksın?
(What are you going to do without Melisa?)
47
Day 14 – Determiners
The Turkish language doesn’t use the articles (a/an/the) in Turkish. Unlike the order in English where
the article is before the adjective, in Turkish the article is used right after the adjective, before the
noun.
If you want it to have an indefinite article like the ‘a/an’ in English, we use the word ‘bir’ which
means ‘one’ to make the noun be a general thing.
The definite article “the” doesn’t exist in Turkish. If you want to emphasize a direct object in a
sentence, use the accusative suffix “-i/-ı/-u/-ü” to state the definite case “the”. This is the proper way
to use the indefinite article in Turkish. If you use the accusative suffix after a noun, there needs to be
a direct interaction between the noun and the action verb unlike a general statement.
Let’s see how “bir” and the “accusative suffix” work in these sentences:
- Adam, ince bir pantolon ve kalın bir kazak giydi.

(The man wore a thin trouser and a thick sweater.)
- Küçük kedi ayağımın yanında uyuyor.

(The little cat is sleeping next to my foot.)
- Yaşlı adam, boş bir evde yaşıyor.

(The old man is living in an empty house.)
- Çocuk bir hambuger yiyor.

(The child is eating a hamburger)
- Çocuk hamburger yiyor.

(The child is eating the hamburger
- Çocuk hamburgeri yiyor.

(The child is eating the hamburger.)
48
Other Determiners in Turkish
There are more choices for indefinite articles in the Turkish language.
Here are some other determiners you can use in your sentences:
Bir a/an , one Sigular Usage

Birkaç A couple / Several Singular Usage
Birçok Many Singular Usage
Bazı Some / Certain / A Few Plural Usage
Az Little Singular Usage
Her Each / Every /All Singular Usage
Kimi Some / Certain Singular & Plural
Hiçbir No Singular Usage
Bütün All / Entire Plural Usage
Tüm All / Whole / Entire Plural Usage
- Dünya’da birçok insan Türkiye’yi bilmiyor.

(Most people in the world don’t know Turkey.)
- Kimi Türkler etli yemek yemeyi sevmez.

(Certain Turks don’t like eating meaty foods.)
- Birkaç arkadaşım ile sinemaya gittim.

(I went to cinema with a couple of my friends)
When you use these determiners, don’t change the noun into plural forms (-ler/-lar) unless you are
using these determiners in conjunction with a previous sentence or statement. Also becareful not to
use a singular usage determiner with a plural noun.
49
Day 15 – Adverbs Part -1

In our previous lessons we learned about Adjectives and Articles in Turkish, today we will learn about
the different types of Adverbs in Turkish. Like in English, Turkish adverbs are separated into five
groups.
1) Adverbs of Manner
2) Adverbs of Place
3) Adverbs of Time
4) Adverbs of Quantitiy
5) Adverbs of Question
Adverbs of Manner
The first type of adverb that you will probably use a lot when you start speaking Turkish is the
adverbs of manner. These adverbs describe in what manner the action (the verb) is done.
Turkish adverbs are made by adding the suffix “-ce/-ca/-çe/-ça” to adjectives:
Adjective Adverb of Manner

Yavaş Slow Yavaşça Slowly
Hızlı Fast / Quick Hızlıca Quickly
Dikkatli Careful Dikkatlice Carefully
Gizli Secret Gizlice Secretly
Sessiz Quiet Sessizce Quietly
The adverb of manner are used before a verb and and the question “nasıl” (how) :
- Doktor hastayla sessizce konuştu.

(The doctor talked quietly with the patient)
- Annem yavaşça odama girdi.

(My mother slowly entered my room)
- Casus gizlice çatıya çıktı.

(The spy secretly climbed the roof)
Be careful with the vowel harmony when using the adverbs of manner suffix. Some adjectives can’t
use the “-ce” suffix, instead they use the word “bir biçimde” or “bir şekilde” meaning “in a way” that
also has the same meaning of the “-ce” suffix.
- Kız, üzücü bir şekilde hikaye anlattı.

(The girl told a story in a sad way)
- Oğlan sempatik bir biçimde kıza yaklaştı.

(The boy approached the girl sympathetically)
50
Adverbs of Place and Direction
These adverbs show the place where the action is happening or directed towards. In order to find the
adverb of place in a sentence, we ask the question “nereye” meaning “where”. Unlike the adverbs of
manner, adverbs of place are used without suffixes. If an adverb of place gets any suffix, it becomes a
noun.
Here is a list of Adverbs of Place:
İçeri Inside
Dışarı Outside
Yukarı Up / Upward
Aşağı Down / Downward
Sağ Right
Sol Left
İleri Forward
Geri Backward
Karşı Opposite
Doğru Towards
- Tarkan aşağı atladı.

(Tarkan jumped down)
- Lütfen biraz daha geri git.

(Please go backwards a little more)
You can also use the dative, locative, and the ablative suffixes to show where the location is at or the
movement is from.
- Işıklardan karşıya geç ve sağa dön.

(Walk across the lights and turn right)
- Dışarıda bekleme, içeriye gel.

(Don’t wait outside, come inside)
- Selin çok geriden geliyor.

(Selin is coming from way backward)
51
Adverbs of Time
Adverbs of time tell us the time the action occurs and it answers the question “ne zaman” meaning
“when”. Adverbs of time answer three types of question regarding the time of an action:
1) Repeated time locations

2) Frequency of the action
3) Duration of the action
First let’s see a list of Adverbs of Time in Turkish:
Dün Yesterday
Bugün Today
Yarın Tomorrow
Sabah In the morning
Öğlen At noon
Akşam In the evening
Şimdi Now
Sonra Later
Haftaya Next Week
Geçen Hafta Last Week
Gelecek Sene Next Year
Yakında Soon
Pazartesi Monday
Çarşamba Wednesday
Cuma Friday
- Ahmet dün Ankara’dan geldi.

(Ahmet came from Ankara yesterday)
- Geçen hafta arkadaşlarımla sinemaya gittik.

(Last week we went to the cinema with my friends)
- Bu ödevi sonra yapacağım.

(I’m gonna do this homework later.)
By adding the suffix “-leri/-ları” to the name of the day or parts of the day, we can tell how frequently
the action occurs.
- Cumaları basketbol oynarım.

(On Fridays I play basketball)
- Sabahları kahvaltıda hep süt içerim.

(I always drink milk at breakfast in the mornings)
52
The word “her” meaning “every” is also used with the name of the day or parts of the day.
- Her akşam yoga yaparım.

(I do yoga every night)
Here is a small list of adverbs that express frequency:
Hep Always
Her ... (zaman, akşam, gün,...) Every ... (time, night, day)
Genellikle Usually
Sık Sık Often
Ara sıra Sometimes
Bazen Sometimes
Hiç / Hiçbir Zaman Never
Günde /Haftada /Ayda/ Yılda bir/iki/üç kez One/Two/three times a /day/week/month/year
- Genellikle dışarıda yürüş yaparım.

(I usually do walking outside.)
- Günde iki kez şınav çekerim.

(I do pushups two times a day).
It is possible to use more than one adverb of frequency consequently.
- Bazen hiç televizyon izlemem.

(I sometimes never watch television)
- Ara sıra öğlenleri hamburger yerim.

(Sometimes at noon I eat a hamburger.)
When you want to talk about the duration of an event, we can use a numeral with the following
words from the chart:
Saniye Seconds
Dakika Minutes
Saat Hours
Gün Days
Hafta Weeks
Ay Months
Yıl Years
- Seni üç saat bekledim. - Ankara’da üç yıl yaşadım.

(I waited three hours for you) (I lived in Ankara for 3 years)
- Her gün otuz dakika meditasyon yaparım.

(Everyday I do thirty minutes of meditation)
We will continue with Adverbs on the next day, keep revising this and the earlier lessons for now.
53
Day 16 – Adverbs Part - 2

Continuing from our earlier lesson, let’s look at the last two types of Adverbs in Turkish.
Adverbs of Quantity
Adverbs of quantity answers the questions “ne kadar” meaning “how much” in the sentence. These
adverbs can take place before or after an adjective, verb or other adverbs.
Adverbs of quantity have three sub-groups:
1) They indicate the equality

2) They indicate comparison (Comperatives)
3) They indicate extremity (Superlatives)
Let’s first see a list of adverbs of quantity:
En ... The Most ...

Daha More
Pek Quite
Oldukça Quite
Çok Very / Much / Too Much
Az Not Much
Biraz A little
Kadar As Much As / As ... As
Denli To a Degree
Gibi Like / As / Such As / Around
Fazla Much
When we’re talking about equality, we use the adverb “kadar” meaning “as much as”:
- Cennet kadar güzel bir yer.

(A place as beautiful as heaven)
- Okula gitmeyi sevmediği kadar iş yapmayı da sevmez.

(He doesn’t like going to school as much as doing work)
- Çalıştığın kadar para kazanırsın.

(You earn money as much as you work)
54
When we’re talking about a comparision, we use “daha” meaning “more”:
- Benim arabam senin arabandan daha hızlı. - Bu sınav için daha çok çalışmalısın.
(My car is faster than your car.) (You need to study more for this exam.)
- Sanki, bugün daha güneşli.

(It’s as if, sunnier today)
If you want to talk about extremities, you need to use “en ...” in addition to a adjective, meaning “the
most ...”. You can also use “çok” and “fazla” both meaning “very/much/many” similarly to the “en...”
word:
- O çok güzel bir kız. - En temiz ev, benim evim.

(She is a very pretty girl) (My house is the cleanest house)
- Amerika’da çok yabancı arkadaşım var.

(I have many foreign friends in the United States)
Adverbs of Question
The last adverb we will learn in this lesson is the adverbs of question. These adverbs give us the
reason and the meaning of the action through a question. Question sentences basically use adverbs
of questions.
Let’s see the list of adverbs of question:
Ne What
Nasıl How
Ne zaman / Kaçta When
Neden / Niçin Why
Ne kadar How much / How long
Ne biçim What kind of
Ne diye What for?
- Neden geç kaldın? - Ne diye beni aramadın?

(Why were you late?) - (What for you didn’t call me?)
- Annemler İstanbul’dan ne zaman dönecek? - Bu ne biçim bir hayvan?

(When will my mothers return from Istanbul?) - (What kind of animal is that?)
- İzmir’e gelmemize daha ne kadar var?

(How long till we get to İzmir?)
Sometimes adverbs of questions can be used as interjections like in English:
- Ne güzel bir ev! - Bana ne zaman geleceğini söylemedi.

(What a beautiful house!) (He didn’t tell me when he was coming)
55
Day 17 – Numbers and Measurements

Today’s lesson will be a short lesson. We will learn about the cardinal, ordinal numbers and
measurements in Turkish.
It’s actually really easy to learn to count in Turkish, we count from the big number to the small
number, just like in English.
Let’s first see the Cardinal Numbers in Turkish:
Numeral Cardinal Pronunciation Numeral Cardinal Pronunciation

1 Bir 30 Otuz
2 İki 40 Kırk
3 Üç 50 Elli
4 Dört 60 Altmış / Atmış
5 Beş 70 Yetmiş
6 Altı 80 Seksen
7 Yedi 90 Doksan
8 Sekiz 100 Yüz
9 Dokuz 1.000 Bin
10 On 10.000 On Bin
11 Onbir 100.000 Yüz Bin
12 Oniki 1.000.000 Bir Milyon
13 Onüç 10.000.000 On Milyon
14 Ondört 100.000.000 Yüz Milyon
15 Onbeş 1.000.000.000 Bir Milyar
16 Onaltı 10.000.000.000 On Milyar
17 Onyedi 100.000.000.000 Yüz Milyar
18 Onsekiz 1.000.000.000.000 Bir Trilyon
19 Ondokuz 10.000.000.000.000 On Trilyon
20 Yirmi 100.000.000.000.000 Yüz Trilyon
21 Yirmi bir
22 Yirmi iki
Let’s practice reading some random numbers:
35 Otuz beş
789 Yedi yüz seksen dokuz
6985 Altı bin dokuz yüz seksen beş
29481 Yirmi dokuz bin dört yüz seksen bir
987654 Dokuz yüz seksen yedi bin altı yüz elli dört
1234567 Bir milyon iki yüz otuz dört bin beş yüz atmış yedi
10293847 On milyon iki yüz doksan üç bin sekiz yüz kırk yedi
100005438 Yüz milyon beş bin dört yüz otuz sekiz
56
Now lets learn the Ordinal Numbers in Turkish:
Numeral Ordinal Pronunciation Numeral Ordinal Pronunciation

1 Birinci 30 Otuzuncu
2 İkinci 40 Kırkıncı
3 Üçüncü 50 Ellinci
4 Dördüncü 60 Altmışıncı / Atmışıncı
5 Beşinci 70 Yetmişinci
6 Altıncı 80 Sekseninci
7 Yedinci 90 Doksanıncı
8 Sekizinci 100 Yüzüncü
9 Dokuzuncu 1.000 Bininci
10 Onuncu 10.000 On Bininci
11 Onbirinci 100.000 Yüz Bininci
12 Onikinci 1.000.000 Bir Milyonuncu
13 Onüçüncü 10.000.000 On Milyonuncu
14 Ondördüncü 100.000.000 Yüz Milyonuncu
15 Onbeşinci 1.000.000.000 Bir Milyarıncı
16 Onaltıncı 10.000.000.000 On Milyarıncı
17 Onyedinci 100.000.000.000 Yüz Milyarıncı
18 Onsekizinci 1.000.000.000.000 Bir Triylonuncu
19 Ondokuzuncu 10.000.000.000.000 On Trilyonuncu
20 Yirminci 100.000.000.000.000 Yüz Trilyonuncu
21 Yirmi birinci
22 Yirmi ikinci
Let’s see a few sentence examples:
- Yarışmada kaçıncı oldun? (Which place did you finish the race in?)
Beşinci oldum! (I was fifth place!)
- Pardon, ABC Şirketi kaçıncı katta? (Excuse me, which floor is ABC Company at?)
ABC Şirketi yedinci katta, efendim. (The ABC Company is at seventh floor sir)
Measurements in Turkish:
Turkey uses the European measurement units. Here are the Turkish words for these measurement
units:
Turkish Words English Words

Kilometre (km) Kilometre
Metre (m) Meter
Santimetre (cm) Centimetre
Milimetre (mm) Millimetre
Kilogram (kg) Kilogram
Gram (g) Gram
Ok, now all you have to do is practice making some sentences with these numbers and
measurements!
57
Day 18 – Past Continuous

We are already way past the middle of this series where you’ll learn Conversational Turkish in 30
Days. This lecture is one of the last two tenses you will learn in this series.
In today’s lecture we learn about the Past Continuous tense in Turkish. We use this tense to talk
about the actions that were continuing at a particular time in the past. In order to conjugate a verb in
the past continuous tense, we add the suffix “-iyordu/-ıyordu/-uyordu/-üyordu” to the end of the
root of the verb.
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -iyordum -ıyordum -uyordum -üyordum
Sen -iyordun -ıyordun -uyordun -üyordun
O -iyordu -ıyordu -uyordu -üyordu
Biz -iyorduk -ıyorduk -uyorduk -üyorduk
Siz -iyordunuz -ıyordunuz -uyordunuz -üyordunuz
Onlar -iyorlardı -ıyorlardı -uyorlardı -üyorlardı
- Dün akşam babam ve ben kitap okuyorduk.

(Last night, me and my father were reading a book.)
- Oğlan yağmurun altında kızı bekliyordu.

(The boy was waiting for the girl under the rain)
- Yaşlı adam yavaşça kahve içiyordu.

(The old man was slowly drinking a coffee)
For verbs that end with the “-e” vowel, we replace it with either the “-i” or the “-ü” vowel depending
on whatever the earlier vowel sound in the verb before the last one is. We have to follow the vowel
harmony to select the correct replacement.
- Çocuk annesini bekliyordu (beklemek).

(The child was waiting for his mother.)
- Abim masada lazanya yiyordu (yemek).

(My brother was eating lasagne at the table)
- Geçen hafta, arkadaşım bana şarkı söylüyordu (söylemek)

(Last week, my friend was singing me a song)
For verbs that end in an “-a” vowel, we replace it with either the “-ı” or the “-u” sound, following the
above rules.
- Dün basketbol oynuyordum (oynamak). - Televizyonda film başlıyordu (başlamak)

(Yesterday I was playing basketball.) (The film was starting on TV)
58
When and While Usage
The Past Continuous tense is actually incomplete without the usage of “When” and “While”, just like
in English. In Turkish the “-dığında” suffix means “when” and the “-ken” suffix means “while”.
Here is the verb conjugation for the “-dığında” suffix for different pronouns. For the “-dığında” suffix,
you simply add this suffix after the root of the verb to sucessfully turn it into the “when” meaning:
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -dığımda -diğimde -duğumda -düğümde
Sen -dığında -diğinde -duğunda -düğünde
O -dığında -diğinde -duğunda -düğünde
Biz -dığımızda -diğimizde -duğumuzda -düğümüzde
Siz -dığınızda -diğinizde -duğunuzda -düğünüzde
Onlar -dıklarında -diklerinde -duklarında -düklerinde
And here is the verb conjugation for the “-ken” suffix for different pronouns. For this suffix, you need
to do a little bit more to correctly. You first have to conjugate the verb into the “Present Simple”
form, adding the “-r/-ar/-er/-ır/-ir/-ur/-ür” to the root of the verb and later adding the “-ken” suffix.
Be sure to recheck Day 5 if you still have problems properly conjugating the verb into the Present
Simple tense.
a/ı/e/i/o/u/ö/ü
Ben
Sen
O
Verb root + Present Simple Suffix + -ken
Biz
Siz
Onlar
Now, let’s see all these suffixes in action. You can use the “when” and “while” suffixes with both the
“Past Continuous” tense and the “Simple Past” tense:
- Ali kitap okurken Ahmet televizyon izliyordu.

(While Ali was reading a book, Ahmet was watching television)
- Okula giderken müzik dinliyordum.

(While I was going to school, I was listening to music.)
- Sen bilgisayar oyunları oynarken ben tüm evi temizledim.

(While you were playing computer games, I cleaned the whole house.)
- Aysıla eve girdiğinde Ali ders çalışıyordu.

(When Aysıla entered the house, Ali was studying)
- Hırsız silahını gösterdiğinde kız donup kaldı.

(When the thief showed his weapon, the girl was petrified)
59
Negative Sentences
The negative form for the past continuous tense is made by adding the “-mi/-mı/-mu/-mü” suffixes
between the verb root and the “-yordu” suffix, following the personal suffix:
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -miyordum -mıyordum -muyordum -müyordum
Sen -miyordun -mıyordun -muyordun -müyordun
O -miyordu -mıyordu -muyordu -müyordu
Biz -miyorduk -mıyorduk -muyorduk -müyorduk
Siz -miyordunuz -mıyordunuz -muyordunuz -müyordunuz
Onlar -miyorlardı -mıyorlardı -muyorlardı -müyorlardı
- Biz parti için hazırlık yaparken Türkay hiçbir şey yapmıyordu.

(While we were doing preparations for the party, Türkay wasn’t doing anything)
- Dün fabrikada yangın çıktığında, kimse delice koşuşturmuyordu.

(Yesterday, when a fire erupted at the factory, nobody was running around crazily)
Positive Questions
We make positive past continuous questions by adding the “-muydu/-mıydı” particle after the “-yor”
suffix, in addition to the personal suffix. Look at the example below to better understand the
structure:
Dün kitap oku yor muydu n ?
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -iyor muydum -ıyor muydum -uyor muydum -üyo muydum
Sen -iyor muydun -ıyor muydun -uyor muydun -üyo muydun
O -iyor muydu -ıyor muydu -uyor muydu -üyor muydu
Biz -iyor muyduk -ıyor muyduk -uyor muyduk -üyor muyduk
Siz -iyor muydunuz -ıyor muydunuz -uyor muydunuz -üyor muydunuz
Onlar -iyorlar mıydı -ıyorlar mıydı -uyorlar mıydı -üyorlar mıydı
- Geçen yaz, Selin denizde yüzüyor muydu?

(Was Selin swimming in the sea last summer?)
- Annen evi temizlerken sende yardım ediyor muydun?

(Were you also helping out while your mom was cleaning the house?)
60
Negative Questions
You might have noticed that apart from the “-du/-dı” suffix at the end, the Past Contiuous resembles
the Present Continuous a lot. So when you’re trying to memorize the conjugation, remember this
similarity to easily remember the rules for this tense.
The negative form for Past Continous questions is simply made by adding the negative suffix “-mi/-
mı/-mu/-mü” between the verb root and the “-yor” suffix and adding the “-muydu” in addition to the
personal suffix:
a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Ben -mıyor muydum -miyor muydum -muyor muydum -müyo muydum
Sen -mıyor muydun -miyor muydun -muyor muydun -müyo muydun
O -mıyor muydu -miyor muydu -muyor muydu -müyor muydu
Biz -mıyor muyduk -miyor muyduk -muyor muyduk -müyor muyduk
Siz -mıyor muydunuz -miyor muydunuz -muyor muydunuz -müyor muydunuz
Onlar -mıyorlar mıydı -miyorlar mıydı -muyorlar mıydı -müyorlar mıydı
- Öğretmen ders anlatırken sen onu dinlemiyor muydun?

(Weren’t you listening to the teacher while he was lecturing?)
- Herkes sınava hazırlanırken o ders çalışmıyor muydu?

(Wasn’t she studying while everyone was preparing for the exam?)
61
Day 19 – Conjunctions – Part 1

In today’s lesson we will learn about the most important conjunctions than you need to know to
make complex sentences in Turkish. You may have seen some conjunctions in action in the earlier
lessons, now we will learn about the rest in these two lessons.
Here is a list of all the conjunctions in Turkish you will learn in today’s and tomorrow’s lesson with
their English meanings:
Conjunction Meaning
Ve and
de/da and, also, too, as well
Hem... hem de Both ... and
Ya ... ya da Either ... or
Veya, ya da, yahut, veyahut or
Ne ... ne de Neither ... nor
İle, -(y)le/-(y)la With, by, and
Ama, fakat, lakin, ne var ki But
Ancak, yalnız But, only
Buna rağmen, (ama) bununla birlikte Despite this, nevertheless
Ne var ki, gelgelelim However
Ne yazık ki, maalesef unfortunately
Halbuki, oysaki Whereas, though
güya Allegedly, supposedly
ise Whereas, as for, however
Meğer, meğerse Apparently, it seems that
Yoksa, aksi takdirde, aksi halde Otherwise, if not, I wonder if
Çünkü, zira Because, for
Bu yüzden, bu nedenle, bu sebeple, So, therefore
bundan dolayı
Because there are so many conjunctions and so little time, we will mostly focus on using these
conjuctions inside sentences instead focusing on the grammatical explanation.
The conjunctions “Ve” , “-de/-da” , and “hem... hem de”
The conjunction “ve” just like the “and” in English, is used to connect words, phrases or clause:
- Mehmet ve Ayça dışarda top oynadılar.

(Mehmet and Ayça played ball outside).
- Çantamda defterim, ders kitabım ve kalem kutum var.

(I have my notebook, my class book and my pencil case inside my backpack)
- Dün okula gittim ve öğretmenimle konuştum.

(Yesterday I went to school and talked with my teacher.)
62
The “-de/-da” conjunction is a separate word which co-ordinates words or clauses. In English it
generally means “too”. Changing the position of “-de/-da” can change the meaning of the sentece:
- Ahmet de hamburger yemek istiyor.

(Ahmet too wants to eat a hamburger.)
- Ahmet hamburger de yemek istiyor.

(Ahmet wants to eat a hamburger too/as well.)
Be sure to not mix the conjuction “-de/-da” with the locative marker “-de/-da/-te/-ta”. The locative
case marker is a suffix that is added directly after the word and the meaning is completly different.
The conjunction “hem... hem de” literally means “both... and” in English. It can also mean “on the
one hand,... on the other hand ...”. The “de” on the second “hem” is also optional. Be sure to use the
same grammatical word when using this conjunction:
- Tülün hem akıllı hem (de) çok güzel bir kız.

(Tülün is both an intelligent and beautiful girl.)
- Hergün hem dersine çalışıyor hem de spor yapıyor.

(He both studies and does sports everyday.)
- Hem ödevim var diyorsun hem de bütün gün televizyon izliyorsun!

(On the one hand you say you have homework, on the other hand you watch TV all day!)
The conjunctions “ya... yada”, “veya”, and “ne ... ne de”
The conjunction “ya... yada” equals in meaning to “either ... or” in English. It is used to show two or
more possbilities or choices in a statement:
- Ahmet ya Türk yada Azeriydi, ona soralım mı?

(Ahmet was either Turkish or Azeri, shall we ask?)
- Ya bizim arabamızla gidebilirsin yada ablamların arabasıyla gidebilirsin, lütfen karar ver.
(You can either come with our car our or my sister’s car, please make a choice.)
It is possible to replace “ya... yada” with “veya”, “yahut” or “veyahut” which only means “or” in
English:
- Türkçe sınavı Çarşamba veya/yahut/veyahut Cuma günü olacak.

(The Turkish exam will be on Wednesday or Friday.)
- Bu akşam sinemaya gidebiliriz veya/yahut/veyahut evde takılabiliriz.

(Tonight, we can go to the cinema or hangout at home.)
63
The negative counterpart for the conjunctions “ya..yada” and “veya” is “ne... ne de” which means
“neither... nor” in English. Although the verb in the sentence is positive, the meaning in the sentence
is negative:
- Bugün ne futbol oynadık ne de dışarda yemek yiyebildik.

(Today, we could neither play football nor eat outside)
- Bu yerin adresini ne Şeyma ne de Ahmet biliyor.

(Neither Şeyma nor Ahmet knows this place’s adress)
- Ne seni istiyorum ne de senden uzaklaşabiliyorum.

(I neither want you nor can stay away from you.)
The conjunctions “ile”, “ama”, “ancak”, and “buna rağmen”
The conjunction “ile” has two seperate usages. As a postposition, it means “with” or “by” in English.
It can be used as a suffix as “-le/-la” after a consonant or “-yle/-yla” after a vowel. As a conjunction,
“ile” means “and” in English:
First let’s see sentences examples for its postposition usage:
- Michael uçakla Amerika’ya döndü.

(Michael returned to America by plane)
- Lütfen bu formu kurşun kalemle doldurunuz.

(Please fill this form with a lead pencil.)
- Yanlışlıkla sizi aradım.

(I called you by mistake)
Now let’s see it used as a conjunction:
- Aslı ile Kerem geçen hafta sonu evlendi.

(Aslı and Kerem got married last weekend.)
- Bugün Sinan ile Ahmet’i okulda gördün mü?

(Did you Sinan and Ahmet at school today?)
- Ayşe ile Veli bu akşam bizim eve geliyor.

(Ayşe and Veli are coming to our house tonight)
64
The conjunction “ama” means “but” in English. The conjunctions “fakat” and “lakin” has especially
become famous thanks to some Ottoman periods soap operas on Turkish televisions that seem to
overuse it for some reason. But I still prefer “ama” to the rest.
- Recep’in parası var ama/fakat/lakin sevgilisi yok.

(Recep has money but no girlfriend.)
- Bugün hava yağmurlu ama/fakat/lakin çok sıcak.

(Today is rainy but really hot.)
- Üzgünüm ama/fakat/lakin doğum günü partine bu akşam gelemeyeceğim.

(I’m sorry but I can’t come to your birthday party tonight.)
The conjunctions “ancak” and “yalnız” can be used as a conjunction like “ama:
- Yemek güzel gözükmüyor ancak/yalnız lezzetli.

(The food doesn’t look good but it’s tasty).
- Seni telefonla beş kere aradım ancak/yalnız cevap vermedin.

(I called you five time by phone but you didn’t respond)
It can also be used as an adverb meaning “only” in English:
- Bugün ancak/yalnız bir saat ders çalıştım.

(Today I only studied an hour.)
- Bu kapıyı ancak/yalnız Ahmet bey açabilir.

(Only Mr. Ahmet can open this door)
The conjunctions “buna rağmen”, “bununla birlikte” and “bununla beraber”
Our last conjunction for today “buna rağmen” means “despite this/in spite of this” in English. It is
used at the start of a new sentence to counter the argument in the previous sentence:
- Dolar yükseldi. Buna rağmen insanlar hala pahalı şeyler satın almaya devam ediyor.
(The dollar has risen. Despite this/in spite of this, people are still continuing to buy
expensive things).
- Arkadaşım hiç ders çalışmıyor. Buna rağmen sınavlardan hep yüksek not alıyor.
(My friend never studies. Despite this/In spite of this, he still gets high scores from the
exams.)
We can also use “ama bununla birlikte” or “ama bununla beraber” similarly to “buna rağmen”
without ending the sentence:
- Bu ev çok küçük (ama) bununla birlikte / (ama) bununla beraber çok kullanışlı.
(This house is really small (but) nevertheless it’s really practical.)
65
Day 20 – Conjunctions – Part 2

Let’s continue with the second part of our conjunctions lesson.
The conjunctions “ne varki”, “ne yazık ki”, “halbuki”, and “güya”
The conjunctions “ne var ki” and “gelgelelim” mean “however” in English. These conjunctions
introduce a contrasting sentence to the next sentence. It also has a hopelessness meaning in the
sentence.
- Kilo vermek için herşeyi denedim. Ne varki/gelgelelim bir türlü incelemiyorum.

(I tried everything inorder to lose weight. However I can’t seem to get thinner.)
- Ali sporda çok başarılı. Ne varki/gelgelelim derslerinde çok başarısız.

(Ali is really successful at sports. However, he is really unsucessful at his studies.)
The conjunctions “ne yazık ki” and “maalesef” mean “unfortunately” in English. They can be used in
response to a statement or used in an original statement.
- Ali’nin doğum günü partisine geliyor musun? (Are you coming to Ali’s birthday party?)
Ne yazık ki/Maalesef gelemiyorum. (Unfortunately I can’t come)
- Çok uğraştım, ne yazık ki/maalesef yapamadım.

(I tried so hard, unfortunately I couldn’t do it.)
The conjunctions “halbuki” and “oysa(ki)” mean “though” or “whereas” in English. They are used to
compare or contrast two statements. The “oysa” conjunction can optionally use the “-ki” at its end:
- Toplantıya geciktim, halbuki/oysaki sabah erken kalkmıştım.

(I was late for the meeting, whereas/though I had woken up early.)
- Arkadaşım bana kızdı. Halbuki/Oysaki benim suçum yoktu.

(My friend was mad at me, whereas/though I wasn’t at fault.)
The conjunction “güya” means “allegedly” or “supposedly” in English. This conjunction is used when
when want to believe what the other person has said despite not agreeing with them. Most of the
time, it’s used at the beginning of a sentence:
- Güya bugün beni ziyaret edecekti.

(Supposedly/allegedly he was going to visit me today)
- Güya sadece üç kişi gelecekti, burada otuz kişi var!

(Supposedly/allegedly only three people were coming, there are thirty people here!)
66
The conjunctions “ise”, “meğer”, and “yoksa”
The conjunction “ise” means “Whereas”, “as for” or “however” in English. It is used to compare two
things which can be people or situations in a sentence. Most of the time, the conjunction is used as a
suffix by using “-(y)se/-(y)sa” to the end of the word.
- Ahmet abi televizyon izliyor. Ablamsa akşam yemeği hazırlıyor.

(Brother Ahmet is watching TV. Whereas my sister is preparing dinner.)
- Ankara bugün yağmurlu. Adana’ysa güneşli.

(Today Ankara is rainy. As for Adana, it’s sunny.)
- Kömür santralleri çevreyi kirletiyor. Güneş santralleriyse çevre dostudur.

(Coal plants pollute the environment. However, Solar plants are environment-friendly.)
The conjunctions “meğer” and “meğerse” means “apparently” or “it seems that” in English.
The inferential suffix “-imiş/-ımış” or “-ymiş/-ymış” is generally used with the “meğer” and “meğerse”
conjunction. It simply indicates what the real situation is different from the speakers point of view.
- Türkçe zor değilmiş. Meğer/Meğerse kolaymış.

(Turkish isn’t hard. Apparently it’s rather easy.)
- Yağmur yağıyormuş meğer.

(Apparently, It’s raining.)
The conjunction “yoksa” means “Otherwise” , “if not” or “I wonder if” in English. It is used to say if
one thing doesn’t happen, another negative thing will occur as a result. This conjunction is usually
used with the Present Simple tense or with the Future Tense (which you will learn next lesson):
- Lütfen yavaş ye! Yoksa karnın ağrıyacak.

(Please eat slowly! Otherwise/If not your stomach will hurt.)
- Lütfen sınavına çalış. Yoksa geçemezsin.

(Please study for your exam. Otherwise/If not you won’t pass it)
- Bugün beni hiç aramadın. Yoksa beni artık sevmiyor musun?

(You didn’t call me at all today. I wonder if you don’t like me anymore?)
We can use the conjunctions “aksi takdirde” or “aksi halde” similarly to “yoksa” meaning
“otherwise”:
- Umarım dolar daha yükselmez. Aksi takdirde tatile gidemeyiz.

(I hope the dollar doesn’t rise anymore. Otherwise, we can’t go on a vacation.)
67
The conjunctions “çünkü”, “zira” and “bu yüzden”
The conjunction “çünkü” and “zira” means “because” or “for” in English. It is used to give a reason for
a statement mentioned in a previous sentence.
- Bugün çok mutluyum çünkü sınavımı geçtim!

(I’m really happy today, because/for I passed my exam!)
- Sinemaya gitmekten vazgeçtim çünkü biletler çok pahalıydı.

(I gave up on going to the cinema, because/for the tickets were too expensive.)
Zira has the same meaning as “because” but is used more at the start of new sentences:
- Aylin benimle küs gözüküyor. Zira mesajlarıma cevap vermiyor.

(Aylin seems to be stuffy at me, for/because she’s not answering my messages.)
The conjunction “bu yüzden”, “bu nedenle”, “bu sebeple”, and “bundan dolayı” all mean “so” and
“therefore” in English. It is mainly used to show the result of an action.
- Dün çok koştum. Bu yüzden tüm kaslarım ağrıyor.

(I ran a lot yesterday. Therefore all my muscles hurt.)
- Mehmet çok çalışkan bir öğrenciydi. Bu nedenle çok başarılı bir iş adamı oldu.
(Mehmet was a really hard working student. As a result, he became a really succesful
businessman)
Ok, you learned a lot of new conjunctions in the last two days. You should now start making some
sentences to further practice using them correctly. Good luck and see you on the next lesson!
68
Day 21 – Future Tense
In today’s lecture, we will learn the last tense for this lecture series, the Future Tense. We use the
future tense to talk about thing that haven’t happened yet, but will take place in the future. We
usually use certain time expression to further amplify the meaning of the future tense by adding the
below word in the chart:
Time Expressions Time Expressions

Şimdi Now Pazartesi Monday
Bugün Today Salı Tuesday
Bu Akşam This Evening Çarşamba Wednesday
Bu Gece Tonight Perşembe Thurday
Yarın Tomorrow Cuma Friday
Haftasonu Weekend Cumartesi Saturday
Haftaiçi Weekday Pazar Sunday
Haftaya Next Week Saat Hour
Haftaya ... Next ... (Day of Week) Gün Day
Gelecek .. The Coming (Time Words) Hafta Week
Yıl Year Ay Month
We turn the verb into the Future tense by adding the “-ecek/-acak” suffix to the end of the root of
the verb and finally adding the personal suffix. Let’s see the conjugation chart:
a/ı/o/u e/i/ö/ü
Ben -(y)acağım -(y)eceğim
Sen -(y)acaksın -(y)eceksin
O -(y)acak -(y)ecek
Biz -(y)acağız -(y)eceğiz
Siz -(y)acaksınız -(y)eceksiniz
Onlar -(y)acaklar -(y)ecekler
- Yarın kütüphanede ödevimi yapacağım.

(Tomorrow, I will do my homework at the library.)
- Ahmet bu akşam arkadaşı Sinanla sinemaya gidecek.

(Ahmet will go to the cinema tonight with his friend Sinan.)
- Sen alışverişini yapana kadar dışarıda bekleyeceğim.

(I will wait outside until you do your shopping.)
69
Negative Sentences
Negative future tense sentences are made by inserting the “-me/-ma” between the verb root and the
future tense suffix “-ecek/-acak”:
a/ı/o/u e/i/ö/ü
Ben -mayacağım -meyeceğim
Sen -mayacaksın -meyeceksin
O -mayacak -meyecek
Biz -mayacağız -meyeceğiz
Siz -mayacaksınız -meyeceksiniz
Onlar -mayacaklar -meyecekler
- Bugün okula hasta olduğum için gitmeyeceğim.

(I won’t go to school today because I’m sick.)
- Gelecek ay evimin önündeki yüzme kursuna devam etmeyeceğim.

(Next month, I won’t continue the swimming course infront of my house.)
- Ayşe bozuk arabasını henüz satmayacak.

(Ayşe won’t sell her broken car yet.)
70
Positive Questions
Like in all other tenses, we make future tense questions by adding the “-mi/-mı” question particle
after the root of the verb conjugated with the “-ecek/-acak” suffix. We add the personal suffix after
the question particle.
a/ı/o/u e/i/ö/ü
Ben -(y)acak mıyım -(y)ecek miyim
Sen -(y)acak mısın -(y)ecek misin
O -(y)acak mı -(y)ecek mi
Biz -(y)acak mıyız -(y)ecek miyiz
Siz -(y)acak mısınız -(y)ecek misiniz
Onlar -(y)acaklar mı -(y)ecekler mi
Here are some example sentences:
- Hafta sonu Ayşe’nin doğum günü partisine gidecek misin?

(Are you going to Ayşe’s birthday party this weekend?)
- Ahmet telefonda. Onunla konuşacak mısın?

(Ahmet is at the phone. Are you going to talk to him?)
- Yarın sabah benimle spor salonuna gidecek misin?

(Will you go to the gym with me tomorrow morning?)
71
Negative Questions
Negative future tense questions are made by simply adding the “-ma/-me/” before the “-ecek/-acak”
suffix, the rest of the question sentence stays the same.
a/ı/o/u e/i/ö/ü
Ben -mayacak mıyım -meyecek miyim
Sen -mayacak mısın -meyecek misin
O -mayacak mı -meyecek mi
Biz -mayacak mıyız -meyecek miyiz
Siz -mayacak mısınız -meyecek misiniz
Onlar -mayacaklar mı -meyecekler mi
- Bu gece birlikte film izlemeyecek miyiz?

(Aren’t we going to watch a film together tonight?)
- Babanlar bu hafta sonu bizi ziyarete gelmeyecekler mi?

(Aren’t your father’s coming to visit us this weekend?)
- Okul ödevini bitirmeyecek misin?

(Aren’t you going to finish your school homework?)
There might be some expressions in some of these sentences that you may not know, but don’t
worry. We will cover all the required topics by the end of this lecture series.
72
Day 22 – Modal Suffixes

Using Modal suffixes is a must if you want to add different meanings to the verb itself. When we
conjugated verbs, we would add the tense suffix right after the verb root, integrating the modal
suffix into a main verb follow the same logic. The only “real” modal suffix that changes the verb in
Turkish is the “Can” and “Must” modal suffixes. We can also add the “have to”, “need to”, and “want
to” meanings to a verb but it doesn’t alter the main verb. Modal suffixes are usually used the Present
Simple Tense, so we will focus only on this tense for this lesson.
Here are the Modal Suffix in Turkish:
1) “Can” is “-ebil/-abil” added to the root of the verb.

2) “Must” is “-meli/-malı” added to the root of the verb.
3) “Have to” is the word “lazım” added after slightly modifying the verb.
4) “Need to” is the word “gerek” added after slightly modifying the verb.
5) “Want to “ is the word “istemek” added after slightly modifying the verb.
“Can” Modal Suffix “-ebil/-abil”
The “Can” modal verb is used to show “ability” and “possibility” in a sentence. In Turkish, the can
modal verb is made with the suffix “-(y)ebil/-(y)abil” to the verb root later the tense suffix and finally
the personal suffix. For negative sentences we add “-(y)me(z)/-(y)ama(z)” to the verb root and finally
the personal suffix.
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
a/ı/o/u e/i/ö/ü a/ı/o/u e/i/ö/ü
Ben -(y)abilirim -(y)ebilirim Ben -(y)amam -(y)emem
Sen -(y)abilirsin -(y)ebilirsin Sen -(y)amazsın -(y)emezsin
O -(y)abilir -(y)ebilir O -(y)amaz -(y)emez
Biz -(y)abiliriz -(y)ebiliriz Biz -(y)amayız -(y)emeyiz
Siz -(y)abilirsiniz -(y)ebilirsiniz Siz -(y)amazsınız -(y)emezsiniz
Onlar -(y)abilirler -(y)ebilirler Onlar -(y)amazlar -(y)emezler
Let’s see some example sentences:
- Ali kendi kendine bisiklet sürebilir.

(Ali can ride a bike by himself.)
- Bu ödevi Pazartesine kadar bitirebilir misin?

(Can you finish this homework by Monday?)
- Ne zaman gelebilirsin? (What time can you come?)

Saat 8 gibi gelebilirim. (I can come around 8 o’clock.)
- Bu keki tek başıma bitiremem. Yardım edebilir misin?

(I can’t finish this cake all by myself. Can you help?)
73
“Must” Modal Verb “-meli/-malı”
When we want to add a “necessity” or a “rule” to the action, we can use the “must” modal verb. The
“Must” modal verb in Turkish is “-meli/-malı” added to the verb root and finally the personal suffix.
The negative use of this suffix is “-ma/-me” added right before the “must” suffix “-meli/-malı”.
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
Ben -malıyım -meliyım Ben -mamalıyım -memeliyım
Sen -malısın -melisin Sen -mamalısın -memelisin
O -malı -meli O -mamalı -memeli
Biz -malıyız -meliyiz Biz -mamalıyız -memeliyiz
Siz -malısınız -melisiniz Siz -mamalısınız -memelisiniz
Onlar -malılar -meliler Onlar -mamalılar -memeliler
- Her gün sabah 6’da kalkıp işe gitmeliyim.

(Everyday I have to wake up at 6 and go to work.)
- Buraya girmemelisin, çok tehlikeli!

(You musn’t enter here, it’s dangerous!)
- Olimpik koşucular haftada 70 kilometre koşmalılar.

(Olympic runner have to run 70 kilometres every week.)
- Beni dinlemen için ne yapmalıyım?

(What must I do so you listen to me?)
- Okula gitmeli miyim?

(Must I go to school?)
74
“Have To” Modal Verb “Verb Root + -me/-ma + personal suffix + lazım”
Most people use the “must” modal verb to portray something that the “have to” modal verb
normally portrays, but its not entirely correct. The modal verb “have to” is used to give the meaning
of “obligation”.
An obligation comes from the inside while a necessity can also come from an outside force. In
Turkish, we make this modal verb by adding the “-me/-ma” suffix to the verb root, then the personal
suffix and finally the word “lazım” which means “need/required” in English. For the negative form,
just add another “-me/-ma” before the “have to” suffix (this time without an additonal personal
suffix of course), but this changes the modal to “shouldn’t”.
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
Ben -mam lazım -mem lazım Ben -maman lazım -memen lazım
Sen -man lazım -men lazım Sen -maman lazım -memen lazım
O -ması lazım -mesi lazım O -maması lazım -memesi lazım
Biz -mamız lazım -memiz lazım Biz -mamamız lazım -mememiz lazım
Siz -manız lazım -meniz lazım Siz -mamanız lazım -memeniz lazım
Onlar -maları lazım -meleri lazım Onlar -mamaları lazım -memeleri lazım
- Tüm öğrencilerin bu kitapları okuması lazım.

(All students have to read these books.)
- Türkçe öğrenmek için çok çalışmam lazım.

(I have to study hard to learn Turkish.)
- Her akşam yatmadan önce ne yapman lazım?

(What do you have to do every night before sleeping?)
Dişlerimi fırçalamam lazım!
(I have to brush my teeth!)
Because the negative of “have to” becomes a different modal verb when used, the correct way to say
“don’t have to” is by adding the word “değil” meaning “not” to the end of postive “lazım”
conjugation.
- Bu kitabı okumaman lazım.

(You shouldn’t read this book)
- Bu kitabı okuman lazım değil.

(You don’t have to read this book)
75
“Need To” Modal Verb “Verb Root + -me/-ma + personal suffix + gerekiyor”
The “need to” modal verb is another way to put “requirement” into the core of the verb. The
conjugation for the “need to” modal verb in Turkish is similar to the “have to” modal verb. This time,
we only add the word “gerekiyor” meaning “required” to the last part of the verb. If you use the “-
maman gerekiyor” conjugation for a negative sentence, it actually becomes “shouldn’t” instead of
“don’t need to”. For “don’t need to” simply change “gerekiyor” to “gerekmiyor”.
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
Ben -mam gerekiyor -mem gerekiyor Ben -maman gerekiyor -memen gerekiyor
Sen -man gerekiyor -men gerekiyor Sen -maman gerekiyor -memen gerekiyor
O -ması gerekiyor -mesi gerekiyor O -maması gerekiyor -memesi gerekiyor
Biz -mamız gerekiyor -memiz gerekiyor Biz -mamamız gerekiyor -mememiz gerekiyor
Siz -manız gerekiyor -meniz gerekiyor Siz -mamanız gerekiyor -memeniz gerekiyor
Onlar -maları gerekiyor -meleri lazım Onlar -mamaları gerekiyor -memeleri gerekiyor
- Yarın iş için erken kalkmam gerekiyor. - Çok hastasın, doktara gitmen gerekiyor.
(I need to wake up early for work.) (You’re too sick. You need to go to a doctor.)
- Başarmak için çalışman gerek(iyor) - Yemek yapmam gerekiyor mu?

(You need to study to succeed). (Do I need to prepare meal?)
Hayır, (yemek yapman) gerekmiyor. (No,...)
76
“Want To” Modal Verb “infinitive verb + istiyor + personal suffix”
Our last modal verb for this lesson is “Want To”. We use this modal verb to give the “want” meaning
to the verb, “istemek” also means “to want”. In order to use this modal verb, we follow a different
conjugation unlike any of the other modal verbs. We leave the verb in the infinitive for (not erasing
the mek/mak) then we add the “istiyor” word and finally add the personal suffix to its end. For
negative usage, we change the “istiyor” to “istemiyor”.
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
a/ı/o/u/e/i/ö/ü a/ı/o/u/e/i/ö/ü
Ben istiyorum Ben istemiyorum
Sen istiyorsun Sen istemiyorsun
O istiyor O istemiyor
Biz istiyoruz Biz İstemiyoruz
Siz istiyorsunuz Siz istemiyorsunuz
Onlar istiyor(lar) Onlar istemiyor(lar)
- Ben uyanmak istemiyorum.

(I don’t want to get up.)
- Çok yoruldum. Biraz dinlenmek istiyorum.

(I’m so tired. I want to rest a little.)
- Benim pizzamı yemek istiyor musun?

(Do you want to eat my pizza?)
- Daha fazla beklemek istemiyorum. Eve dönelim.

(I don’t want to wait anymore. Let’s go home.)
77
Day 23 – Gerunds – Part 1

Gerunds are words that are made in verbs but used as nouns in a sentence. Unlike in English where
gerunds are usually nouns that have an ‘–ing’ ending, in Turkish we have many more derivatives, we
add different derivational suffixes to the verb root to make gerunds. The Turkish language uses
gerunds as nouns, adjectives and adverbs in a sentence.
Here is a list of gerunds we will learn in this lecture:
1) Linking Gerunds
2) Gerunds of State
3) Time Expressing Gerunds
4) Reason Expressing Gerunds
5) Comparison Gerunds
6) Contrasting Gerunds
Linking Gerunds
Linking Gerunds are used to connect two elements inside a sentence. Most of the time they are used
to connect two actions that happen one after the other. We use the ‘-ip/-ıp/-up/-üp’ suffix after the
verb root to make a linking gerund. When translated into English, the conjugation ‘and’ is used.
- Araba çocuğa vurup kaçtı.

(The car hit the child and escaped.)
- Ödevimi teslim edip eve döndüm.

(I turned in my homework and returned home).
- Sadece bir arkadaşa bakıp çıkacağım.

(I’m just going to look for a friend and exit.)
78
Gerunds of State
If there are two actions done at the same time, you can use the Gerund of State to portray it. We
actually use this gerund a lot when making sentences in Present Cont. and Past Cont. Tense. The
suffix used for the gerund of state is ‘-(y)arak/-(y)erek’ suffix meaning ‘by’ (doing something) in
English.
- Ahmet eve koşarak gitti.

(Ahmet went home (by) running)
- Müzik dinleyerek ders çalışamazsın.

(You can’t study (by) listening to music)
- Aşağı bakarak yürürsen düşersin.

(If you walk (by) looking down, you will fall)
Another way to use the Gerunds of State is by adding writing the verb two times and adding the ‘-
(y)a/-(y)e’ suffix at the end of both verbs.
- Yemek yiye yiye spor yaptı.

(He did sports (by) eating food)
- Kadın oynaya oynaya sahneye çıktı.

(The woman entered the stage (by) dancing)
Time Expressing Gerunds
There are various sub-types of gerunds that express time but all of them indicate the ‘time’ of an
action.
We can use the suffix ‘-alı/e-li’ at the end of the verb root to say ‘since’ an action has occured:
- Sen İstanbul’a gideli 4 yıl oldu.

(It has been 4 years since you went to Istanbul)
- Ahmet evleneli bizimle hiç takılmıyor.

(Ahmet doesn’t hang out with us since he got married.)
- Biz yola çıkalı kaç saat oldu?

(How many hours has it been since we departed?)
79
Time-Related Gerunds Suffixes
Let’ see some other time related gerund suffixes .
For ‘-ince/-ınca’ as ‘when’
- Eve dönünce lütfen bana mesaj at.

(Please message me when you come home)
- İşin bitince birlikte bir kafeye gidelim mi?

(Shall we go to a café together when you finish your work?)
For ‘-ir ..-mez’ as ‘as soon as’
- Ahmet, ofise girer girmez işe başladı.

(Ahmet started working as soon as he entered the office.)
- Kardeşini görür görmez sarıldı.

(She hugged her brother as soon as she saw him.)
For ‘-diği/-dığı/... zaman’ as ‘when’
- Yemeğini yediğin zaman lütfen tabağını bulaşık makinesine koy.

(Please put your plate on the dish washer when you finish eating.)
- Kitabı okumayı bitirdiğin zaman bana söyle.

(Tell me when you finished reading the book.)
For ‘-diği/-dığı/… sırada‘ as ‘at the time when’
- İçeri girdiği sırada annesi yemek hazırlıyordu.

(Her mother was preparing dinner at the time when he was entering the house)
- Kapı çaldığı sırada televizyon izliyordum.

(I was watching TV at the time when the doorbell rang.)
For ‘-dığında/-diğinde/…’ as ‘when’
- Doktor geldiğinde hasta çoktan ölmüştü.

(The patient had already died when the doctor came.)
- Polis farkettiğinde hırsızlar soygun yapıyorlardı.

(The thiefs were doing robbery when the police realized.)
80
For ‘-madan/-meden önce’ to say ‘before’ the action occurs
- Eve dönmeden önce süpermarkete uğrayalım.

(Let’s visit the supermarket before we return home.)
- Bu soruya başlamadan önce bu formülü ezberlemen lazım.

(I need to memorize this formula before I start this question.)
For ‘-dikten/-dıktan sonra’ to say ‘after’ the action occurs
- Sadece parası bittikten sonra ailesini arar.

(He only calls his parents after he is out of money.)
- Yemeği pişirdikten sonra ocağı kapamayı unutma.

(Don’t forget to close the oven after you finish cooking.)
For ‘-ana kadar’ and ‘-ıncaya kadar’, to say ‘until’ the action occurs
- Sabrı tükenene kadar onu bekledi.

(She waited for him until she ran out of patience.)
- Bacakları ağrıyıncaya kadar koştu.

(He ran until his legs hurt.)
For ‘-dıkça’ to say ‘as’ and ‘-dığı sürüce’ for ‘as long as’
- Sıkıldıkça müzik dinledim.

(I listened to music as I got bored)
- Sıkı çalıştığın sürece Türkçe’de başarılı olursun.

(You’ll be successful as long as you study hard)
81
Day 24 – Gerunds – Part 2

Let’s continue our Gerunds lecture with Reason Expressing Gerunds.
Reason Expressing Gerunds
If you want to express the reason for a particular action, you can use Reason Expressing Gerunds.
These gerunds are used as ‘because’, ‘since’ and ‘in order to’ in English translation.
There are six reason expressing gerund types in this lecture:
1) ‘-dığı için’ as ‘because’

2) ‘-dığından’ as ‘because’
3) ‘-acağı için’ as ‘because’
4) ‘-mak üzere’ as ‘in order to’
5) ‘-dığına göre’ as ‘since’
6) ‘-acağına göre’ as ‘since’
For ‘-dığı için’ as ‘because’
- Derse geç kaldığı için öğretmen onu içeri almadı.

(The teacher didn’t let him in because he was late for class.)
- Çok yemek yediği için karnı ağrıdı.

(His stomach hurt because he ate too much.)
For ‘-dığından’ as ‘because’
- İngilizce bilmediğinden, İngiltere’de çok zorluk çekti.

(He had a lot of difficulty in England because he didn’t know English.)
- Kabadayıya boyun eğdiğinden tüm harçlığını çaldırttı.

(He had all his lunch money stolen because he submitted to the bully.)
For ‘-acağı için’ as ‘because’
- Üniversite sınavına hazırlanacağı için hiç kimseyle görüşmüyor.

(Because she’s preparing for the university exam, she’s not meeting anyone.)
- Yurtdışına gidecekleri için para biriktiriyorlar.

(They’re saving money because they’re going abroad.)
82
For ‘-mak üzere’ as ‘in order to’
- Mülakata girmek üzere hazırlanıyor.

(He’s getting ready in order to enter the interview.)
- Yarışmayı kazanmak üzere hergün pratik yapıyor.

(She is practicing every day in order to win the competition.)
For ‘-dığına göre’ as ‘since’
- Herkes geldiğine göre artık filmi başlatabiliriz.

(Since everyone came, we can now start the film.)
- Piyangoyu kazandığına göre ne yapmayı planlıyorsun?

(What are you planning to do since you won the lottery?)
For ‘-acağına göre’ as ‘since’
- Bu ay ilk maaşını alacağına göre ne yapacaksın?

(Since you’re getting your first wage this month, what are you going to do?)
- Yakında Türkiye’ye döneceğine göre seviniyor musun?

(Are you happy since you’re returning to Turkey soon?)
Comparison Gerunds
Comparison gerunds are used to compare two or more things. These things could be physical or
abstract. In English we translate them as ‘as much as’, ‘as that much’, ‘as is’ and ‘to …’.
There are four comparison gerunds we will learn in this lecture:
1) ‘-dığı kadar’ as ‘as much as’

2) ‘-acak kadar’ as ‘as that much’
3) ‘-dığı gibi’ as ‘as is’
4) ‘-cesine’ as ‘to …’
For ‘-dığı kadar’ as ‘as much as’
- Eline taşıyabildiğin kadar poşet al.

(Take as much plastic bags as you can carry.)
- Çocuk yiyebildiği kadar sosisli sandviç yedi.

(The kid ate as much hot dogs as he could.)
83
For ‘-acak kadar’ as ‘as that…
- Parasız riske girecek kadar aptal değilim.

(I’m not as that stupid to take a risk with no money.)
- Lütfen herkes kendine yetecek kadar alsın.

(Everyone please take as that much you need.)
For ‘-dığı gibi’ as ‘as is’
- Büyük gemi olduğu gibi battı.

(The big ship sank as is.)
- Yediği gibi geri çıkardı.

(He threw up as is he ate.)
For ‘-cesine’ as ‘to …’
- Adamlar birbirlerini öldürürcesine kavga ettiler.

(The men fought to death)
- Kıtlıktan çıkmışcasına yedi.

(He ate to devour.)
Contrasting Gerunds
Similarly, to comparison gerunds, we can also contrast things or ideas with these gerunds. In English,
these gerunds are translated as ‘rather than’, ‘instead of’, and ‘in spite of’.
In this part, we will cover four contrasting gerunds:
- ‘-acağına’ as ‘instead of’

- ‘-dığı halde’ as ‘in spite of’
- ‘-masına rağmen’ as ‘in spite of’
- ‘-mektense’ as ‘rather than’
For ‘-acağına’ as ‘instead of’
- Bu eski bilgisayarı tamir edeceğine yenisini alsana?

(Instead of fixing this old computer, why not buy a new one?)
- Boş boş oturacağına bana yardım et!

(Help me out instead of sitting back!)
84
For ‘-dığı halde’ as ‘in spite of’
- Yalnız olduğu halde sevgili istemiyor.

(He doesn’t look for a girlfriend in spite of being single.)
- Kız arkadaşı yanlış olduğu halde birşey söylemedi.

(In spite of girlfriend being wrong, he didn’t say anything.)
For ‘-masına rağmen’ as ‘in spite of’
- Çok yorulmuş olmasına rağmen koşmaya devam etti.

(In spite of being tired, he continued running.)
- Yemek yemesine rağmen hala açtı.

(He was still hungry in spite of having eaten.)
For ‘-mektense’ as ‘rather than’
- Seni görmektense başka bir ülkeye taşınırım.

(I’d rather move to another country than see you.)
- Evlenmektense bekar kalmayı tercih ederim.

(I would stay single rather than get married.)
85
Day 25 – Causatives
Only 5 days left until we finish this learning series, I hope you’re liking it so far!
In today’s lecture we will learn Causative Verbs in Turkish. If you remember, the active form of a verb
is when “somebody is doing someone” and the passive form which we’ll learn tomorrow, is
“something is done by someone”. The causative form is “to get something done by somebody or
something”. When speaking English, we generally use the phrases “to get something done (by …)” or
“to have done by …”, in Turkish we use the Causative suffixes.
There are different causative suffixes that you need to add depending on the verb root.
Let’s first see the full list of causative suffixes:
Causative Suffix Where It’s Used

-dir/-dır/-dür/-dur/-tir/-tır/-tür/-tur The most used causative suffix. Used by regular verbs.
-t Used with polysyllabic verb roots ending in a vowel or -r
-it/-ıt/-üt/-ut Used with monosyllabic verb roots ending in -k
-ır/-ir/-ur/-ür Used with monosyllabic verb roots
-er/-ar Used with only some verbs.
The “-dır” suffix
The first and the most commonly used causative suffix is the “-dır” causative suffix. We add this suffix
to the verb root, just like all the causative suffixes you’ll see later. When selecting the proper “-dır”
suffix from the chart, be sure to follow the Vowel Harmony and see whether there is Consonant
Mutation. Most verbs that use the “-dır” suffix are regular verbs.
Here is a comparison chart:
Active Verb Causative Verb

Açmak To open Açtırmak To have/get someone open
Dikmek To plant Diktirmek To have/get someone plant
Susmak To be quiet Susturmak To make something/somebody quiet
Ötmek To sing (bird) Öttürmek To have a bird to sing
Ölmek To die Öldürmek To kill (somebody/something)
Durmak To stop Durdurmak To make something/somebody stop
Kırmak To break Kırdırmak To have/get something broken
Binmek To get in/on Bindirmek To get somebody to get in/on something
Let’s see some examples sentences:
- Adam kapıyı açtı. (The man opened the door)

Adam kapıyı açtırdı. (The man had the door opened)
- Pizza yaptım. (I made a pizza)

Pizza yaptırdım. (I had a pizza made)
- Ali güldü. (Ali laughed)

Ali herkesi güldürdü (Ali made everybody laugh)
86
The “-t” suffix
Basic verb roots that end in a vowel or a “-r “, are made Causative by adding the “-t” suffix added to
the verb root. Here are some sentence examples:
- Annem kitap okudu. (My mom read a book)

Annem kitap okuttu. (My mom had someone read a book)
- Tek başına evi temizledi. (She cleaned the home all by himself.)
Evi temizlik şirketine temizletti. (She had the cleaning company do the house cleaning.)
- Arkadaşımı 30 dakika bekledim. (I waited 30 minutes for my friend)

Arkadaşım beni 30 dakika bekletti. (My friend had me wait 30 minutes for him)
Polysyllabic verbs with verb roots ending in “l” and “r” can also take the “-t” suffix:
- Çocuk yılanı görünce bağırdı. (The boy screamed as he saw the snake.)
Beni daha fazla bağırtma! (Don’t make me scream more!)
- Makinede yıkanan elbisem küçüldü. (My dress shrank after being washed in the washer.)
Makine elbisemi küçülttü. (The washer made my dress smaller.)
The “-ıt” suffix
The “-it/-ıt/-üt/-ut” suffixes are added to monosyllabic verb roots that end in “-k”.
- Nehir denize akar. (The river flows into the ocean.)

Araba benzin akıttı. (The car leaked gasoline.)
- Yılanı gören çocuk korktu. (The child who saw the snake was scared.)
Lütfen beni korkutma. (Please don’t scare me.)
- Etraf çicek koktu. (Everywhere smelled flowers.)

Köpek önümde kokuttu. (The dog farted infront of me.)
87
The “-ır” suffix
Some monosyllable verbs use the “-ır/-ir/-ur/-ür” suffixes to make causative verbs:
- Kaynayan süt taştı. (The boiling milk overflew.)

Abim demlikteki çayı taşırttı. (My brother caused the tea in the teapot to overflow.)
- Çok güzel haberler duydum. (I heard great news.)

Mutlu haberi herkese duyurdu. (He announced the great news to everyone.)
- Arabadaki tüm malzemeler düştü. (All the supplies on the car fell.)
Bilerek keki düşürdü. (He dropped the cake on purpose.)
The “-ar/-er” suffixes
There are some verb roots that also use the “-ar/-er” suffixes to form causatives:
- Ağacın dalı koptu. (The tree’s branch snapped.)

Lütfen ağacın dalını koparma. (Please don’t break the tree’s branch.)
- Sıkılan köpek dışarı çıktı. (The bored dog went outside.)

Köpeği yürüyüşe çıkarır mısın? (Could you take the dog out for a walk?)
- Çok güzel bir çiçek gördüm. (I saw a very pretty flower.)

Ayşe bana çok güzel bir çiçek gösterdi. (Ayşe showed my a very pretty flower.)
Double Causatives
We can use double causatives to “get someone else to do a job”. These causatives are made by
adding a “-t” or “-tir” to another causative verb. These types of causatives can be seen a lot in
newspapers and news agency reports.
- Hükümet yeni anayasayı onaylattırdı. (The government had the new constitution approved.)
- Masayı monte ettirtdin mi? (Have you had the table assembled?)
- Öğrenci, ödevini başkasına yaptırttı. (The student had his homework done by someone else.)
When you see double T’s, be sure to pronounce them individually.
88
Day 26 – Passive Voice – Part 1

Sometimes the person or the thing that is doing the action is made clear and sometimes it’s not
clear. When we don’t know who or what the action is performed by, we use the Passive Voice. In
English, the Passive Voice is done with To Be + V3, in Turkish we have a suffix added to the verb root.
The suffix changes for verb roots that end in consonants, vowels, certain consonants, and of course
Vowel Harmony:
After consonants “b,c,ç,d,f,g,ğ,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,r,s,ş,t,v,y,z” “-il/-ıl/-ul/-ül”

After vowels “a,ı,o,u,e,i,ö,ü” “-n”
After the consonant “l” “-in/-ın/-un/-ün”
Let’s first see how Passive Voice words are made in the Present Simple tense:
Active Voice Passive Voice

İzlemek To watch İzlenmek To be watched
Okumak To read Okunmak To be read
Satın almak To buy Satın alınmak To be bought
Silmek To erase Silinmek To be erased
Açmak To open Açılmak To be opened
Görmek To see Görülmek* To be seen
Karıştırmak To mix Karıştırılmak To be mixed
Don’t mistake “görülmek” meaning “to be seen” with “görünmek” meaning “to be understood”
which are completely different verbs.
Now, let’s see these suffixes in example sentences:
- Ahmet eski bisikletini satar. (Ahmet sells his old bicycle.)

Eski bisiklet satılır. (The old bicycle is sold)
- Kapıyı yavaşça açar. (She slowly opens the door.)

Kapı yavaşça açılır. (The door is slowly opened.)
- Abim ikinci el cep telefonu satın alır. (My brother buys a second-hand cell phone.)
İkinci el cep telefonu satın alınır. (Second hand cell phones are bought.)
- Çizdiği resimi siler. (He erases the picture he drew.)

Çizdiği resim silinir. (The picture he drew is erased.)
89
Negative Present Simple Sentences
In order to make passive voice for negative present simple sentences, we use the negative present
tense suffix “-maz/mez” after the Passive Voice suffix and erase the Infinitive suffix:
After “-ıl/-ul/-un/-ın “-maz”

After “-il/-ül/-in /-ün “-mez”
After “-n” “-maz/-mez”
First let’s see some verb conjugation examples for negatives:

İzlenmek To be watched İzlenmez Is not watched
Okunmak To be read Okunmaz Is not read
Satın alınmak To be bought Satın alınmaz Is not sold
Silinmek To be erased Silinmez Is not erased
Açılmak To be opened Açılmaz Is not opened
Görülmek To be seen Görülmez Is not seen
Karıştırılmak To be mixed Karıştırılmaz Is not mixed
Most negative passive voice phrases can be seen on prohibition or warning signs. The English
translation of some sentences from Turkish may not always be in negative Passive Voice, but actually
in positive Passive Voice. Sometimes it’s not even in Passive Voice but a Gerund sentence.
- Burada sigara içilmez. (Smoking is prohibited here.)

- Burada sigara içilmeye izin verilmez. (Smoking is not allowed here.)
- Ders sırasında konuşulmaz. (No talking during a lesson.)

- Ders sırasında konuşulması kabul edilmez. (Talking during a class is not accepted.)
- Türkiye’de çaya süt eklenmez. (Milk is not added to tea in Turkey.)
- Havuza atlanmaz. (Jumping into the pool is prohibited)
90
Question Sentences
To make question sentences in passive voice, we add the “-mi/-mı/-mu/-mü” after the passive voice
suffix:
- Burada sigara içilir mi? (Is smoking allowed here?)

Hayır, içilmez. (No it’s not)
- Ders sırasında konuşulmaz mı? (Isn’t talking during a lesson allowed?)

Hayır, konuşulmaz. (No, it’s not)
- Kantinde su satılır mı? (Is water sold at the canteen?)

Evet, satılır. (Yes, it is)
Present Continuous Tense
Making passive voice for the present continuous tense is similar to what we saw with the Present
Simple tense. The only difference from the Present Simple tense is we add the Present Continuous
suffix “-iyor” after the Passive Voice suffix.
Be sure to follow the below chart and Vowel Harmony when adding the Passive Voice suffix:

Let’s first see how Passive Voice words are made in the Present Continuous tense:

Açıyor Opening Açılıyor Being Opened
Anlatıyor Telling Anlatılıyor Being Told
Veriyor Giving Veriliyor Being Given
Söylüyor Saying Söyleniyor Being Said
Okuyor Reading Okunuyor Being Read
Siliyor Erasing Siliniyor Being Erased
Alıyor Buying Alınıyor Being Bought
Now, let’s see some example sentences:
- Türkçe, 200 milyon kişi tarafından konuşuluyor.

(Turkish is being spoken/is spoken by 200 million people.)
- Karşı komşuda futbol maçı izleniyor.

(A football match is being watched at my neigbour’s.)
- Dünyanın yuvarlak olduğu gerçeği herkes tarafından biliniyor.

(The truth that the world is round is known by everyone around the world.)
Some Turkish Passive Voice sentences in Present Continuous tense might be translated into the
Present Simple Passive Voice as Turkish also uses Present Continuous to talk about general facts.
91
Negative Passive Voice in Present Continuous
We add the “-m” in between the passive voice suffix and the present continuous suffix to make
negative passive voice sentences in Present Continuous:
- Bu içecek kimse tarafından sevilmiyor.

(This drink is not liked by anyone)
- Yağmurda futbol maçı yapılmıyor.

(The football match is not done in the rain.)
- Burada Türk kahvesi bulunmuyor.

(Turkish coffee is not found here.)
Passive Voice Questions for Present Continuous Tense
Just like in the Present Simple tense, we use the question particle “-mi/-mı/-mu/-mü” after the
passive voice suffix to make passive voice questions for the present continuous tense:
- Haftaya cuma için yağmur bekleniyor mu? (Is rain being expected for next Friday?)
Evet, bekleniyor. (Yes it is expected/being expected.)
- Bu eleman için terfi düşünülmüyor mu?

(Isn’t a promotion being thought of for this employee?)
Hayır, düşünülmüyor. (No, it’s not being thought of)
- Şuan üniversite sınavı yapılıyor mu? (Is the university exam being done now?)
Evet, yapılıyor. (Yes, it’s being done.)
92
Day 27 – Passive Voice – Part 2

For the second part of the Passive Voice topic, let’s learn how to make Passive Voice sentences in the
Past Simple tense.
Just like with other tenses, we add the passive voice suffix to the ending of the verb root followed by
the past simple suffix.
Be sure to follow the below chart and Vowel Harmony when adding the Passive Voice suffix:

Let’s first see how Passive Voice words are made in the Past Simple tense:

Bitirdi Finished Bitirildi Was Finished
Pişirdi Cooked Pişirildi Was Cooked
Anlattı Told Anlatıldı Was Told
Buldu Found Bulundu Was Found
Oynadı Played Oynatıldı Was Played
Bildi Knew Bilindi Was Known
Çaldı Stole Çalındı Was Stolen
Next, let’s see some sentence examples:
- Cep telefonu faturamı babam ödedi. (My father payed my cell phone bill.)
Cep telefonu faturam (babam tarafından) ödendi.
(My cell phone bill was payed (by my father))
- Paketinizi az önce kurye teslim etti. (The courier delivered your package just now.)
Paketiniz (kurye tarafından) teslim edildi. (Your package was delivered (by the courier).)
- Polis mücevher hırsızını yakaladı. (The police caught the jewellery thief.)
Mücevher hırsızı (polis tarafından) yakalandı. (The jewellery thief was caught (by the police).)
As you can see from the example sentences, the “agent” that does in action in the second examples
is expressed with a postposition “tarafından” which means “by” in English. Look at the personal
pronouns in passive voice below:
Benim tarafımdan by me
Senin tarafından by you
Onun tarafından by he/she/it
Bizim tarafımızdan by us
Sizin tarafınızdan by you
Onların tarafından by them
93
Negative Passive Voice for Past Simple Sentences
If you want to make negative passive voice sentences for the past simple tense, you add the “-
medi/madı” negative past simple suffix instead of the positive one:
- Bu kitabı kimse satın almadı. (No one bought this book.)

Bu kitap satın alınmadı. (This book wasn’t bought.)
- Polis kazazedeleri kurtaramadı. (Police couldn’t save the disaster victims)

Kazazedeler (polis tarafından) kurtarılamadı.
(The disaster victims couldn’t be saved (by the police).)
- ÖSS, üniversite sınavı sonuçlarını henüz açıklamadı.

(The ÖSS hasn’t announced the university exam results yet.)
Üniversite sınavı sonuçları henüz açıklanmadı.
(The university exam results haven’t been announced yet.)
Most of the time, Passive Voice sentences in the past simple tense can be translated into the Present
Perfect tense in English. We can also include Modal Verbs like “can/could” like in the second
sentence by adding the “can” suffix “-a/-e” after the Passive Voice suffix. This can also be done for
other tenses too.
Passive Voice Questions for the Past Simple Tense
Making passive voice questions for the past simple tense is the same as other tenses. We use the
question particle “-mi/-mı/-mu/-mü” after the passive voice suffix to make passive voice questions
for the past simple tense:
- Elektrik faturası ödendi mi? (Was the electricity bill paid?)

Evet, babam tarafından ödendi. (Yes, it was paid by my father.)
- Haberlerdeki hırsız tutuklanmadı mı? (Wasn’t the thief on TV arrested?)

Hayır, henüz tutuklanmadı. (No, he wasn’t arrested yet.)
- Uzay’da yeni bir gezegen keşfedildi mi? (Was a new planet discovered in space?)
Evet, yüzlerce yeni gezegen keşfedildi. (Yes, hundreds of new planets were discovered.)
94
Day 28 – Conditional Sentences – Part 1

In today’s lecture, we will learn about conditional sentences in Turkish. Conditional sentences are
made when a certain condition is fulfilled for a specific action to take place. In English, conditional
sentences usually start with a “If” word. In Turkish, we use the word “Eğer” and use certain suffixes
to make a sentence conditional.
There are three main types of conditional sentences:
- The Real Conditional Sentences

- The Unreal Conditional Sentences
- The Past Unreal Conditional Sentences
There are also many different sub-types of conditional sentences we will see after we learn these
three conditionals.
The Real Conditional
Th real conditional sentences are made in the present simple tense which are used to talk about
conditions that are real and can happen. While the conditional clause, the sentence which has the
conditional verb is made in the present simple tense, the main clause, the result of the condition, is
made in either the future simple or present simple tense. In order to make a real conditional verb,
we add the suffix “-sa/-se” after the Present Tense suffix.
After the Present Tense Suffix “-ar/-ır/-ur/-r” -sa

After the Present Tense Suffix “-er/-ir/-ür/-r” -se
First, let’s look at how some verbs are made into the Real Conditional:
If Pronoun Conditional
Ben yaparsam If I do
Sen gelirsen If you come
O bulursa If he/she/it finds
Eğer
Biz yersek If we eat
Siz üzülürseniz If you become sad
Onlar gezerlerse If they travel
Now, let’s see some sentence examples:
- (Eğer) bir sorunuz varsa lütfen elinizi kaldırınız.

(If you have a question, please raise your hand.)
- (Eğer) Galatasaray bu maçı kazanırsa Türkiye şampiyonu olacak.

(If Galatasaray wins this match, it will be the Turkish champion.)
- (Eğer) sağa bakarsanız Anıtkabiri göreceksiniz.

(If you look right, you’ll see Anıtkabir.)
95
Negative Real Conditionals
To make negative real conditionals, you add the negative present simple suffix “-mez/-maz” after the
verb root in addition to the if suffix “-se/-sa” that follows it.
Be sure to follow the Vowel Harmony when selecting the proper “-mez/-maz” suffix:
For Verb Roots Ending in “a,ı,o,u” -maz

For Verb Roots Ending in “e,i,ö,ü” -mez
First, let’s look at how some verbs are made into the Negative Real Conditional:
Ben yapmazsam If I don’t do
Sen gelmezsen If you don’t come
O bulmazsa If he/she/it doesn’t find
Eğer
Biz yemezsek If we don’t eat
Siz üzülmezseniz If you don’t become sad
Onlar gezmezlerse If they don’t travel
- (Eğer) dersini çalışmazsan sınavdan başarısız olursun.

(If you don’t study your lessons, you’ll be unsuccessful in the exam.)
- (Eğer) dikkatli olmazsan düşebilirsin.

(If you’re not careful, you may fall.)
- (Eğer) odanı temizlemezsen, kim temizleyecek?

(If you don’t clean your room, who’s gonna clean it?)
As you can see from the second and the third examples, you can implement modal verbs and
questions in the main clause of a conditional sentence.
96
Unreal Conditionals
Unlike real conditional sentences where the condition is real and not imaginary, unreal conditionals
are about imaginary conditions. If an imagined condition is achieved, another imaginary action will
happen. When conjugating a verb into the unreal conditional, we add conditional suffix “-se/-sa”
right after the verb root and finally end it with the personal suffix. We don’t have a tense suffix for
unreal conditionals while the main clause is the present simple with the past simple personal suffix.
Be sure to check out the last vowel in the verb root to select the correct conditional suffix:
For Verb Roots that have the last vowel as “a,ı,o,u” -sa
For Verb Roots that have the last vowel as “e,i,ö,ü” -se
First, let’s look at how some verbs are made into the Unreal Conditional:
Ben yapsam If I did
Sen gelsen If you came
O bulsa If he/she/it found
Eğer
Biz yesek If we ate
Siz üzülseniz If you became sad
Onlar gezseler* If they traveled
- (Eğer) zengin olsam dünyayı gezerdim.

(If I were rich, I would travel the world.)
- (Eğer) arkadaşım gelse birlikte havuza giderdik

(If my friend came, we would go to the pool together.)
- (Eğer) spor yapsan sağlığın için iyi olur(du).

(If you did sports, it would be good for your health.)
In the last example, we can erase the past simple personal suffix in the main clause verb to talk about
future imaginary situations.
97
Negative Unreal Conditional
To make negative unreal conditionals we add the “-me/-ma” before the conditional suffix.
Ben yapmasam If I didn’t do
Sen gelmesen If you didn’t come
O bulmasa If he/she/it didn’t found
Eğer
Biz yemesek If we didn’t eat
Siz üzülmeseniz If you didn’t become sad
Onlar gezmeseler* If they didn’t travel
- (Eğer) yağmur yağmasa piknik yapardık.

(If it didn’t rain, we would go on a picnic.)
- (Eğer) bir çıkarım olmasa bunu yapmazdım.

(If I didn’t have an ulterior motive, I wouldn’t do this.)
- (Eğer) pizzayı yemesek bozulurdu.

(If we didn’t eat the pizza, it would rot.)
98
Day 29 – Conditional Sentences – Part 2

Another way to express an unreal conditional is doing it in the Past Perfect tense. Turkish doesn’t
necessarily have the Perfect tense let alone the Past Perfect tense, but it is still possible to make a
sentence that talks about an unreal hypothetical past conditional. We use the suffix “-seydi/-saydı”
to achieve a Past Unreal Conditional followed by the personal suffix. The main clause is similar to
how we in unreal conditional, the verb is conjugated in present simple with the past simple personal
suffix.
Be sure to follow the Vowel Harmony when selecting the proper “-seydi/-saydı” suffix:
For Verb Roots that have the last vowel as “a,ı,o,u” -saydı
For Verb Roots that have the last vowel as “e,i,ö,ü” -seydi
First, let’s look at how some verbs are made into the Past Unreal Conditional:
Ben yapsaydım If I had done
Sen gelseydin If you had came
O bulsaydı If he/she/it had found
Eğer
Biz yeseydik If we had eaten
Siz üzülseydiniz If you had become sad
Onlar gezseydiler If they had traveled
- (Eğer) bilseydim ona öyle davranmazdım.

(If I had known, I wouldn’t have treated him like that.)
- (Eğer) o işe girseydim şu an müdür olabilirdim.

(If I had entered that job, I could have been a manager now.)
- (Eğer) param olsaydı o elbiseyi alırdım.

(If I had the money, I would have bought that dress.)
We can also add the model verb “can” suffix like in the second sentence example to talk about a past
possibility that could have occurred.
99
Negative Past Unreal Conditional
Negative past unreal conditionals can be made by adding the “-me/-ma” negative suffix before the “-
seydi/-saydı” suffix.
First, let’s look at how some verbs are made into the Negative Past Unreal Conditional:
Ben yapmasaydım If I hadn’t done
Sen gelmeseydin If you hadn’t came
O bulmasaydı If he/she/it hadn’t found
Eğer
Biz yemeseydik If we hadn’t eaten
Siz üzülmeseydiniz If you hadn’t become sad
Onlar gezmeseydiler If they hadn’t traveled
- (Eğer) geçen hafta Ahmet’i görmeseydim, Ankara’ya döndüğünü bilmezdim.

(If I hadn’t seen Ahmet last week, I wouldn’t have known he returned to Ankara.)
- (Eğer) o kadar çikolata yemeseydin karnın ağrımazdı.

(If you hadn’t eaten so many chocolates, your stomach wouldn’t have hurt.)
- (Eğer) cüzdanını düşürmeseydin hırsızlar tüm paranı harcamazdı.

(If you hadn’t dropped your wallet, the thief wouldn’t have spent all your money.)
100
Other Conditional Sentence Types
Below are the charts showing other kinds of conditional sentences you can make in Turkish.
For Real Past Conditionals, we add the “-dıy/diy/-duy/-düy” suffix after the verb root following the
conditional suffix “-sa/se”:
Real Past Conditionals

Ben yapdıysam If I had done
Sen geldiysen If you had came
O bulduysa If he/she/it had found
Eğer
Biz yediysek If we had eaten
Siz üzüldüyseniz If you had become sad
Onlar gezdiyseler If they had traveled
For Real Present Continuous Conditionals, we add the “-yor” suffix after the verb root following the
conditional suffix “-sa”:
Real Present Continous Conditionals

Ben yapıyorsam If I am doing
Sen geliyorsan If you are coming
O buluyorsa If he/she/it is finding
Eğer
Biz yiyorsak If we are eating
Siz üzülüyorsanız If you are becoming sad
Onlar geziyorsalar If they are traveling
For the negative version of the Real Present Continuous Conditional, we simply add the “-me/-ma”
suffix after the verb root following the present continuous suffix and the conditional suffix:
Negative Real Present Continous Conditionals

Ben yapmıyorsam If I am not doing
Sen gelmiyorsan If you are not coming
O bulmuyorsa If he/she/it is not finding
Eğer
Biz yemiyorsak If we are not eating
Siz üzülmüyorsanız If you are not becoming sad
Onlar gezmiyorsalar If they are not traveling
101
For future real conditionals, we conjugate the verb in the future tense “-ecek/-acak” and later add
the conditional suffix in addition to the personal suffix:
Real Future Conditionals

Ben yapacaksam If I will do
Sen geleceksen If you will come
O bulacaksa If he/she/it will find
Eğer
Biz yiyeceksek If we will eat
Siz üzülecekseniz If you will become sad
Onlar gezecekseler If they will travel
Negative version of the future real conditional is done by adding the negative suffix “-me(y)/-ma(y)”
after the verb root before the future suffix:
Negative Real Future Conditionals

Ben yapmayacaksam If I will not do
Sen gelmeyeceksen If you will not come
O bulmayacaksa If he/she/it will not find
Eğer
Biz yemeyeceksek If we will not eat
Siz üzülmeyecekseniz If you will not become sad
Onlar gezmeyecekseler If they will not travel
102
Day 30 – Reported Speech

You’ve finally come to last lecture of the Speaking Turkish in 30 days series. I hope that you found
these lecture series informing and fun.
In today’s lesson we will learn about the different kinds of Reported Speech in Turkish. Reported
speech use simply use to “report” what someone had said in the past. There are two different way to
use Reported Speech, the first is by adding the “-mış/-miş/-muş/-müş” suffix to the verb root, the
second is by adding the “-diğini söyledi” to a simple past verb. Both can be used to portray the same
thing.
The “-miş” Reported Speech
When you’re adding the “-miş” suffix to the verb, be careful with the Vowel Harmony.
Verb Roots with the “a,ı" last vowels -mış

Verb Roots with the “e,i" last vowels -miş
Verb Roots with the “o,u" last vowels -muş
Verb Roots with the “ö,ü" last vowels -müş
Now let’s see some “-miş” Reported Speech conjugations:
Pronoun “-miş” Reported Speech

Ben git-miş-im I have gone
Sen yap-mış-sın You have done
O al-mış He/She/It has bought
Biz bekle-miş-iz We have waited
Siz gör-müş-sünüz You have seen
Onlar iç-miş-ler They have drunk
As you can see from the examples, Reported Speech in Turkish is translated into Present Perfect
tense in English.
- Ahmet: Çok işim var. Eve geç geleceğim. (I have a lot of work. I’ll come home late)
Ahmet’in çok işi varmış. Eve geç gelecekmiş.
(Ahmet seems to have a lot of work. He says he’s coming late)
- Fatma: Anahtarımı kaybettim. Evime giremiyorum! (I lost my keys. I can’t enter my home.)
Fatma anahtarını kaybettiğinden evine giremiyormuş.
(Because Fatma seems to have lost her keys, she can’t enter her house.)
- Polis: Hırsızı kaybettik, aramayı durdurun. (We lost the thief, stop the search)
Polis hırsızı kaybettiğinden, aramayı durdurmuş.
(Because the police seems to have lost the thief, they stopped the searched.)
The reported speech is translated differently to English and the reported verb can also change.
103
The Negative “-miş” Reported Speech
In order to make the “-miş” reported speech negative, we insert the “-me/-ma” after the verb root,
before the reported speech suffix “-miş/-mış”.
When you’re adding the “-me/-ma” suffix to the verb, be careful with the Vowel Harmony.
Verb Roots with the “a,ı,o,u" last vowels -ma

Verb Roots with the “e,i,ö,ü" last vowels -me
Now let’s see some negative Reported Speech conjugations:
Pronoun “-miş” Reported Speech

Ben git-me-miş-im I haven’t gone
Sen yap-ma-mış-sın You haven’t done
O al-ma-mış He/She/It hasn’t bought
Biz bekle-me-miş-iz We haven’t waited
Siz gör-me-miş-siniz You haven’t seen
Onlar iç-me-miş-ler They haven’t drunk
- Selin akşam yemeğini yememiş.

(Selin (seems to) hasn’t eaten her dinner.)
- Daha eve gelmemişler.

(They (seem to) haven’t come home.)
- Arkadaşım doğum günüm için hiçbir şey almamış.

(My friends (seems to) haven’t bought anything for my birthday.)
104
Positive Question “-miş” Reported Speech
Making question reported speech sentences is also really easy. We simply add the question particle
“-mi/-mı/-mu/-mü” after the reported speech suffix “-mış”. We add the personal suffix after the
question particle.
As always, be careful with the Vowel Harmony:
After “-mış” mı
After “-miş” mi
After “-muş” mu
After “-müş” mü
Now let’s see some positive Reported Speech question conjugations:
Pronoun Question “-miş” Reported Speech

Ben git-miş-mi-yim? Have I gone?
Sen yap-mış-mı-sın? Have you done?
O al-mış-mı? Has He/She/It bought?
Biz bekle-miş-mi-yiz? Have we waited?
Siz gör-müş-mü-sünüz? Have you seen?
Onlar iç-miş-ler mi? Have they drunk?
- Teyzemler bugün geldi mi?

(Did you aunts come today?)
Teyzemler bugün gelmişler mi?
(Have my aunts came today?)
- Veli işinde terfi aldı mı?

(Did Veli got a promotion at his work?)
Veli işinde terfi almış mı?
(Has Veli gotten a promotion at his work?)
- Evden çıkarken kapıyı kilitledi mi?

(Did he lock the door while exiting the house?)
Evden çıkarken kapıyı kilitlemiş mi?
(Has he locked the door while exiting the house?)
105
Negative Question “-miş” Reported Speech
Making negative question “-miş” reported speech is also easy. We simply add the “-ma” negative
suffix before the reported speech “-miş” suffix.
Pronoun Negative Question “-miş” Reported Speech

Ben git-me-miş-mi-yim? Haven’t I gone?
Sen yap-ma-mış-mı-sın? Haven’t you done?
O al-ma-mış-mı? Hasn’t He/She/It bought?
Biz bekle-me-miş-mi-yiz? Haven’t we waited?
Siz gör-me-miş-mi-siniz? Haven’t you seen?
Onlar iç-me-miş-ler mi? Haven’t they drunk?
- Daha ödevini teslim etmemiş misin? (Haven’t you turned in your homework (yet) ?)
- Ayşe beni okulda görmemiş mi? (Hasn’t Ayşe seen me at school?)
- İzlediğin film bitmemiş mi? (Hasn’t the film you’re watching finished (yet)?)
106
The “-diğini söyledi” Reported Speech
Another way to use the reported speech is by using the “-diğini söyledi” which mean “… told me to
…” in English. In order to use this Reported Speech, you simply add the “-diğini” suffix after the verb
root and later the verb “söyledi”. Be sure to follow Vowel Harmony and Consonant Mutation for the
“t” letter. This reported speech is used to narrate what the subject was doing.
First, let’s see how the verbs are conjugated into this form:
Pronoun The “-diğini söyledi” Reported Speech

Benim git-tiğimi söyledi … told me/said I went
Senin yap-tığını söyledi … told me/said you did
Onun al-dığını söyledi … told me/said he/she/it bought
Bizim bekle-diğimizi söyledi … told me/said we waited
Sizin gör-düğünüzü söyledi … told me/said you saw
Onların iç-tiğini söyledi … told me/said they drank
We can also make negatives by adding the “-me/-ma” suffix before the reported speech suffix:
Pronoun The “-diğini söyledi” Reported Speech

Benim git-me-diğimi söyledi … told me/said I didn’t go
Senin yap-ma-dığını söyledi … told me/said you didn’t do
Onun al-ma-dığını söyledi … told me/said he/she/it didn’t buy
Bizim bekle-me-diğimizi söyledi … told me/said we didn’t wait
Sizin gör-me-diğinizi söyledi … told me/said you didn’t see
Onların iç-me-diğini söyledi … told me/said they didn’t drink
Now, some sentence examples:
- Ali: Bugün spor yapmadım! (I didn’t do sports today!)

Ali bugün spor yapmadığını söyledi. (Ali told me/said he didn’t do sports today.)
- Ceren: Bu sene İtalya’ya gideceğim. (This year, I’m going to Italy.)

Ceren bu sene İtalya’ya gideceğini söyledi. (Ceren told me/said she will go to Italy this year.)
- Michael: Çok yemek yedim ve midem ağrıyor. (I ate too much and my stomach hurts.)
Michael çok yemek yediği için midesinin ağrıdığını söyledi.
(Micheal told me/said his stomach hurt because he ate too much.)
107

Speaking Turkish in 30 Days Update 1.0

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Speaking Turkish in 30 Days Update 1.0

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Read this document in other languages

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Speaking Turkish in 30 Days Update 1.0

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

What are the main topics covered in the document?

What are the main topics covered in the document?

How is reported speech constructed in Turkish?

How is reported speech constructed in Turkish?

- “Speaking Turkish in 30 Days”

Special Questions with Present Continuous Tense ........................................................................... 30

Day 19 – Conjunctions – Part 1 ............................................................................................................. 62

For ‘-dığından’ as ‘because’ ............................................................................................................... 82

Day 29 – Conditional Sentences – Part 2............................................................................................... 99

Have fun learning Turkish!

Day 1 – The Turkish Alphabet

Tongue Position Unrounded Rounded

Voiced Consonants Voiceless Consonants

Letters Pronunciation Letters Pronunciation

Let’s see some examples:

Ağaç Beğen Doğu Öğlen

Day 2 – Vowel Harmony & Consonant Assimilation

First let’s remember the 8 vowels in the Turkish alphabet:

Tongue Position Unrounded Rounded

Noun Adjective Adjective Adverb

Let’s look at Back and Front Vowel Harmony in more detail.

Back Vowel Harmony Rules (a, ı, o, u)

1) The “-ler/lar” suffix adds (plural) meaning to a noun:

2) The “ça/ca/ce” suffix turns an adjective into an adverb of manner:

Front Vowel Harmony Rules (e, i, ö, ü)

1) The “-ucu/ücü/ici” suffix turns verbs into nouns:

2) The “-suz/süz” suffix turns nouns into adjectives:

Before Mutation After Mutation

- Ayşe’nin kitabı (kitap) – Ayşe’s book

Day 3 – Present Tense “To Be”

Here are the Personal Pronouns in Turkish:

English Pronouns Turkish Pronouns

- Ben bir doktorum. (I am a doctor)

Ben bir doktor um

a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

- O bir doktordur – He/She is a doctor.

Negative Statement Sentences

- Ben bir doktor değilim. (I am not a doctor)

Ben bir doktor değil im

Personal Pronoun Negative + Personal Suffix

- Ben bir öğretmen değilim – I am not a teacher.

- Ben bir avukat mıyım? (Am I a lawyer?)

Ben bir avukat mıyım?

a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

- Onlar öğrenci mi? – Are they students?

- Sen bir doktor değil misin? (Aren’t you a doctor?)

Sen bir doktor değil misin?

Negation + Q. Word + P. Suffix

Let’s see some more examples:

- Sen mutlu değil misin? – Aren’t you happy?

Day 4 – Past Tense “To Be”

a/ı e/i o/u ö/ü

Let’s see some positive statement sentence examples:

- Ben bir öğretmendim – I was a teacher.

Negative Statement Sentences

Negative + Personal Suffix

Here are some sentence examples: