Time phrases: today, at three, on Saturday
Bugün and yarın need no ending, but a clock time does: saat üçte. See how Turkish says today, at three and on Saturday without extra little words.
Read and practiseAdventure journal
Turkish grammar
Learn vowel harmony, word order, negation and sentence patterns one rule at a time, with examples and typed practice.
Adventure journal
Turkish grammar
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evet and hayır: answering yes/no questions
Does evet mean yes or no after Kahve içmiyor musun? Learn to answer negative questions in Turkish: evet agrees with the question, hayır rejects it.
Read and practiseHabits and general truths: the aorist
Tea every morning, water freezes at zero: say what usually happens in Turkish with -ır/-ar endings, as in içerim, gelir and gideriz.
Read and practiseAorist negative: -mez / -maz and questions
Gelmem, gelmezsin, gelmeyiz: build the negative aorist with -mez/-maz, see why ben and biz lose the z, and ask questions such as Gelmez misin?
Read and practiseThe future with -ecek / -acak
Tomorrow, next week, soon: build the Turkish future tense with -ecek/-acak, add the person endings, and see why gelecek becomes geleceğim.
Read and practiseFuture negatives and questions: -meyecek / -mayacak
Gitmeyeceğim, kalmayacak, gelmeyecek misin? Build the Turkish negative future, see why -me never narrows before -yecek, and ask the question with a separate mi.
Read and practiseAli'nin evi: owner and owned
Ali'nin evi, kapının anahtarı: put -in on the owner and a possessive ending on the thing owned, with the right vowel and softening.
Read and practiseNoun compounds: ev kapısı and the izafet
How two Turkish nouns join into one idea: only the second takes -sı or -ı, as in ev kapısı and çay bardağı, and what happens to its final consonant.
Read and practise-ebil- / -abil-: can, may, be able to
Yardım edebilirim means “I can help”: how the suffix -ebil- gives ability, possibility and permission, when a y is needed, and why git becomes gid.
Read and practiseCannot: the inability form -eme / -ama
Gelemiyorum or gelmiyorum? Say in Turkish that you cannot do something with -eme/-ama in the present, past and aorist, and keep it apart from a plain negative.
Read and practise-meli / -malı: should and must
What should you do tomorrow? Add -meli or -malı to the verb stem, then the person ending, and say what you, we or a friend should or have to do.
Read and practisegerek, lazım, zorunda: must and need to
Gitmem gerek, gitmen lazım, gitmek zorundayım: say what you must do, put the person ending on the right word, and say you need not with gerek yok.
Read and practiseThan in Turkish: daha and -den / -dan
Elif senden daha genç: build 'younger than you' with daha and the ablative, and see why Turkish has no separate word for 'than' and how the compared word changes.
Read and practiseen güzel, en büyük: the superlative
En güzel, en hızlı, en çok: say 'the most' with one small word before an adjective, and see which endings go on the noun that follows.
Read and practiseAdverbs of degree: çok, az, biraz, fazla
Çok yorgun, biraz süt, fazla tuzlu: choose between very, a little, little and too much, and put the degree word right before the word it changes.
Read and practisegibi, kadar, için: like, as much as, for
For my grandfather, like me, until evening: how gibi, kadar and için follow a noun, why ben becomes benim before them, and when kadar means “until”.
Read and practiseReasons and results: çünkü, için and bu yüzden
Çünkü gives the reason, bu yüzden gives the result, and için links a noun to its purpose. Learn which goes where, and why it is benim için, not ben için.
Read and practiseSuggestions and offers: let's and shall I
Açalım mı, açayım mı? Learn when -elim means we and -eyim means I, how to ask Shall we? and Shall I?, and how to say let's not with -meyelim.
Read and practiseAsking permission and politely: -ebilir miyim
May I sit here? Build Oturabilir miyim? and Verir misiniz? to ask permission, offer help and make a polite request, with the person ending on mi.
Read and practisePast continuous: what was happening
Rain was falling and the phone rang: use -yordu for the scene and -dı for the event that cuts in, as in Yağmur yağıyordu, telefon çaldı.
Read and practiseVar and yok in the past and future
Vardı, yoktu, olacak: say that something existed, was missing or will happen, and see why the future of var is olmak and not a new ending on var.
Read and practiseWhich verbs take which case
Müziği dinliyorum, not müziğe: which case does each Turkish verb ask for? A short map of dinlemek, beklemek, bakmak, korkmak, konuşmak and kalmak.
Read and practisebiri, bir şey, herkes: someone, something, everyone
Biri geldi, herkes geldi, her şey hazır: the Turkish words for someone, something, everyone and everything, and why her şey is written as two words.
Read and practisePutting events in order: önce, sonra, sonunda
First wash, then eat, finally leave: use önce, sonra and sonunda in the right place, and see why sonunda means at last and not simply then.
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