Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
Turkey Related Subjects => Learn Turkish => Topic started by: CharlotteC on August 11, 2012, 19:42:48 PM
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I thought I was being a real smart alec while we were in Calis last week and in a last ditch attempt to learn the language I took myself off to a bookshop and bought some workbooks aimed at Turkish schoolchildren. Trouble is I've opened the first one and I can't figure out all the arrows and highlighted letters. I'm not sure of the relationship between 'ele' and 'elle' and why you take the 'el' from the left hand side and 'le' from the right hand side.
If anyone could give me a helping hand please it would be great, I'm desperate to grasp Turkish and once I've got the hang of the format of these books I hope I'll be okay! There's a photo of the page in question here...
(http://s18.postimage.org/7ypakxct1/IMG_2183.jpg) (http://postimage.org/image/7ypakxct1/)
Many many thanks!
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its teaching you how to pronounce the letters.If you go on utube "turkish lessons" it will be better for you,but learning turkish is better 1 to 1.
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Turkish is what they call an agglutinative language.
Words buildup using different endings which might represent movement towards, from, in on or at, with etc
Also it is designed to sound and flow smoothly, notice below the use of the vowels....
Fethiye
fethiye'ye. To Fethiye
Fethiyeden. From Fethiye
Fethiyede. In Fethiye
fethiyedeyken when in Fethiye
Seker. Sugar
Sekerli. With sugar
Sekersiz. Without sugar
arkadas. Friend
Arkadaslar . Friends
Arkadasim. My friend
Arkadaslarim. My friends
arkadaslarimla. With my friends
You need to learn the use of the endings before trying to learn from a children's book, in the same way as arkadaslarimla won't be in the dictionary.
Sounds very boring but it's not like any other language you'll have learnt at school and the best way is a Turkish language learning text book, as they gradually introduce all of these things.
Once you grasp these concepts, and the verb endings and word order you'll find it gets easier, as everything is pronounced how it looks, and the grammar rules are almost always the same ( with the exception of a few older Arabic based words and expressions)
Having a language learning cd playing in your car, or in the background while you're cooking, whatever, really helps, and you'll subconsciously pick things up a bit like learning song lyrics.
There's some really good online sites too, eg Turkishclass.com.
Watching films with Turkish subtitles is a good way to reinforce too.
Don't give up, it will suddenly fall into place, but don't expect that to happen quickly. It takes years to learn a language well.
Some people have lived here years and can still only say hello and how are you, and take the stance that they dont need to learn it, it all depends how dedicated you are as to whether you succeed, whether you want to feel part of where youve chosen to live, but of course not everyone has a flair for languages.
Turkish people really appreciate it, I managed a conversation with an elderly Turkish man at the cake counter in Kipa today, the beaming smile and praise I got from him made my day.
I'm not sure where you're based, if in UK it's harder, if you're here then have lessons, and practice practice practice!
Good luck
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very well put, now teach me please :) been here 25 years and still mix up the tags LOL......
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Simples ! ;) ( looks difficult to me )
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I have been learnıng Turkish 1 to 1 for 4 years and although the turks say my turkısh ıs good I am stıll learnıng ,mostly conversatıon now. I started learnıng in the Uk and went to our local lıbrary and got Cd's out on teach yourself Turkısh. I played them all the tıme ın the car. It got me started. BYKi language course on the computer ıs a very good programme and ıts free to download. But as Kayakebab says practıce practıce.
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Turkish is not a very difficult language but it is a completely different language.
There's a logic to the grammar and once you can see that, all will fall in place.
You have to start with the basics and those are the vowel rules.
There are 8 vowels in Turkish and they follow the vowel harmony. There are two different kinds of harmony.
The first one is as follows:
e, i, ö, ü are followed by -e
a, ı, o, u are follwed by -a
To make a noun plural, you add "ler" or "lar" to the end of the noun.
Whether it is ler or lar depends on the last vowel of the word.
Looking at the vowel scheme above, you can see how it works:
house = ev houses = evler
cat= kedi cats=kediler
rose=gül roses=güller
eye=göz eyes=gözler
car=araba cars=arabalar
door=kapı doors =kapılar
road=yol roads=yollar
school=okul schools=okullar
If you understand how this works, you can take any noun and make it plural.
Turkish is such an easy language ;)
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I've been asked by Turks several times how long I lived in Istanbul for. Apparently it's because most of the language CDs and tapes I used were narrated by Istanbul based speakers and I picked-up their accents.
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I've been asked by Turks several times how long I lived in Istanbul for.
I've been asked by Turks several times to speak in English, as they have no idea what I am saying :)
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You really must learn to stop speaking with your mouth full. : :)
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I love "Foreign" languages, can "get by" in a few of them, (Spanish, French, German, & of course a smattering of English !!) but my favourite of all is Turkish. I find it to be a very clever language, in the way that the grammar "works", if that makes sense ?
I agree that the best way of learning is face to face, but whichever method one chooses, do not become frustrated and give in, one day everything will just click into place.
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Another good tip when learning a foreign language is that as soon as you learn something new, go out and use it as often as you can, then it usually sticks.
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do not become frustrated and give in, one day everything will just click into place.
Just like my hip in the morning.
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Good morning! Thank you everyone for your assistance regarding my question, I appreciate you taking the time to help me out. Having visited Turkey for the last seven years I feel if I'm going to learn the language it's now or never! I'm not satisfied with only knowing the standard tourist phrases (hello, good morning, thank you, good night) so I'm determined to master it.
I live in Leeds, UK and have taken your advise and I'm going to enquire about language courses at the uni, I've laden myself with school-age books as I think the more I am exposed to even simple sentences I'll start recognising the letter patterns. I also bought the Earworms series 1 in Turkish for cheap as it was on one of those discount code websites.
I think I just need to visit Turkey more to be around Turkish speaking folk, I certainly wouldn't argue with that ;)
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See if anyone in your local kebab shop wants to improve their English in return for some Turkish lessons (and maybe the occasional kebab) . ;)
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I use every visit to try and improve my meagre grasp on the language. I could write a shopping list, but not have a conversation sadly. These instructions are the best I have seen and make so much sense. The problem I have, as has been referred to above, is knowing how things SHOULD sound, and not what I THINK they should sound like. More of the same please! :D
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This looks interesting, don't know if anyone has tried it, or got any reviews
http://www.voicesnewspaper.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5277
Here is a really good link for pronunciation :
http://www.manastro.co.uk/members/turkey/turkish.htm
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For Angela, lesson number 2 ;)
Another suffix that is used often is -de/-da.
It's a preposition and means in/on/at.
It follows the same vowel harmony:
e, i, ö, ü are followed by -de
a, ı, o, u are follwed by -da
There is no definite article in Turkish so "the" doesn't get translated.
arabada = in the car
okulda = in the school
evde = in the house = at home
masada = on the table
If the noun ends with one of the following (hard) consonants: ç f h k p s ş t , you use -te and -ta instead of -de and -da.
yatakta = in bed
otobüste = in the bus
mutfakta = in the kitchen
An apostroph is being used after a name.
Fethiye'de = in Fethiye
Dalaman'da = in Dalaman
Türkiye'de = in Turkey
Çalış'ta = in Çalış
The plural suffix comes before the preposition suffix so if you combine them, it is as follows:
okullarda = in (the) schools
arabalarda = in (the) cars
Pay attention when the noun ends with one of the hard consonants:
dolapta = in the closet
dolaplarda = in the closets
I've just written this quickly so hopefully it makes sense.
Turkish is like lego. Just keep adding a new block and the word grows.
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thanks, that's my homework for tonight ;)
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I'll give you some real homework ;D
Translate the following phrases:
in the park
at the school
in Antalya
on the tables
in de sea
in the book
in the books
:angel:
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This is an excellent help and very simple to understand:-) I have also found the recommended Turkishclass.com to be brilliant! Many thanks, please keep the lessons coming........
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I found that many people prefer to act like a complete dick and speak to Turkish people in English, but with a Turkish accent.
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We had a funny incident in Istanbul, we were out walking one lunchtime, and a group of Turkish schoolboys, probably 12/13 year old heard our English accents and came running after us to talk to us, and we ended up helping them with their English homework. They were charming kids, and it made our day!
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Can anyone translate "Can we please call at a shop for water?" for me please? Strange question, I know, but we are coming to Calis shortly and would like to just get water before we get to our accommodation. Last year however we had a taxi driver who didn't know the area (so we got lost) and who didn't understand English!! We didn't get our water that time so just calling on members of CBF for a bit of assistance.
Many thanks in advance :)
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Her hangi bir yerden su almak isteyorum.
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Thank you Starman. I've written that down
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Not a proper answer like Starman's, but I have found pointing to shops at the side of the road and saying "Su, lutfen" works OK with taxi drivers.