Turkish Grammar Lessons

TURKISH GRAMMAR LESSONS

TURKISH FOR FOREIGNS YABANCILAR İÇİN TÜRKÇE DERS NOTU

DR. BURAK GÖKBULUT

Turkish Grammar Lessons Contents

1. Introduction (Giriş) 2. Grammar (Dilbilgisi) 3. Alphabet (Alfabe) 4. Consonant Harmony (Sessiz Harf Uyumu) 5. Major Vowel Harmony (Büyük Ünlü Uyumu) 6. Minor Vowel Harmony (Küçük Ünlü Uyumu) 7. Vowel Rules (Ünlü Harflerle ilgili Kurallar) 8. Adding a buffer consonant in between two vowels (İsmin Halleri, Kaynaştırma Harfleri...) 9. Infinitives and Plurals (Mastar ve çokluk eki) 10. Negatives (Olumsuzluk) 11. There is, there is not (Var, yok) 12. Questions (Soru) 13. Noun states (İsmin Halleri) 14. To be (Olmak, -dır) 15. Adjective (Sıfat) 16. Noun clauses (İsim Tamlamaları) 17. Numbers (Sayılar) 18. Fractions (Kesirler ve üleşik sayılar) 19. Sequence Numbers (Sıralama Sayıları) 20. Personal Pronouns (Kişi Zamirleri) 21. Demonstrative pronouns (İşaret Zamirleri) 22. Possessive Pronouns (İyelik Zamirleri) 23. Reflexive Pronouns (Dönüşlülük Zamirleri) 24. Date and Time (Tarih ve Zaman) 25. Day of the week (Günler) 26. Seasons (Mevsimler) 27. Antonyms (Zıt Anlamlılar) 28. Quantity Words (Miktar) 29. Colors (Renkler) 30. Family (Aile) 31. Fruits and vegetables (Meyveler ve Sebzeler) 32. Our Body and Organs (Vücudumuz ve Organlarımız) 33. Animals (Hayvanlar) 34. Character (Karakter tarifi) 35. House and furniture (Ev ve eşyaları) 36. Illness (Hastalık) 37. Tenses (Fiilde Kip-Haber Kipleri) 38. Present continuous tense (Şimdiki zaman) 39. Future tense (Gelecek zaman) 40. Present simple tense (Geniş zaman) 41. Definite past tense, Past tense with -di (-di'li geçmiş zaman) 42. Indefinite past tense, Past tense with -miş (-miş'li geçmiş zaman) 43. Must, Have to, Need to, Want to (-meli, zorunda-lazım, gerek, isteme) 44. Degrees of Adjectives (Sıfatlarda derecelendirme: daha, en, kadar) 45. Comparatives (En) 46. Superlatives (Daha) 47. Making an adjective stronger (Sıfatları güçlnedirme: çok, fazla, pekiştirme) 48. Imperatives – Let, Wish Clouse (Emir kipi – İstek kipi) 49. The Definite and Indefinite Article in Turkish (a, an: bir) 50. Directions (Yönler) 51. Introducing yourself (Tanışma)

Turkish Grammar Lessons (TURKISH FOR FOREIGNS)

LECTURER: DR. BURAK GÖKBULUT

INTRODUCTION Grammar Turkish grammar is simplistic once you get used to the style. However, it can seem to be very difficult since the grammatical structure is totally different from the Indo-European languages. This is because Turkish is from a different language family called Ural-Altaic languages. Some languages similar to Turkish are ´Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Kazak, Uzbek, Tatar, Manchu´. Compared to English, the most fundamental differences in Turkish grammar can be listed as:  Ordering of sentence parts o A typical Turkish sentence is ordered as (subject + object + verb) . ArkadaĢım [My friend --> subject] araba [car -->object] aldı [bought-- >verb].  No gender o There are no articles in Turkish, and no gender associated with words o No gender in personal pronouns (the Turkish word for he, she and it is o)  Vowel harmony o Harmony of vowels is a very fundamental property of Turkish. The rules concerning vowel harmony need to be learned as one of the first steps because they affect the way almost all the other rules are applied.  Use of suffixes o Suffixes are very widely used in Turkish. The meaning of prepositions, personal pronouns and tenses are all countered by adding suffixes to word roots. . Kalbimdesin [You are in my heart] Once you get to these differences and learn the basic harmony rules, the rest of the grammar is quite simple. Almost everything follows well defined, simple rules. Sounds Another important point is the way you read a written text. There is exactly one sound for each character in Turkish. A character always represents the same sound, regardless of its position in a word or the characters next to it. Therefore, it is straightforward to pronounce a word that you see for the first time once you are familiar with the characters in the Turkish alphabet. Vocabulary Once you are comfortable or at least familiar with the harmony rules, the main challenge will be the vocabulary. Turkish vocabulary can be very challenging since the words have no resemblance to the European languages except the few words adapted directly from these languages.

Alphabet Turkish alphabet consists of 29 letters - 8 vowels and 21 consonants. 21 consonants: b, c, ç, d, f, g, ğ, h, j, k, I, m, n, p, r, s, ş, t, v, y, z. 8 vowels are: a, e, ı, i, o, ö, u, ü. There are eight vowels in Turkish which are divided into two groups as follows: The A-Undotted Vowels - A I O U The E-Dotted Vowels - E İ Ö Ü Each letter has exactly one associated sound which never changes. Three letters of the English alphabet are missing in the Turkish alphabet.

NEAR EAST UNIVERSITY, ART AND SCIENCE FACULTY, TURKISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT, LECTURER. 3

1. (Q-q) 2. (W-w) 3. (X-x)

There are seven additional characters not found in the English alphabet. 1. (Ç-ç) 2. (Ğ-ğ) 3. (I-ı) 4. (Ġ-i) 5. (Ö-ö) 6. (ġ-Ģ) 7. (Ü-ü)

The letters of Turkish alphabet and the sounds associated with these are in the following table

Letter Pronunciation A, a like the a in car B, b like the b in bet C, c like the g in gender Ç, ç like the ch in chance D, d like the d in debt E, e like the e in less F, f like the f in felony G, g like the g in game Ğ, ğ this is a very weak sound, not pronouncing at all will be ok H, h like the h in hello I, ı like the e in halted Ġ, i like the ee in keen J, j like the s in leisure K, k like the k in kelly L, l like the l in lamb M, m like the m in man N, n like the n in neighbor O, o like the a in ball Ö, ö like the u in urge P, p like the p in pen R, r like the r in rent S, s like the s in send ġ, Ģ like the sh in shed T, t like the t in tennis U, u like the oo in good Ü, ü like the u in nude V, v like the v in vent Y, y like the y in yes Z, z like the z in zen

Consonant Harmony Besides the vowel harmony rules, there are other basic rules that affect the way suffixes are used. A vowel following another is never allowed in Turkish, and there are rules to avoid these situations when they occur as a result of other rules. There are also rules about consonant harmony, that make some consonants change in certain cases.

Vowel harmony rules cause the vowels of suffixes to be modified when they are added to some words. There are similar rules about consonants. However, you may feel that all these rules are too many just for a simple start. Then, I advice you to omit the consonant harmony rules when you want to say or write something, just for the beginning. You will still be understood. Consonant harmony is mainly for making speech more fluent, it does not have a major effect on understandability. You will eventually learn these if you decide to continue learning Turkish, as you read sentences or listen to Turkish speakers.

Tip Consonant harmony is mainly for making speech more fluent, it does not have a major effect on understandability.

There are two different cases of consonant harmony - either the last consonant of the main word changes, or the first consonant of the suffix changes. The trouble making consonants in this case arep, ç, t and k. Let´s call the words that end with one of p, ç, t or k the trouble words.

CASE A - Word mutation. (Ünsüz yumuşaması) Two conditions must be satisfied for word mutation to occur: 1. You have a word ending with one of ´p, ç, t, k´. 2. You want to add this word a suffix that starts with a vowel. If the word has only one syllable, like saç, you are safe. The word usually does not change. saç-ı --> saçı (his/her/its hair) sap-a --> sapa (to the handle)

However, if the word has more than one syllable, than the consonant at the end usually changes.  p becomes b  ç becomes c  t becomes d  k becomes ğ

And here are some examples to this: ağaç-a --> ağaca (to the tree) Ģarap-ın --> Ģarabın (of the wine) kağıt-a --> kağıda (to the paper) geyik-e --> geyiğe (to the deer)

Tip There are exceptions to both the single syllable and multiple syllable cases mentioned above. For example: kap-a --> kaba (to the container) saat-in --> saatin (the clock´s)

You should still learn and apply the rules though, there are not too many of these exceptions.

CASE B - Suffix mutation. (Ünsüz benzeşmesi) Two conditions must be satisfied for suffix mutation to occur: 1. You have a word ending with one of p, ç, t, k, f, h, s, ş. 2. You want to add this word a suffix that starts with c or d. 5

In this case, the first letter of the consonant changes.  c becomes ç  d becomes t

Examples: Leh --> Polish (people) Leh-ce --> Lehçe --> Polish (language)

Türk --> Turkish (people) Türk-ce --> Türkçe --> Turkish (lanuage) yap --> do yap-di --> yaptı --> he did kebapçı/ yavaĢça/ ayakta/ ağaçta/kitapta/Atatürkçü(c=ç)/Türkçü(c=ç).

Major Vowel Harmony Vowel harmony is one of the most fundamental and important aspects of Turkish grammar. Turkish words generally obey two vowel harmony rules, called the major vowel harmony and the minor vowel harmony. More important than the words obeying these rules, there are ways these rules change the vowels in the suffixes added to words. A good understanding of these rules is necessary to be able to use suffixes, hence to be able to make correct and meaningful sentences.

1. Major Vowel Harmony The 8 vowels in the Turkish alphabet are separated into two groups called hard vowels and soft vowels. There are 4 hard vowels and 4 soft vowels. Hard a, ı, vowels: o, u Soft e, vowels: i, ö, ü

Words of Turkish origin generally (not always) have all hard or all soft vowels. This is just a generalization that you won´t use for constructing Turkish words and sentences. Words that have hard and soft vowels together are said to violate the major vowel harmony. A word that violates the major vowel harmony probably has been adopted from another language or has been changed in the lifetime of the Turkish language.

Each of the hard vowels are the hard counterparts of one soft vowel (and vice versa). Following this rule, vowels can be paired with their counterparts as follows: Hard Soft a E ı Ġ o Ö u Ü

A Turkish word is either a hard word or a soft word depending on its last vowel. ev[home] is a soft word since its last and only vowel, e, is a soft vowel. okul[school] is a hard word since its last vowel, u, is a hard vowel. kahve[coffee] is a soft word since its last vowel, e, is a soft vowel.

Now, try to guess if the following words are hard or soft. The correct answers are below the table.

Word Hard or Soft meslek[job] ? araba[car] ? güzel[beautiful] ? yemek[food] ? gülümse[smile] ? çabuk[quick] ? gül[rose] ? göl[lake] ? gidelim[let´s go] ? telefon[telephone] ?

(Correct answers: soft, hard, soft, soft, soft, hard, soft, soft, soft, hard)

Major vowel harmony states that:  Any suffix appended to a hard word must have hard vowels  Any suffix appended to a soft word must have soft vowels As an example to this rule let´s consider the suffix -de. When added to a noun, this suffix gives the meaning of "at/in the location expressed by that noun". When added to a soft word like ev[home], this suffix is -de. However, when added to a hard word like okul[school], the soft vowels in this suffix are replaced by their hard counterparts and the suffix becomes -da. Hence: at home --> evde at school --> okulda in the car --> arabada at the lake --> gölde

Minor Vowel Harmony We saw that the 8 vowels in the Turkish alphabet are divided into two groups as hard and soft vowels. Besides this grouping, the 8 vowels are divided into two groups as round vowels and flat vowels. There are 4 flat and 4 round vowels. A vowel´s being round or flat is actually determined from the shape of the mouth when pronouncing that vowel, but it can also be seen in the shape of the capital characters. Flat vowels: A, E, I, Ġ Round vowels: O, Ö, U, Ü

A Turkish word is either a round word or a flat word depending on its last vowel. ev[home] is a flat word since its last and only vowel, e, is a flat vowel. okul[school] is a round word since its last vowel, u, is a round vowel. kahve[coffee] is a flat word since its last vowel, e, is a flat vowel.

Now, try to guess if the following words are round or flat. Move the mouse over the right table cell of the word to see the answer. Word Round or Flat meslek[job] ? araba[car] ?

güzel[beautiful] ? yemek[food] ? gülümse[smile] ? çabuk[quick] ? gül[rose] ? göl[lake] ? gidelim[let´s go] ? telefon[telephone] ? (Correct answers: flat, flat, flat, flat, flat, round, round, round, flat, round)

Minor vowel harmony states that: If a suffix starting with -i is appended to a round word, the -i in the suffix becomes -u or -ü. This depends on whether the word is hard or soft. The major vowel harmony and the minor vowel harmony apply to words simultaneously. This means:

 If a suffix starting with -i is added to a hard and round word, the -i in the suffix becomes -u. o okul --> school [a hard vowel] o suffix we will add is -im (gives the meaning my) o my school --> okulum [the suffix -im changes according to vowel harmonies and becomes -um]  If a suffix starting with -i is added to a soft and round word, the -i in the suffix becomes -ü. o gül --> rose o suffix we will add is -im (gives the meaning my) o my rose --> gülüm [the suffix -im changes according to vowel harmonies and becomes-üm] my telephone --> telefonum my beautiful --> güzelim my lake --> gölüm

Notes on Vowel Harmony Vowel harmony is one of the most fundamental and important aspects of Turkish grammar. Turkish words generally obey two vowel harmony rules, called the major vowel harmony and theminor vowel harmony.

These rules change the vowels in the suffixes added to words. A good understanding of these rules is necessary to be able to use suffixes, hence to be able to make correct and meaningful sentences.

3. Practical notes about vowel harmony rules As far as vowel harmony is concerned, we can separate all the suffixes in Turkish into two main groups. Thinking in terms of these two cases simplifies these seemingly complicated rules. These are:

Case 1: The suffixes with first vowel -i (the suffixes -i, -di, -iyor, -im, -in ...)

Case 2: suffixes with first vowel -e (the suffixes -e, -de, -den, -erek, ...) All suffixes with first vowel -i, -ı, -u, -ü fall into the first group, and they are different forms of this case modified according to vowel harmony rules. bal-ım --> balım (my honey) ev-im --> evim (my home) sınıf-im --> sınıfım (my class) 8 dil-im --> dilim (my tongue) sol-im --> solum (my left) göz-im --> gözüm (my eye) okul-im --> okulum (my school) üzüm-im --> üzümüm (my grape)

All suffixes with first vowel -e, -a fall into the second group, and they are different forms of this case modified according to vowel harmony rules. araba-den --> arabadan (from the car) ev-den --> evden (from home) kapı-den --> kapıdan (from the door) deniz-den --> denizden (from the sea) sol-den --> soldan (from the left) göz-den --> gözden (from the eye) okul-den --> okuldan (from school) kapı-den --> kapıdan (from the door)

Note that no suffix has -o or -ö as the first vowel. Actually, no suffix has the letter -ö in it and there is only one suffix that has the vowel -o (this is the suffix for present continuous tense, - iyor and this -o does not change according to any vowel harmony rules). bak-iyor --> bakıyor (he/she/it is looking) gel-iyor --> geliyor (he/she/it is coming) sık-iyor --> sıkıyor (he/she/it is squeezing) bil-iyor --> biliyor (he/she/it knows) koĢ-iyor --> koĢuyor (he/she/it is running) gör-iyor --> görüyor (he/she/it is seeing) bul-uyor --> buluyor (he/she/it is finding) gül-iyor --> gülüyor (he/she/it is laughing)

The suffixes in case 1 are affected from both the major vowel harmony and the minor vowel harmony. For example, the suffix -di can become -di, -dı, -du or -dü depending on the word at which it is appended. ara-di --> aradı gel-di --> geldi kır-di --> kırdı bil-di --> bildi sol-di --> soldu gör-di --> gördü bul-du --> buldu üĢü-di --> üĢüdü

The suffixes in case 2 are affected by only the major vowel harmony rule. For example, the suffix -erek can become -erek or -arak depending on the word at which it is appended. bak-erek --> bakarak (with looking) sev-erek --> severek (with loving) sık-erek --> sıkarak (with squeezing) bil-erek --> bilerek (with knowing, knowingly) koĢ-erek --> koĢarak (with running) gör-erek -- görerek (with seeing) vur-erek -- vurarak (with hitting) bük-erek -- bükerek (with bending)

Vowel Rules Besides the vowel harmony rules, there are other basic rules that affect the way suffixes are used. A vowel following another is never allowed in Turkish, and there are rules to avoid these situations when they occur as a result of other rules. There are also rules about consonant harmony, that make some consonants change in certain cases.

1. When two vowels come together In Turkish, two vowels can never come together (note that there are a few exceptions to this rule). So, what do we do when we need to add a suffix that starts with a vowel at the end of a word that ends with a vowel? There are two cases here:

1.1. Dropping a vowel To say my house, you append the suffix meaning my (-im) to the word meaning house (ev). Simple enough, ´my house´ --> evim. You want to say ´my car´. Car is araba and the suffix that gives the meaning my is -im. Change the suffix according to vowel harmony rules so that is can be appended to araba (a hard and flat word) and -im becomes -ım. So, to put it together, my car becomes ´araba-ım = arabaım´. However, two vowels can not come together in Turkish. Trouble... To avoid this, we drop one of the vowels in this case. i. If both of the vowels are in the group "-i, -ı, -u, -ü" than these two vowels have to be the same (look at the vowel harmony rules to understand why). Since the two vowels are the same, it does not matter which one we drop in this case. ii. However, if one of the vowels is in the group "-i, -ı, -u, -ü" but the other is not (meaning that it is one of "a, e, o, ö") then generally the vowel in the group "-i, -ı, -u, -ü" is dropped. There are some exceptions to this, however, and these exceptions will be noted when necessary. Applying these rules, ´my car´ becomes ´arabam´.

1.2. Adding a buffer consonant in between You are asked where you are going. You want to say "(to) home". Hence, you append the suffix giving the direction meaning (-e) to the word meaning home (ev) and your reply becomes "eve". However, if you are going to the car and you want to tell this to your friend, things are not that simple for you:  First, change the suffix -e according to vowel harmony rules according to araba and it becomes -a.  Now, add this suffix -a at the end of our word araba, and get arabaa.

We have two vowels together. Drop one? Unfortunately, not this time. In this case we need to add a buffer consonant between the two vowels. There is not a simple rule to tell why. Sometimes one of the two vowels is dropped, sometimes one buffer consonant is added in between. However, what you do is consistent for a given suffix. If you are adding the suffix -e to a word that ends with a vowel (like araba), you always add the fusion consonant y in between. Saying to the carthen becomes arabaya. Too much effort spent to say a very simple word? More to come. Let´s practice on a few other words: Coast --> Kıyı | To the coast --> Kıyı-e --> Kıyıya Room --> Oda | To the room --> Oda-e --> Odaya Ship --> Gemi | To the ship --> Gemi-e --> Gemiye

This may take some time to get used to, definitely doable. Unfortunately, that´s not everything. The buffer consonant is not y every time. y is the most common one, so you can put y whenever you don´t remember which one to put, chances are high you´ll be right. The other consonants that are sometimes used as fusion consonants are s and n.

Let´s see different cases where these fusion consonants are used: a. The suffix -i

If the suffix -i is used as the -i form of a noun, making it a direct object (like the in English), then the fusion consonant y is used. araba-i sat -> araba-y-ı sat -> arabayı sat (sell the car) yazı-i oku -> yazı-y-ı oku -> yazıyı oku (read the text)