• Turkish is simply different from western european languages.

1. ) First thing is the vowel harmony that is unknown to english speakers.

2. ) Putting words into a different order when making sentences.

3. ) Vocabulary is mostly unrelated to western languages.

• The easy points are “despite all differences” if you once adjust the rules Turkish is so logical.

1. ) Nouns do not have masculine or feminine genders to remember.

2. ) The rules rarely change. But there are a few exceptions.

3. ) If you know the endings you don’t have to know all the vocabulary.

• WHAT IS ENDING ?

    Let’s make an example

    Gelebileceksin  à                        gel    –    ebil      –   ecek    –     sin

                                                        ¯            ¯               ¯               ¯   
                                                    “Come” “be able to”   “will”     “you”

    Geleceksin       à                         gel    –   ecek   –    sin 

                                                       ¯            ¯             ¯
                                                     “come”   “will”     “you”

 As you see in the example the structure is completely different from english. You form a simple statement with a base and endings in a single word and this is called AGGLUTINATE.  Turkish is an aglutinating language.  This is binding words with endings  

• While we are aglutinating, most of the endings harmonise with the base word. For example : the ending “-le” means “with”

         Kitap  –  la    > kitapla          =  with the book

            ¯          ¯    
         Book      with 

        Ev    –  le   >   evle                      = with the book

          ¯         ¯
        Book     with 

     Here is the ending  “-la” is in the same usage with ending “-le” and this is called the
     THE VOWEL HARMONY that you will learn by practicing and listening by the time.  

• HOW WILL I PUT THE WORDS IN RIGHT ORDER ? 

         Let’s make an example  

        The woman    went     home  à   The woman home went. 

            Kadın          gitti         eve           Kadın eve gitti.  

Here we got a simple rule. The subject is always in the beginning and the verb is always at the end. Mostly in every sentence we speak, the last word we speak is the verb. 

• HOW WILL I  BUILD VOCABULARY WITH ENDINGS

      a. ) Gazete = Newspaper 

           Gazete – ci à Gazeteci = Journalist 

      b. ) Deniz    = Sea

            Denizci = Sailor                                  - ci   

     c. ) Kitap  =  Book

          Kitapçı  =  Book Seller ( Store )           -çı 

        Above you can see the vowel harmony.   

        Unfortunately, you don’t have to listen at the same time. You have to pay attention to
        understand the words. 
                                                                                                           
                                                                                                             Serpil Aksahin – Cansu Çaykara

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