r/turkish

Merhaba arkadaşlar,

Something funny happened to me the other day. My friend was working on her thesis and I wanted to send her some good wishes (she's half Turkish so I practise with her). I wanted to type "kolay gelsin" into translate just to see if it meant what I thought, but forgot the 'y' so it just said "kola gelsin", which it translated to "Bring on the cola".

It seems that from now on I'll only drink cola when I'm with her just so I can say that. 😆

But I realised there's some other similar words that can cause mixups, like "kazak" and "kaza".

Have you ever noticed anything like this or has it happened to you? Definitely helps me to not forget a word ever again!

I want to know if someone knows an app that we can use to give us a new word on the home page every day so that i can improve my vocab. I have seen it for english a lot but i didn't find it for turkish.

I understand turkish in a decent manner and can maintain a decent conversation. So i don't mind even if the app language is turkish.

So can someone comment or dm me if you know such app.

Bölüm gerçekte ne kadar zor? Özellikle 1. sınıfta dersler çok ağır mı?

Normal bir haftada okuldan geldikten sonra günde ortalama kaç saat ders çalışmanız gerekiyor? Sınav haftasını değil, normal haftaları soruyorum. Çok yüksek ortalama hedeflemeyen, derslerini geçip makul bir ortalamayla ilerlemek isteyen bir öğrenci için günde en az kaç saat düzenli çalışma gerekir?

Bir de dersler İngilizce olduğu için hazırlığı geçmiş ama İngilizcesi ortalama B2 seviyesinde olan biri ilk yıl çok zorlanır mı?

So I’m going to Istanbul later this month, and I know most don’t speak English there, and I wanna learn Turkish because I’m planning on going there a lot. So this is what I learned so far:

Hoşbulduk, merhaba, evet, hayır, bu, lütfen, paket, teşekkürler, sağol, sağolun, tamam, şeker, pantolon, gömlek, kolay gelsin, su, and the numbers one to ten.

Is this generally enough to get me around for now? Or do I need to learn more? I’m trying to first tackle down the most important/words I will use most. I’m finding it easy so far because Turkish is similar to Arabic, and I speak Arabic. But it’s definitely not easy to learn a new language.

So I have been learning Turkish on and off for a few years now but I am still probably around a1 level (maybe a2 in regards to grammar) because I keep losing motivation as I second guess my approaches to the language so I would really like some advice or opinions from serious learners or fluent speakers as I can't afford a tutor at the moment.

*My goal is to mostly get a high level in understanding Turkish and maybe a more casual or simple level in speaking/output

So far I am focusing on grammar with some of the basic verbs and vocabulary I already know, so far I learnt:

>vowel harmony and consonant softening

>ben, sen, o, biz, siz, onlar

>plurals: lar

>past tense : di and miş

>present : yor (still learning aorist tense)

>future : ecak

>combined tenses: yordu, ecekti

>genitive, ablative, locative, dative, accusative cases

>"to be" endings and possession endings

> -li suffix

>var, yok

>negative suffix -me

>question extension "mi?miydi?"

>bu, şu, o and adding case suffuxes like "buraya, burada, buradan"

>böyle, söyle, öyle

> -mali and -abil

> daha and en

>conjunctions: ama, ancak, ve, çünkü

for vocabulary, its pretty much the basic stuff like weather, numbers, etc and then basic things like Adınız ne, nasilsiniz, teşekkürler, çok güzel, etc

I plan to now expand vocabulary and learn maybe the top 20-30 verbs and more nouns/adjectives and then just watch more content and try read a full book. In winter I will be able to go to Turkey and practice and learn more but it's important for me to improve before that.

Is there anything I am missing or need to add in my grammar topics? Since its pretty much the structure of the language i'm really worried to miss some stuff..

Odd phrases that I'm not sure will necessarily have a translation, but so.eone is commissioning me for a turkish character and i do want it to be accurate. If the phrase itself doesn't really exist, let me know if there's an alternative maybe?

"Dead man walking" or "you're dead" - I found "ölüsün", thoughts/opinions?

And also "Spray and pray" as in, when you just shoot randomly in a video game and hope it hits someone. I found "rastgele ateş etmek", but Im sure that's probably not super common? Let me know if there's any similar phrases from like... I suppose the gaming scene maybe?

Sorry in advance, but the help is thoroughly appreciated :)

This might sound like a weird question, but I’m a synesthete and I’ve noticed something very specific about Turkish.

For some reason, Turkish words often give me very strong taste sensations. For example, words like “içilmez” somehow taste like burger sauce to me.

And when I hear something like “otururken”, I get a similar sensation — almost like pickles.

I experienced it yesterday for the first time when i was at SAW for a transit flight.

I don’t mean “tasty” metaphorically. I literally experience something resembling a taste when I hear certain sounds or words and become hungry.

I’m really curious: does anyone else experience something similar with Turkish? Especially other synesthetes — do certain Turkish sounds or words trigger specific tastes for you?

I’m looking for some good free Turkish podcasts or YouTube channels to share with my students for extra listening practice.

I already know and like Akıcı Türkçe, but I’d love to hear from Turkish learners themselves. Which podcasts or channels do you actually enjoy listening to and find useful?

I’m especially interested in content with clear, fairly simple Turkish that learners can follow without feeling completely lost.

What are your favorites?

There are nearly zero resources for Turkmen let alone Iraqi Turkmen, so should i learn Turkish instead? will Turkmen ppl understand me? and will i be able to talk to them? Plz answer "sob"

I'm a Croatian developer and my Android app is localized into Turkish. The translation went through a native-speaker review, but I'm not a native speaker, so I'd like a reality check from people who live in the language. (For transparency: I asked the r/Turkey mods if I could post about the app in their sub, and they pointed me toward the Turkish-language subs instead - so this is a language question, not an ad. I'm not linking the app; if anyone wants it, I'll share it in a comment.)

It's a party app: everyone puts a finger on the screen and it randomly picks teams, winners or turn order. The phrases:

1. The four mode names: "Takımlara Ayır", "Kazananları Seç", "Sıra Belirleme", "Parti Ruleti". Do these read like a Turkish app, or do they smell translated?

2. The main instruction: "2+ parmak koy" (put 2 or more fingers on the screen). Is the bare "koy" right for a casual app, or would you phrase it differently?

3. The roulette description: "Parmakları teker teker eler — son kalan kaybeder!" (eliminates fingers one by one; the last one left loses). Natural?

Every nitpick is welcome. If something reads off, I'd rather fix it in the next update than leave it.