Turkish Grammar Lessons

72 Pages·2016·0.32 MB·Turkish

by  Gökbulut Burak.

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)

1
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
A typical Turkish sentence is ordered as
(subject + object + verb)
Arkadaşım [My friend --> subject] araba [car --
>object] aldı [bought-->verb].
No gender
There are no articles in Turkish, and no gender associated with
words
No gender in personal pronouns (the Turkish word for he, she
and it is o)
Vowel harmony
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
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.
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. (İ-i)
5. (Ö-ö)
6. (Ş-ş)
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
İ, 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
Ş, ş like the sh in shed
T, t
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)
şarap-ın --> şarabın (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.
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/ yavaşça/ 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 vowels: a, ı, o, u
Soft vowels: e, 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 İ
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, İ
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] ?
?