You will pick yeni for things and for people who have just arrived, and genç for a person's age.
The idea
Yeni means new: yeni telefon, yeni komşu. It says that something is not used yet or has only just appeared, and its opposite is eski. Genç means young and is about age: genç biri, gençler. Its opposite is yaşlı.
| Word | Example | Opposite |
|---|---|---|
| yeni | yeni telefon | eski |
| genç | genç biri | yaşlı |
Examples
- Annem yeni telefonunu çok seviyor.My mother really likes her new phone.
- Babam yeni arabasını yıkıyor.My father is washing his new car.
- Genç biri bize yardım etti.A young person helped us.Genç describes a person's age. Here it stands before biri (someone): a young someone.
- Yeni komşularımız çok genç.Our new neighbours are very young.Yeni says the neighbours arrived recently; genç says how old they are. Two separate facts in one sentence.
- Dedem yeni uyandı.My grandfather has just woken up.Before a verb, yeni means just now. It says nothing about a grandfather being new, or young.
- gençlikyouthgençlik-lik / -lık / -luk / -lük: quality, state, job
- yeniliksomething new, a noveltyyenilik-lik / -lık / -luk / -lük: quality, state, job
- gençleryoung peoplegençler-ler / -lar: the plural suffix
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Watch out
Do not call a thing genç: for a new car say yeni araba, not genç araba. And yeni does not say that a person is young: a yeni öğretmen is a teacher who has just started, and may be fifty.
Try it yourself
Fill in yeni or genç: This bag is very new.
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yeni
yeni: a bag is an object. It can be new or old, but it has no age in years, so genç does not fit.
Fill in yeni or genç: My grandfather looks very young.
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genç
genç: the sentence is about how young a person looks. Yeni would suggest he has only just appeared.
Fill in yeni or genç: Our new neighbour moved in today.
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Yeni
Yeni: the neighbour has just moved in, so the point is arrival, not age.
Add -lik to genç (young): youth.
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gençlik
gençlik: the root genç ends in the voiceless ç, but -lik starts with l, so nothing changes, and the front vowel e gives i.
Practice round
Answer questions, then rebuild Turkish sentences and words where available. We keep your score.
Fill in yeni or genç: This bag is very new.
Fill in yeni or genç: My grandfather looks very young.
Fill in yeni or genç: Our new neighbour moved in today.
Add -lik to genç (young): youth.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the parts in order to build this word: youth
Tap the parts in order to build this word: something new, a novelty
Keep your progress
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Describe three things you bought recently with yeni, and three people you know with genç or yaşlı. Check that no thing is called genç.