Buying a ticket: bir bilet lütfen

The idea

At the counter the place you go to takes the dative: Ankara'ya bir bilet lütfen (-e after e i ö ü, -a after a ı o u, with y after a vowel). The place you leave from takes the ablative, İstanbul'dan, and a platform is asked about with hangi perondan. To ask when, kaç takes the locative: kaçta.

Examples

• Ankara'ya bir bilet lütfen.A ticket to Ankara, please.The destination takes the dative: Ankara'ya, with a y after the final vowel. No verb is needed; bilet and lütfen are enough.
• Otobüs kaçta kalkıyor?What time does the bus leave?Kaç (how many) takes the locative to ask the time: kaçta. The ç is voiceless, so the ending is -ta.
• Bu otobüs İzmir'e gidiyor mu?Does this bus go to İzmir?The question particle mu is written apart, and its vowel follows the last vowel of the word before it: gidiyor mu.
• Otobüs hangi perondan kalkıyor?Which platform does the bus leave from?
• İstanbul'dan Ankara'ya iki bilet lütfen.Two tickets from Istanbul to Ankara, please.From takes -dan and to takes -ya, and the noun stays singular after a number: iki bilet, not iki biletler.
• Gidiş-dönüş bir bilet lütfen.A return ticket, please.
• perondanfrom the platformperon·dan-den / -dan / -ten / -tan: from, out of
• Bursa'yato BursaBursa·'ya-e / -a / -ye / -ya: to, towards
• biletlerinizyour ticketsbilet·ler-ler / -lar: the plural suffix·iniz-ınız / -iniz / -unuz / -ünüz: your (plural, polite)
• Aktarma var mı?Is there a change?Aktarma means a change of bus or train, and var mı asks whether there is one. The mı is written apart.

Watch out

Do not leave the city bare or give it the locative: Ankara'da bir bilet lütfen sounds like a ticket that is in Ankara, not a journey there. After a number the noun stays singular: iki bilet, not iki biletler.

Try it yourself

1. Add the ending for where you are going: a ticket to İzmir, please.

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   İzmir'e

   İzmir'e: the last vowel i is front, so the dative is -e, and the apostrophe separates the city name.

2. Add the ending for where you start: two tickets from Bursa to İzmir, please.

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   Bursa'dan

   Bursa'dan: the journey starts in Bursa, so it takes the ablative, and the final back vowel a gives -dan.

3. Add the ending that asks the time: what time does the bus leave?

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   kaçta

   kaçta: ç is voiceless, so the locative starts with t, and the back vowel a gives -ta.

4. Two tickets, please. Write bilet (ticket) in the form that follows a number.

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   bilet

   bilet: after a number the noun stays singular, so there is no -ler.

Use it today

Write the counter line for three journeys from your own city, each with a destination, a number of tickets and lütfen.