Wanting and needing: istemek and lazım
Ask for tea, say you want to leave, tell a friend you need money: istiyorum for wanting, bana lazım for needing, and how the two sentences are built.
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ile: with, by means of and “and”
Who did you go with, and how? Learn ile for company, vehicles and tools, the attached forms arkadaşımla and otobüsle, and why benimle replaces ben ile.
Read and practiseJoining sentences: ve, ama, veya, çünkü
Bread and cheese, cold but sunny, home or work: join words and sentences with ve, ama and veya, and give a reason with çünkü.
Read and practiseLiking and disliking: sevmek and hoşlanmak
Sevmek takes the accusative and hoşlanmak the ablative. Learn to say what you like and dislike in Turkish, from Kahveyi seviyorum to Kediden hoşlanmıyorum.
Read and practiseSimple past with -di: what happened
Dün geldim, dün gittim: report finished events in Turkish by adding -di to the bare verb stem and a person ending, with time words such as dün and az önce.
Read and practiseSimple past: gitmedim and gittin mi?
Ask Gittin mi?, answer Gitmedim: how the Turkish past takes -me, the person endings and a bare mi, with the question word written apart.
Read and practiseTime phrases: today, at three, on Saturday
Bugün and yarın need no ending, but a clock time does: saat üçte. See how Turkish says today, at three and on Saturday without extra little words.
Read and practiseevet and hayır: answering yes/no questions
Does evet mean yes or no after Kahve içmiyor musun? Learn to answer negative questions in Turkish: evet agrees with the question, hayır rejects it.
Read and practiseHabits and general truths: the aorist
Tea every morning, water freezes at zero: say what usually happens in Turkish with -ır/-ar endings, as in içerim, gelir and gideriz.
Read and practiseAorist negative: -mez / -maz and questions
Gelmem, gelmezsin, gelmeyiz: build the negative aorist with -mez/-maz, see why ben and biz lose the z, and ask questions such as Gelmez misin?
Read and practiseThe future with -ecek / -acak
Tomorrow, next week, soon: build the Turkish future tense with -ecek/-acak, add the person endings, and see why gelecek becomes geleceğim.
Read and practiseFuture negatives and questions: -meyecek / -mayacak
Gitmeyeceğim, kalmayacak, gelmeyecek misin? Build the Turkish negative future, see why -me never narrows before -yecek, and ask the question with a separate mi.
Read and practiseAli'nin evi: owner and owned
Ali'nin evi, kapının anahtarı: put -in on the owner and a possessive ending on the thing owned, with the right vowel and softening.
Read and practiseNoun compounds: ev kapısı and the izafet
How two Turkish nouns join into one idea: only the second takes -sı or -ı, as in ev kapısı and çay bardağı, and what happens to its final consonant.
Read and practise-ebil- / -abil-: can, may, be able to
Yardım edebilirim means “I can help”: how the suffix -ebil- gives ability, possibility and permission, when a y is needed, and why git becomes gid.
Read and practiseCannot: the inability form -eme / -ama
Gelemiyorum or gelmiyorum? Say in Turkish that you cannot do something with -eme/-ama in the present, past and aorist, and keep it apart from a plain negative.
Read and practise-meli / -malı: should and must
What should you do tomorrow? Add -meli or -malı to the verb stem, then the person ending, and say what you, we or a friend should or have to do.
Read and practisegerek, lazım, zorunda: must and need to
Gitmem gerek, gitmen lazım, gitmek zorundayım: say what you must do, put the person ending on the right word, and say you need not with gerek yok.
Read and practiseThan in Turkish: daha and -den / -dan
Elif senden daha genç: build 'younger than you' with daha and the ablative, and see why Turkish has no separate word for 'than' and how the compared word changes.
Read and practiseen güzel, en büyük: the superlative
En güzel, en hızlı, en çok: say 'the most' with one small word before an adjective, and see which endings go on the noun that follows.
Read and practiseAdverbs of degree: çok, az, biraz, fazla
Çok yorgun, biraz süt, fazla tuzlu: choose between very, a little, little and too much, and put the degree word right before the word it changes.
Read and practisegibi, kadar, için: like, as much as, for
For my grandfather, like me, until evening: how gibi, kadar and için follow a noun, why ben becomes benim before them, and when kadar means “until”.
Read and practiseReasons and results: çünkü, için and bu yüzden
Çünkü gives the reason, bu yüzden gives the result, and için links a noun to its purpose. Learn which goes where, and why it is benim için, not ben için.
Read and practiseSuggestions and offers: let's and shall I
Açalım mı, açayım mı? Learn when -elim means we and -eyim means I, how to ask Shall we? and Shall I?, and how to say let's not with -meyelim.
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