Fruit names for the market and the table

The idea

Fruit names are ordinary nouns: elma, armut, muz, şeftali, üzüm, çilek, kiraz, vişne, portakal, karpuz. When you talk about a fruit in general, or about a quantity of it, the name stays bare: Elma seviyorum, bir kilo elma, üç portakal. Add -ler/-lar only for the group as such, as in meyveler (fruits).

Examples

• Kahvaltıda muz yiyorum.I have a banana for breakfast.
• Pazarda taze çilek var.There are fresh strawberries at the market.
• Sepette üç portakal var.There are three oranges in the basket.After the number three the fruit stays singular: üç portakal, not üç portakallar.
• Kiraz seviyorum ama vişne sevmiyorum.I like cherries but I don't like sour cherries.Kiraz is the sweet cherry and vişne the sour one, two separate fruits. Both stay bare because the sentence speaks of each fruit in general.
• Bu karpuz çok tatlı.This watermelon is very sweet.
• Bir kilo elma istiyorum.I would like a kilo of apples.A unit such as kilo works like a number: bir kilo elma, never bir kilo elmalar.
• meyvelerdenfrom the fruitsmeyve·ler-ler / -lar: the plural suffix·den-den / -dan / -ten / -tan: from, out of
• kayısılarımızour apricotskayısı·lar-ler / -lar: the plural suffix·ımız-imiz / -ımız / -umuz / -ümüz: our

Watch out

English speakers write Muzlar seviyorum for "I like bananas". Turkish needs the bare noun: Muz seviyorum. Also keep kiraz (sweet cherry) apart from vişne (sour cherry): they are two different fruits.

Try it yourself

1. There are three pears. Write armut (pear) without a plural ending.

   Show answer or example answer

   armut

   armut: üç already shows there are several, so the pear takes no ending; armutlar would mark the plural twice.

2. Make the plural of meyve (fruit).

   Show answer or example answer

   meyveler

   meyveler: there is no number or quantity word, and the last vowel e is front, so the plural is -ler.

3. Write the Turkish word for peach.

   Show answer or example answer

   şeftali

   şeftali: it starts with ş and ends in i, not ı; seftali uses a different letter and counts as wrong.

4. I like grapes in general. Write üzüm (grape) with no ending.

   Show answer or example answer

   üzüm

   üzüm: the sentence speaks of grapes in general, so the noun stays bare. A plural would point to one particular group.

Use it today

Write four sentences about fruit you eat, buy or dislike, each with a bare fruit name. Then add one sentence with a number or kilo.