Lesson 3 Focus

Asking people are you something?

• Know about personal pronouns I, He, She ...

Listen to the conversation

İyi günler efendim,

Deniz nerede?

Türkçe bilmiyorum

Öğrenci misiniz?

Evet, öğrenciyim.

Tamam. Teşekkür ederim.

Rica ederim.

İyi günler efendim 

“İyi günler” is a greeting said in the day time . It can be said as a start for the conversation or as an end for it. In Turkey people greet each other with it a lot.

If the time is morning you  can use “Günaydın”. If evening you say “İyi akşamlar” and at night you say “İyi geceler” means “good night”

Efendi : Sir

Efendim : (My) sir-

Deniz nerede? 

Deniz means  sea. Nerede means “ Where”

“……………….nerede” is used to ask about the location of the things.

Araba nerede?          Where is the car ?

Eviniz nerede?           Where is your home ?

Meydan nerede?      Where is the square?

Türkiye nerede?        Where is Turkey (At the map)

Kalemim nerede?     Where is my pen ?

* More about locations and places later.

Türkçe bilmiyorum 

This is the key lesson in this conversation. If any one asked you or talked to you in Turkish and you don’t know what does he say, You answer saying I don’t know Turkish.

“bil” is the root, means know. The rest are suffixes.

 “mi” makes it negative.

 “yor” is for present continuous time.

“um” refers to me, i

Biliyorum means I know. Bilmiyorum means I don’t know.

Öğrenci misiniz? 

Are you a student ?

Öğrenci = student

-  misiniz is a question suffix like are you. And it adapts to the word that comes before it.

-  misin is the same but for informal use;

So misin is for informal use (friends, younger people, people you know ...).

And misiniz is for formal usage (people you don’t know, people in street, older people , ...)

“Öğrenci misin?”      : Are you a student? Informal.

“Öğrenci misiniz?”    : Are you a student? formal.

You may be wondering where is the “You” word. Are you ?

Well this is something you will get used to it in Turkish language. Suffixes can replace the need to add the pronouns. So  “Öğrenci misin?”  is equal to “Sen (You) Öğrenci misin?” because the addition “sin” is only added with the pronoun you.

Lets have some grammar fun here. Personal pronouns are as follow:

Ben     = I ,

Sen      = You ,

O         = He/She/It ,

Biz       = We ,

Siz       = You (plural and for formal usage)

Onlar = They

[Ben] Öğrenci miyim? : Am i a student?

[Sen]   Öğrenci misin? : Are you a student? Informal. “Öğrenci misiniz” is formal.

[O   ]   Öğrenci mi? : Is she/he/it a student?

[Biz]    Öğrenci miyiz? : Are we a student?

[Siz]    Öğrenci misiniz? : Are you a student? formal or Are you a students? (plural)

[Onlar] Öğrenci miler (Onlar öğrenciler mi ➔ this one is more common)? : Are they students?

Evet, öğrenciyim. 

Evet means yes.

Hayır means no.

öğrenci  means student.

Öğrenciyim. I’m student

“im” is a suffix and it adapts to the word. It ads the meaning of I’m 

It should be öğrenciim  but in Turkish we don’t allow two vowel letters (a,e,i,o,u,o) together like that so we add y between them. Öğrenci-y-im.

Read and listen :

Sen öğrencisin. You are student.

O bir öğrenci. He is a student. bir here like “a” in English.

To be continued next lesson.