I teach Turkish in London and I can ensure you that most lecturers who work in colleges and universities here don't speak Turkish very well.

Even in GCSE Turkish tests that were written by some of them, there are obvious mistakes. Most of these guys (Especially for London) are Cypriots who have been living in the UK for 20 years and have forgotton proper Turkish long ago.

There is no difference bod. Feel free to use both versions.

Thanks Erdinç - another bit of clarity in my mind

Just to check my understanding.......
Because okumak has a dictionary entry of "1. /ı/ to read" any subject of the verb must be in the accusative state.

Kitapi okıyorum
I am reading a book

Your understanding is correct. Unfortunately the dictionary entries like /e/i/den etc. dont cover all possibilities. I don't know why they don't. The information given there is correct but it is usually not the whole of possibilities.

I think it is meant to show whether a verb does or doesnt take an object.

/i/ okumak : obviously takes the accusative (direct objects) as you have understood correctly. So "kitabı okumak" would be correct.

There are small nuances. "kitap okumak" is the act of reading books while "kitabı okumak" is defined. The speaker is talking about a certain book. Here it is "the book" and not "a book". There should be some speech supporting the fact that it is a known book. Otherwise it would not a correct expression.

Because you are using the accusative case it is a defined object. This is contradictory with the English term "a book". A book is any book. Either you can read any book or a certain book.

Therefore the first option would fit better.
1. Kitap okuyorum.
I'm reading a book.

2. Bu kitabı okuyorum.
I'm reading this book. (Here look at the book. It is here.)

3. Kitabı okuyorum.
I'm reading the book (and you know what book I'm talking about).

Do all (or at least most) Türkçe dictionaries have the noun state where appropriate next to the verb - or is this just something to do with the dictionary on this site???

Is it a standard thing to find in paper dictionaries?

i am a new member. I need some understanding in building a sentence in Turkish. For example :

English - i want to know
Turkish - bilmek istiyorum

question : if dirct translation it will sound = to know i want. what is the structure of building a Turkish sentence ?

Greetings RAJA FATEHA,
your sentence is correct. In my starting post you will find basic information to build simple sentences. I think you already checked that. So I guess you can build the following sentences as well. Can you?

I want to go to Istanbul. (to Istanbul= İstanbul'a)

I want to live in Istanbul. (in Istanbul= İstanbul'da)

yümek çok güzel ama kolay değil