Hi Everyone,

I am currently trying to lean turkish (with major difficulty), and my boyfriend bought me some turkish children's books, for me to try and read by translating, but i am stuck already.. on the title!!!

it is called Padisah ile veziri... the only title i can come up with is 'chess queen with/by sultan'!?? please can anyone translate this title, just so i have some idea what the book is about
thank you xx

sorry this should be in the translation forum.

thank you, something so simple as a children's book makes me realise i am not as good as turkish as i thought i was getting!

thanks for your help x

DON'T GET DESPONDENT!!!!!

Children's books have simple vocabulary, but they do not have simple grammar, since children who are learning to read can understand some quite difficult grammar.

For example: "The little red hen used to go to market every day. One day when she was walking down the street she suddenly saw the nasty fox. As soon as she saw him she cried out and ran as fast as she could."
All the words are simple, but the grammar for "when", "used to" and "as soon as" you don't meet until intermediate level Turkish classes.

I got frustrated when learning that I couldn't understand a kids book about Ataturk. Kids books are great if you are at upper intermediate level, but not before. You need texts that only contain the grammar you know.

BEst of luck!

I agree with Marion, while in Istanbul I got really stuck trying to read a children's book, the Match-Selling Girl or whatever you call in English that 'Kibritçi Kız', the vocabulary wasn't too hard, but the grammar definitely was, it was the first time I had ever seen that doubled -miş tense,which I'm yet to see chatting with Turkish speakers.
I also found that for some reason the Turkish Cinderella story is actually about a cat (Kül Kedisi) and Snow White was in fact made from cotton (Pamuk Prenses)

So don't get discouraged by the fact that a 7-year old child can understand Turkish books better than you do, just keep learning,hehe

aw thanks you both, for your help, I have managed to get halfway through page one, and still do not know whats going in on the story, i will give up now, and learn some basic words, i thought i could translate each word, and then work out the word order, but i have now realised, its nearly impossible as words such as kaplani doesnt come up in a translation search!!!! so my boyfriend thought he was helping by getting me the books, but i think its putting me off learning for life!!

he only got me these kids books, as I got way too ambitious and took a book from the library that was well over 200 pages, and told him i could read it all before it was due back 4 weeks later, and when i was disappointed when i took the book back, that i had only managed the title, i think he pitied me and went to buy me some children's books

aw thanks you both, for your help, I have managed to get halfway through page one, and still do not know whats going in on the story, i will give up now, and learn some basic words, i thought i could translate each word, and then work out the word order, but i have now realised, its nearly impossible as words such as kaplani doesnt come up in a translation search!!!! so my boyfriend thought he was helping by getting me the books, but i think its putting me off learning for life!!

he only got me these kids books, as I got way too ambitious and took a book from the library that was well over 200 pages, and told him i could read it all before it was due back 4 weeks later, and when i was disappointed when i took the book back, that i had only managed the title, i think he pitied me and went to buy me some children's books

Hi, I have bought a few books but for me the best one is "Teach yourself Turkish" by David Pollard and Asuman Celen Pollard. I tried "Colloquial Turkish" for a year but didnt get on with it at all. I have also joined a weekly evening class and that really compliments homestudying and loads more fun...

TYS Turkish is also available with CDs.

It is good for teaching you the full grammar, right up to advanced level.

If you just want conversational Turkish, how to do shopping, how to tell the time, how to get on buses and travel etc then I can recommend TYS Beginners Turkish, by the same two authors.

I am just looking at this book now on Amazon, Teach Yourself Turkish Book and CD Pack (Teach Yourself Languages),is the CD, the type of CD you can listen to while driving? my friend has a french one, and he listens to it constantly while driving, and has picked up loads,so i was looking for something like that, but i dont want to buy it, if the CD is needed to be listened to while referring to the book, as i already have one like that? thanks

excellent site for building vocab. You can also build your own bank of words, which means you can key in verb conjugations. The way it's used ensures vocab can be practised quickly and it's not so tedious/

http://www.vocab.co.uk/

and this one has colour pics with it . . . programs are free

http://www.byki.com/

They're not all encompassing, just a good way if you want to drill words and commit to memory

http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/

this is a safe site and it's free. There are people out there publishing it in glossy book form and charging a great deal of money.

quote " fsi-language-courses.com, the home for language courses developed by the Foreign Service Institute. These courses were developed by the United States government and are in the public domain."

It is fairly old fashioned and I think a drill type method. Takes quite a while to download everything. It seems to be quite highly recommended from reviews I've read. It's certainly good value for money!