I am new to this site. I know some Turkish and have been learning from tapes and books. My friend in Turkey (who is an English teacher) advised me to concentrate on vocabulary and not get too involved with complicated grammatical construction which - he says - will come in time (as it would with a child learning to talk). I am aware of past/present/future tenses etc and basic suffixes so is it really necessary to know so much about the grammar at the start - your discussions are just confusing me!

Welcome to the site.....

I am sure it is not necessary to know very much about Turkish grammar in order to be able to learn the language. But ultimately any language is a set of words that can be strung together according to grammar rules!

Is there anything in particular that is confusing you???

Yes I understand that. I just think that I may be trying to assimilate too much 'advanced' grammar too quickly. I think I need to thoroughly grasp the more simple stuff - even if it means I can only use fairly simple sentences - before I move on. I think that people will make an effort to understand what you are saying if you make the effort to say it - if you see what I mean. A lot of our Turkish friends don't speak very 'correct' English but we do understand them all the same. They ask us to correct them and usually they do the same for me (my husband still hasn't progressed past food and drink, hello and goodbye!) It is hard to try and speak Turkish in Turkey as they all seem to want to practice their English on us.

You could certainly do worse than trying to post some simple sentences in the "Practice Turkish" forum.....that will give you the opportunity to increase your grammar skills at your own pace.....

Forget about the grammar. You can learn most of the grammar intuitively.

You can learn Turkish by only reading texts with the help of a dictionary. If you know enough grammar to find a word in the dictionary then you don't need to study more. Keep reading and reading.
Example:
"gidiyorum"
When you look at this word if you know that you must find "gitmek" then don't study any grammar.

Thanks for the good advice Erdinç. I can usually work out what the infinitive is so hopefully that's a good start. I think - for the moment - I'll stick with the way I was learning before - as much vocabulary as I can learn together with as many 'set phrases' as possible - like 'kendine iyi bak', 'görüşÃ¼ruz' and others in everyday use. String them all together and hopefully you will have the beginnings of a Turkish speaker!!

Our friend Ali Akpınar has written some books I think. You could check his website or ask himself. He is a member here.

http://www.study-turkce.com/
http://www.turkishclass.com/user_aliakpinar

When we go back to Turkey in October I think I'll look for some children's books to bring back - this seems like a good way to practice reading Turkish. I'm just going to try Erdinc's link now. No - not working for me either.