Turkish Greetings
Info
Chapter 1b: Pronouns and Greetings
This page will teach you how to say various things in Turkish- some of which don't have any direct translations! It will also teach you how to describe yourself!
Hello!
There are a few ways to say hello in Turkish. For example:
As you can see here, there are many ways to greet someone, to say hello. The best way to say hello to someone will always depend on the context. For example, an alternative to günaydın! is tünaydın! [eng: Good evening]. If you're with a senior, an individual you want to respect or impress, or a stranger, you may want to use the formal efendim [sir/madam] after your greeting. Some Turks will answer the phone with "allo?", a loan from French.
How are You?
Asking how someone is is very simple. The word nasılsın can be used for this purpose. It also showcases the first element of Turkish word construction.
Nasil
Root word (How)
The response to this question will depend on your mood, and also requires some nominative word constructions.
İyi
Root word (Good)
Here are some extremely common answers to "How are you?" in Turkish.
| Turkish | English |
|---|---|
| İyiyim | I am good. |
| Mutluyum! | I am happy! |
| Mutsuzum. | I am sad. |
| Kızgınım. | I am angry. |
| Yorgunum. | I am tired. |
We'll explore further feelings later in the course.
What's Your Name?
Ad
Root word (Name)
As you can see, asking someone's name can be simplified into two words. You can also ask "İsmin ne?" [What is your name?] for the same reason. To answer, you can simply reply with your name, or your name preceded by "Benim adım" [My name is...]
Thank You
There are two main ways to thank someone for something. They are equally polite, but are constructed slightly differently. Here are showcased two different word construction methods.
Teşekkür
Root word (Thank)
Teşekkür
Root word (Thank)
Goodbye
Here are a few ways to say goodbye. For context, when someone leaves a place before another, the person staying will say "hoşça kalın" and the person going will say "güle güle!"
It is also common to say "görüşürüz" in place of "sonra görüşürüz"
Yes and No
You may also say things like 'yok' for no. We will further discuss these types of responses later.
Pronouns
| Person | Singular | Plural / Formal |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | ben | biz |
| 2nd | sen | siz/sizin |
| 3rd | o | onlar |
| Person | Nominative Endings | Present Verb Ending |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | -m, -yim, -z/-k (plural only) | -yorum |
| 2nd | -n, -sin, -siniz (plural only) | -yorsun |
| 3rd | none, -lar (plural only, in some cases) | -yor |
These are the pronouns of Turkish and their general rules when it comes to basic sentence structure. There are many layers to Turkish conjugation, but it will be covered later in the course. Turkish is NOT gendered, meaning "o" applies to all nouns.