DEGREES OF COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES In English, as in Russian, ...
In many ways, it is extremely logical, consistent and understandable, despite the fact that it differs significantly from the system of European languages that we are used to and therefore at first glance it seems frighteningly confusing. Today we will analyze those aspects of Turkish that are easiest for those who start from the "zero" level, and show you how to make your life easier in mastering Turkish.
- Turkish Beginner's Guide
I spent several days looking through textbooks and manuals in terms of understandability for someone who is learning a language from scratch, and I realized that, undoubtedly, the best option will be "Colloquial Turkish: The Complete Course for Beginners" (authors - Ad Backus and Jeroen Aarssen).
In this textbook, the most necessary grammar and basic vocabulary in all areas and topics is given in a logical sequence, which allows you to read full-fledged original passages in Turkish after the first chapters. In addition, the focus is on exactly as opposed to the formal "academic" version of the language.
This manual does not repeat the answers and translations of what has already been once explained or analyzed, which encourages us to turn to the information already studied and assimilated.
- Reading Turkish is very easy
The first thing to note is that Turkish is a phonetic language and modern Turkish uses the Latin alphabet. Prior to the Atatürk Revolution and the reform of 1928, during which the Latin alphabet was adapted to the Turkish pronunciation of sounds, the Turkish language used the Arabic alphabet.
So, in Turkish, each letter corresponds to one sound, there are no consonant combinations (such as sh, ch, ght), so each letter is pronounced separately. The pronunciation generally corresponds to what you see in the written text, with the following exceptions:
- c pronounced like English j (j am), so the word sadece(only, just) is pronounced like sah-deh-jeh.
- ç pronounced like English ch (ch arge), do not confuse with French ç , which is pronounced like s.
- ğ - unpronounceable letter (lengthens the previous vowel sound)
- ş pronounced like English sh .
- ı - looks like i without a dot. It is confusing that in Turkish capital letters ı is I (like capital I in English), but capital Turkish I- this is İ , so that the city where all the tourists end up is not I stanbul (Istanbul), and İ stanbul. ı pronounced as a neutral vowel.
Umlauts ö/ü pronounced like in German.
Knowing these rules and exceptions, you will already be able to read something in Turkish, although be prepared for the fact that the locals may pronounce the words a little differently. For example, I found that the letter "e" in words was pronounced by many as "a".
- Many Turkish words you already know
I was very happy to find many familiar words in Turkish that I recognized instantly. As with all languages, you tend to start with a thousand-word base before you even start learning the language. Turkish has borrowed many brand names and technological terms from English, as have most other languages.
But much more curious, I found that Turkish has a huge number of loanwords from other languages, the most surprising (and useful for me) is borrowing from French. One source I found states that there are approximately 5,000 words in Turkish that come from French. For comparison, 6500 words come from Arabic, 1400 from Persian, about 600 come from Italian, 400 from Greek and about 150 from Latin. In many cases, the borrowing has a Turkish counterpart, which is considered more preferable in everyday communication, but in some cases the borrowed word is the only designation of a word or concept, and sometimes both words are used (as Sehir and kent for "city", where Sehir is a non-Turkish word).
Loanwords that I have personally encountered include kuaför, şans, büfe, lise (lycee), bulvar, asensör, aksesuar, kartuş, ekselans, sal …and I'm sure there are many more. Of course, they are sometimes difficult to recognize, because they are written according to the rules of Turkish transcription, but when pronounced, they are very similar to French words (although they do not have French nasal sounds). Even if you don't speak French, you will certainly recognize many of these words, since many of them are well-acquainted in English as well.
It's funny that I even found out spanish word banyo in Turkish!
As for the vocabulary, which is unique and native to Turkish, it can be picked up surprisingly quickly if you just apply effective methods memorization by or download a selection basic vocabulary, download the application for memorizing and practicing words and run it regularly to get used to new combinations of sounds as quickly as possible. The roots of words in Turkish, as a rule, are short, which makes them even easier to remember and then decipher more complex derivative words based on them.
- Suffixes will help you in expanding your active vocabulary
Returning to derived words, it is important to note that a key skill in expanding the vocabulary will be understanding how the structure of the word is arranged and how the language “works”. In this respect, vocabulary and grammar are quite closely related to each other: you won't be able to look up most of the words in the dictionary as they are written in the text, but if you know the basic grammatical structures, you will immediately determine the root of the word and be able to look up its meaning in the dictionary.
One of the most quick ways expand your vocabulary- memorize standard suffixes. Many of them perform important functions: turning nouns into adjectives (or vice versa) or verbs (infinitives end in -mek/-mak), or the designation of a person who belongs to a particular profession, for example, using suffixes -ci/-ci (ogrenci– student from the verb oğrenmek- to study).
Another important suffix is the possessive form suffix. You will encounter it everywhere, so learn to recognize it. For example, Istiklal is the name of the main street/avenue, or cadde, next to which I lived, so the street is called Istiklal caddesi. Suffix -si here reflects the meaning of possessiveness, and the word Istiklal means "independence". (Consider English example: it turns out that in Turkish they prefer to speak Avenue of independence, but not independence avenue). In the same way, the names of all universities (üniversite) in the city have university si .
Thus, Turkish suffixes express those meanings that would be transmitted in other languages. single words, for example, prepositions.
Another important observation regarding all suffixes and words in general: the laws of vowel harmony, which you just have to get used to. I also encountered this in Hungarian, but in other languages this phenomenon is practically not found, so it is necessary to accustom yourself to a completely different way of thinking. Like many other aspects of Turkish, vowel harmony is simpler than it looks, but takes time to develop the habit of lining up vowels in a certain order. By the way, at the initial stage in a conversation you will still make mistakes, but in most cases people will still understand you.
- Put words and sentences together like a puzzle
One point that requires some "restructuring" of thinking with a focus on the Turkish language is that the usual verbs "to be" or "to have" in Turkish simply do not exist. This may sound absurd, but with a little getting used to saying "my car exists" instead of "I have a car", you will understand what's what.
Another "weird" aspect of Turkish is word order. For example, verbs tend to come at the end of a sentence. So you say: Turkce öğreniyorum- "I'm learning Turkish." In my opinion, this is even more logical than in English, because what you study is more important than what you study it. It is very important to remember that languages differ in the way they "process" information, and not to panic if something in a language does not fit into our usual way of thinking.
One has only to think about some constructions and realize how they work, and they will become logical and obvious. For example:
Nerelisin(iz) means "Where are you from?" Let's break it down in parts: Ne-re-li-sin(iz): -sin= you -siniz= you (polite form/form plural), -li= from, place suffix, -ne= what (or just nere= where). Since there is no verb to be, the meaning of the phrase is made up of separate significant components of the word.
The same is true for the word nereye, which means "Where?" ( nere+e (to) and letter "at" to separate two vowels).
- Grammar will seem extremely logical to you
How it happened to me. The language has so few exceptions, and conjugation and word formation are so consistent, that the grammar system is very easy to get used to: the simple past tense, two present tenses (one is similar to the English continuous tense and the other is the standard present tense), the future tense, and so on.
One example of the formation of the present tense using the ending -er there will be a verb donmek(turn) which is in third person form singular sounds familiar to everyone doner.
Yes, there is a difference with English or Russian, but based on my experience of learning other languages, Turkish has far fewer exceptions and absolutely unimaginable and illogical constructions.
In addition, Turkish has no grammatical gender, definite or indefinite articles, and no irregular shapes plural (in some cases you don't even need to add a plural suffix -ler/-lar, if the meaning of the plural is clear from the context, for example, when used with a numeral).
The only case that can cause you some problems at the beginning is the accusative, which has already rattled me a lot of nerves in German. If the very idea of the accusative confuses you, then I strongly recommend that you study Esperanto for at least a few weeks: the use of the accusative in Esperanto helped me understand it better than any theoretical explanations in Turkish or German, and besides, it is almost the only "difficult » to understand grammatical construction throughout the language.
Using ĉu in Esperanto also helped me intuitively understand the suffix/particle question mi/mI/mu in Turkish. This particle is added to questions that require a simple yes/no answer (in English we would just show this difference with intonation). This is actually very easy to understand, but not easy to get used to, so studying this phenomenon to start in more plain language can really give you a "push" in understanding.
For example, the word calIssIyor means "it works", and calışıyor mu? - "she works?"
Turkey is a republic located in Southwest Asia. The inhabitants of this state have their own language. Turkish is also spoken in northern Iraq, Syria, and Bulgaria. After the abolition of the visa regime, the country has become one of the most popular holiday destinations for a large number of Russians. Is it easy to learn Turkish? This is possible if you learn a number of grammatical rules and memorize words and expressions that help maintain a conversation.
How to learn Turkish on your own - ways.
What is required to learn Turkish?
Some people come to Turkey for business purposes. They need to know the local language in order not to communicate using gestures. Someone goes there to visit, relax or improve their health. Those who wish to learn Turkish will come in handy:
textbooks and language manuals (there are the necessary grammar rules that allow you to make sentences);
Tutorials (they are on the Internet, special CDs are also sold that contain theory and practice with tests, this is convenient for those who do not like to read books);
Turkish dictionary and phrase book (during the exercises, unfamiliar words are written out, and then they are looked up in the dictionary);
audio recordings and video materials (with the help of these tools it will be possible to further replenish your vocabulary).
To systematize the acquired knowledge, they are recorded on paper. New words with transcription, separate rules and expressions - everything is written down in a notebook, then to open it and repeat what has been covered.
How to learn Turkish at home from scratch?
Any language can be learned if a person strives for it. It does not matter whether he gets a job with a tutor or starts learning on his own, using textbooks and dictionaries, he will have to mobilize his intellectual abilities. The right attitude is important here. How to learn Turkish on your own?
First of all, be patient. You have to decline verbs in cases, encounter a special word order in sentences and unusual word formation. But with a lack of motivation, you will not experience problems - the Turkish language is truly interesting and beautiful, unique in its own way.
It is not surprising that it was his grammar that formed the basis for the creation of the "universal" Esperanto language. Therefore, the prospects for learning are quite good. Let's talk about how to learn Turkish on your own, what difficulties you will face and what resources are better to use for learning.
What you need to know about the peculiarities of the Turkish language
Turkish belongs to the Turkic group and is spoken by approximately 120 million people worldwide. During the Soviet era, it was actively studied in the country's largest institutions. Today, interest in Turkish has weakened, but this has not affected the individual desire of thousands of Russian-speaking inhabitants of the planet to learn Turkish. The most common reasons are immigration and business, less common is the tendency to study at universities in Turkey.
As one of the oldest and repeatedly reformed, Turkish has a number of distinctive features, in particular:
- the presence of verbal names that change in cases;
- a huge number of borrowings from Arabic and Persian languages;
- special word formation - affixes are sequentially attached to the root, which creates a lot of dictionary combinations from different parts speech;
- unusual word order in a sentence - the predicate is always at the end;
- often there are long sentences, which in works of art can take up more than one page.
In ancient times, the Turks used the runic script, later adopting the Arabic script and supplementing it with characters borrowed from the Persians. But in the 30s of the last century, a total reform was carried out Turkish, which assumed its romanization and replacement of most borrowed words, or their modification.
As a result, the Turkish language has changed a lot: today, many members of the older generation have difficulty understanding what the younger generation is saying.
As for modern Turkish writing, everything is much simpler here: the Turks use a Latinized alphabet with 29 letters, of which 8 are vowels and 21 are consonants. Each letter corresponds to one phoneme.
How to quickly learn Turkish from scratch? detailed instructions
How to quickly learn Turkish at home without going crazy? understand his logic. We recommend sticking to the following plan so as not to miss anything important and not lose interest in learning the language due to its complexity.
- Understand the logic . At this stage, it is worth immersing yourself in history and trying to understand the logic of word formation. This will remove the shock that inevitably comes to Indo-European speakers who start learning Turkish without proper preparation.
- Learn the alphabet and first words . There will be no problems with the alphabet: it has only 29 letters, each of which denotes a specific phoneme. The Latin alphabet was taken as the basis of the Turkish alphabet in the 30s of the last century.
- Go to Grammar . Take a grammar course for beginners. It is very important to learn it in view of the fundamental differences from the rules for constructing words and sentences in Russian and English. It is no coincidence that the grammar of the Turkish language formed the basis of Esperanto, an artificial language that could be spoken by all the inhabitants of the globe.
- Expand your vocabulary . Start by looking at groups of the most popular words. Gradually move on to thematic categories and vocabulary that you personally need for work and free communication.
- Communicate more often with natives . Use mobile apps, chats and social networks to communicate with native Turkish speakers. Start doing this as early as possible - the natives will warn against the erroneous pronunciation of words that can stick in the memory.
- visit free lessons . Language schools and private tutors regularly hold free trial lessons, seminars and consultations. Find and attend them, especially if the classes are online.
- come through control tests . In the process of studying, it is important to control the dynamics. Therefore, you should take control tests on your own or with the help of a tutor, which will help you evaluate your progress in studying over a certain period of time.
If earlier you were only familiar with Indo-European languages (Russian, English, French and others), then you have to rebuild the education system and take new educational algorithms as a basis.
We have collected tips from educators, linguists and experts to help you quickly navigate the language and make the learning process more comfortable. Try to take them into account so that you don’t make mistakes in the early stages and do not lose motivation.
Learn Turkish Like Math
This language has a lot of features. One of them is a specific word formation. In Turkish, words are constantly building up affixes, so you can learn the basics and literally add them to each other. Interestingly, in many courses, lessons offer universal formulas for studying word formation.
Highlight affixes
Write down words and parse them into affixes in the same way as you did with suffixes in school Russian lessons. This will help you understand the meaning and role of each affix and will teach you not only to understand the logic, but also to eliminate the habit of looking in Turkish for something similar to the rules of the Russian language.
Learn sentences by heart
Read as much as possible, choose interesting sentences and write them out along with the translation. The Turkish version is best learned by heart and retell to yourself. So you will quickly understand the principle of expressing thoughts and arranging words in sentences.
Parody actors and TV presenters
Even at the first stages of learning the Turkish language, you should watch Turkish films and TV shows to get used to the way some words and phrases are pronounced. Of particular importance is the intonation and stretching of some sounds. Try to repeat the phrases after the actors and TV presenters to a tee, as if you are parodying them.
Use the association method
This is especially easy if you know several languages. But even if you know only Russian, you will be able to pick up consonant words for the basics being studied. In practice, the method of associations is especially effective in learning words that are difficult to memorize.
Do not stop
If something doesn't work for you, skip it and move on. Failures can relate not only to understanding grammatical rules, but also to memorizing words. Do not dedicate days and weeks to failure, move on to the next section and the next lessons.
Work on phonetics
Pronunciation matters a lot. It is important to get used to speaking correctly from the very beginning. Therefore, watch more TV shows in Turkish, choose lessons with audio and ask natives to correct your pronunciation.
Another important advice: do not limit yourself in choosing courses and teaching materials. Even if you get used to learning Turkish on the same website or using the same services, keep looking for new resources. Otherwise, you may miss a lot of opportunities for comfortable, fast and effective learning.
10 Best Resources to Learn Turkish Fast
These resources are most requested by beginners and people who are already making progress in learning Turkish from scratch. Among them are both textbooks and courses, as well as websites, gaming platforms and mobile applications.
TOP 10 resources for effective study:
- DeFa is an excellent online course with 45 author's lessons.
- Lingust is another popular virtual course with text and audio lessons.
- Speakasap - the resource offers to learn Turkish in 7 lessons, de facto it is an excellent grammar guide.
- Book2 - 100 effective lessons, a selection of the most used words and a lot of additional materials.
- Course of Anastasia Pektas- a video course of 80 lessons, ideal for beginners.
Turkish is a language with many dialects. The latter sometimes differ so much that it is difficult for a resident of one region of Turkey to understand a compatriot living three hundred kilometers from him. But everyone local residents the Istanbul dialect is unequivocally understandable, because it is the basis of the literary language.
A project in English that allows you to learn the nuances of Turkish grammar using several innovative methods. The resource contains theoretical calculations about the features of the language and exercises that allow you to consolidate them in practice. It is focused not on strict memorization of information, but on the ability to explain incomprehensible aspects to users in an accessible way when mastering new material. Lots of audio and video files, useful Internet addresses, the ability to read rss feeds. You can access content from any device, moving through the menu or table of contents. Those wishing to view multimedia presentations must enable javascript.
The resource, the creator of which promises: by undertaking to learn Turkish according to his recommendations, users will quickly make sure that this language is easy to learn. The main thing is the attitude to gain new knowledge and understanding how to succeed in online education. And also - the Turkish layout on the gadget's keyboard (the site has detailed description how to add it). The database of lessons designed in text format is extensive: alphabet, word construction, counting, grammar, tenses, cases, moods, etc. Over fifty audio lessons, a phrase book, songs, TV clips, reading materials have been added. Registering on the site is optional, but by doing so, the learner will benefit from checking their homework and being able to directly ask questions to the course author.
An easy-to-navigate Russian-language site. Turkish is taught according to the methodology of the philologist, translator, author of several books, Ilya Frank. The message of his methodology is to learn languages passively, by reading specially adapted works (with a literal translation inserted into the texts and lexical comments). Such an approach is irrelevant for children under 12-14 years old and for those who, in principle, are not book lovers. However, those who dare to try to learn Turkish in this way will be able to replenish their personal vocabulary by 1000 words every month by spending about two hours a day reading the above-mentioned works. There is a library of specially adapted literature on the site, fragments of works can be viewed free of charge in doc and PDF formats. The resource has links to Turkish radio stations, TV channels, series. It is told how you can get training with the teachers of the school of I. Frank via Skype.
Over 840 Turkish lessons with audio or video. Podcast of a multi-level series with regular updates of the training base. There are detailed PDF-descriptions of the lessons that can be discussed on the forum of like-minded people. The content of the materials is as close as possible to modern realities, there are no abstract themes. The course is available on mobile devices, there are programs for stationary computers.
Self-tutor for beginners in the form of step-by-step presented online lessons. The course contains almost three dozen lessons, including familiarization with the Turkish alphabet, the laws of harmony between vowels and consonants, parts of speech. Simple texts are offered in Turkish, with a dictionary attached to each. The resource contains a tutorial by N.P. Sidorin in a special design and a link to go to a block of 52 lessons from the Voice of Turkey radio channel.
Distance school of Yulia Akalyn. Certified teacher and translator, for a long time living in Turkey, promises not only to help learn the language, but also to understand the culture, lifestyle and mentality of the inhabitants of this country. Akalyn is the creator of several video courses built on his own methodology. On the site, you can take a free short video course that allows you to understand the key points of grammar, and sign up for online classes via Skype.
A channel containing dozens of free video tutorials. The duration of the classes is different, from one and a half minutes to half an hour - depending on the topic. There is voiceover and textual support of the material in Russian.
The numbering of lessons is logical, with the transition from easy to understand topics to complex ones. The first ten lessons are focused on learning the alphabet and the harmony of letter combinations, then there is a transition to counting, colors. Difficult topics (modality, pledge, etc.) are considered in detail.
An offer to learn Turkish on your own in seven lessons. At the end of the course, we will reach Pre-intermediate - a threshold level of knowledge that allows you to ask simple questions, understand familiar expressions, navigate the basic rules of grammar. The course is supplemented with explanatory video and audio materials, exercises. The full version can be accessed online or by installing free apps for iOS and Android. It is possible to pass the final test, but this option is for registrants.
A site with a Russian-language version of the menu, offering an entertaining form of memorizing information. You can learn words by playing "Typer", "Guess" or "Combination". There is a dictionary with the union of language units by thematic groups. Authorization on the resource will provide tracking of the success of the visitor and will give the opportunity to post their materials. Demo version available.
An electronic translator designed to work with different formats of input information. Translates online not only text material, but also HTML, documents and web pages. The entered content can be edited, make italic and bold characters, create numbered and bulleted lists. The site has an option to order a professional translation.
Series "The Magnificent Century". The actors speak Turkish, but the video is accompanied by Russian subtitles. The indisputable advantage of Turkish is that, having learned it, it will be possible to intuitively understand what speakers of other Turkic languages are talking about: Kazakh, Uzbek, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Yakut, Azerbaijani. And this is the motivation for those who prefer to solve several problems at the same time.
Learning foreign languages can be an exciting experience, whether we learn it in the classroom or on our own. Each language is not just a set of lexemes, but also a special grammar with which native speakers build their speech. The way words are combined into sentences, the categories of tense, gender, number, various forms of cases and other features take time to master, but it's worth it. If you decide to start learning Turkish on your own from scratch, take advantage of the unique opportunity provided by the Internet. Video lessons, online courses, communication with native speakers using Skype, dictionaries, movies and books - this will help you absorb large amounts of information with ease. Previously, people did not have such opportunities in learning as they do now.
Learn Turkish from any level online for free
This electronic resource is a great opportunity to start learning Turkish from a basic, intermediate or advanced level. If you have not yet dealt with the languages of the Turkic branch, then here you will find Better conditions for easy assimilation of the phonetic, morphological and lexical composition of Türk dili. The site has at its disposal a lot of video tutorials for beginners: they will allow you to learn elementary conversational phrases and the words on which everyday speech is based. A businessman who is constantly in contact with native speakers as part of business communication will be able to learn Turkish easier, because. he had heard the sound of living speech before. Here are some reading materials to help you build your vocabulary. In the future, it will be easier for the user to understand business partners and easier to navigate international treaties and other official documents.
What you need to know about the Turkish language?
Turkish is one of the languages of the Turkic subgroup, the oldest on the planet. The Turkic languages include numerous extinct languages, including Pecheneg, which at one time had a great influence on the formation of the lexicon of Russian and other Slavic languages. Some words have etymologically common roots with the languages of Turkic dialects. Turkish is morphologically close to the Azerbaijani and Gagauz languages, and if you have heard or understand their sound, this will help you learn Turkish more easily.
A little grammar...
For a Russian-speaking person, Turkish may seem quite complicated. The point is not only in a different root system, but also in a different morphology. Turkish is an agglutinative language, and phrases in it are built from words using affixes that are attached to the root of the word. It will be easier to learn Turkish online by the fact that in any sentence there is a strict word order, and each suffix has its own meaning. There are few exceptions in grammar, so various kinds of tables irregular verbs and other complex rules will not have to be learned.
In Turkish there is no category of gender, as in Russian, but there are five moods, seven complex forms of tense, five pledges. The inversion of words in a sentence, which is common among us, is absent in Turkish, which also makes it easier to learn.
As for vocabulary, the language in the entire history of its existence has absorbed most of the borrowings from Arabic, Persian (Farsi) and Greek. Of the modern languages, there are many roots borrowed from French, English and Armenian. A lively socio-cultural exchange led to the fact that from Turkish a lot of lexemes penetrated into the lexicon of the Balkan peoples.
Good Opportunities to Learn Turkish
The site provides the user with many opportunities for learning the Turkish language: video lessons for free, phrasebooks, online dictionaries, song selections and other helpers. They will be useful to everyone in mastering a new lexical system and morphology, which is still alien to perception.
Where does language learning begin?
Learning Turkish for beginners, like other languages, starts with the alphabet. To quickly learn a new grammatical and morphological system, it is necessary to combine three ways of obtaining information: visual, auditory and verbal. visual is main channel includes reading and writing. Without mastering the alphabet, learning will go slower.
The alphabet and writing of Turkish is a pleasant surprise for beginners. The alphabet of the modern Turkish language is based on the Latin alphabet, which can facilitate learning to read and write. A beginner will not have to learn complex and incomprehensible symbols, hieroglyphs and styles, for example, such as in Armenian and Georgian. The character set of the Turkish alphabet is almost no different from English or French. The sounds of Turkish speech almost completely coincide with the letters of the alphabet, which will also eliminate problems in learning the Turkish language for beginners (unlike, for example, French, English and German, in which phonemes are transmitted using 2-3 letters, which greatly complicates learning to read beginners).
With the help of simple written assignments each student will be able to quickly learn new words, seeing the roots and affixes of lexemes. This will help you easily understand the principles of constructing phrases and sentences that are fundamentally different from Russian or English.
What else will be useful for learning Turkish for free?
The site for learning Turkish also offers a large number of materials for mastering information by ear. Spoken speech in sound recordings, videos, films, songs, short dialogues - all this will complement the information coming through the visual channel.
The main problem for many who have studied a foreign language from scratch is the gap between understanding written language and understanding oral speech. To learn Turkish easily and correctly, it is important to combine reading and writing with listening to live speech. One of the most important and valuable ways to improve your language competence is to communicate with a native speaker. The site provides many video lessons for free, which can be taken as a basis for mastering the phonetics and diction of the Turkish language.
