Turkish 101 # Lecture 1

So finally I started learning a new language this year. I don’t how it ended up being Turkish. I am going to post my class notes here as a notes to self, so that I can come back latter and review it. As I understood, the lessons are going to be divided into two parts. One is simple grammar rules and the other is simple Turkish phrases to communicate with people

Grammar:
1.    Major Vowel Harmony: The vowels of Turkish alphabet are divided into two categories, hard vowels (a, ı, o, u) and soft vowels (e, i, ö, ü). All words except the foreign words can only have the vowels of one type in them. In other words, the hard vowels and the soft vowels do not mix in a word except for the foreign words.

2.    Plural: Adding ‘lar’/ ‘ler’ as a suffix can make a noun plural. Major vowel harmony is followed to decide which suffix in going to be added. If the last vowel of the word is hard vowel, we use ‘lar’. In the other case, we use ‘ler’

3.    Second person salutation: Unlike English, to address a second person (‘you’), there are two different words. To address friends or younger people, ‘Sen’ is used. To address elder persons and to stress politeness, ‘Siz’ is used. 

Some useful phrases:
Günaydin = Good morning
Merhaba = Hello/ Hi
Iyi günler= Good afternoon
Iyi akşamlar = Good evening
Iyi geceler = Good night
Hoşça kalın = Good bye
Güle güle= Bye bye
Hoş geldiniz = Welcome (Formal/ To elder person)
Hoş bulduk = In reply of welcome / Welcome yourself
Görüşürüz = See you later
Benim adim Samee = My name is Samee
Senin adin ne?(to friends/ youger peoson)
Sizin adiniz ne? ( to elder person) = What is your name?
Memnum oldum! = Nice to meet you!
Ben de = Same to you!