Lesson: A Conversation With Turkish Police at the New Istanbul Airport – Audio

Speaking some Turkish to get you where you want to go at the airport or answering the simple questions of police would make you feel a lot safer. But not only that, finding your way and speaking with natives is fun and it will make you feel motivated.

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Download the transcript and the grammar notes

 

Transcript

Polis: Kimlik ve pasaport, lütfen.
Yolcu: Evet, bir saniye… Hah! İşte buyurun.
Polis: İsminiz?
Yolcu: Elena Yılmaz.
Polis: Nerelisiniz Elena Hanım?
Yolcu: Yunanım. Ama Türkiye’de yaşıyorum.
Polis: Vizeniz var mı?
Yolcu: Evet var, işte.
Polis: Oturma izniniz var mı?
Yolcu: Hayır, yok, ama vizem var. Eşim Türk. Bu yüzden Türkiye’de yaşıyorum.
Polis: Peki, teşekkür ederim. Hoş geldiniz. Buyurun pasaport ve kimliğiniz.
Yolcu: Ben Teşekkür ederim.

Translation

Police: ID and passport, please.
Passenger: Yes, just a second…. Hah! Here you go.
Police: Your name?
Passenger: Elena Yılmaz.
Police: Where are you from, Mrs. Elena?
Passenger: I’m Greek. But I live in Turkey.
Police: Do you have a visa?
Passenger: Yes, there it is.
Police: Do you have a residence permit?
Passenger: No, I don’t, but I have a visa. My husband is Turkish. That’s why I live in Turkey.
Police: Okay, thank you. Welcome. Here’s your passport and ID.
Passenger: I thank You.

Grammar Notes

İsim, ad
Name

Adınız ne? / İsminiz ne?
What’s your name

I want you to pay attention to the vowels in the word ‘isim’. It became ‘isminiz’ when attached a suffix to ‘isim’. This phenomenon is called ‘vowel loss’.

The reason for this phenomenon is that it’s easier to say ‘isminiz’ than ‘isiminiz’ for natives.

Buyurun, buyrun
Here you go

In spoken Turkish, you hear ‘buyrun’ instead of ‘buyurun’. However, the correct writing of the word is ‘buyurun’.

İzin
Permission

Oturma izni
Residence permit

Oturma izniniz
Your residence permit

Oturma izniniz var mı?
Do you have residence permit

Vize
Visa

Vizem
My visa

Vizem var
I have visa

Ne?
What?

Nere?
What/What place?

Ankara nere?
Ankara is the capital of Turkey

Ankara nerede?
Ankara is in the Central Anatolia

Nereli?
Where from?

Nerelisin?
Where are you from?

Nerelisiniz?
Where are you from? (Formal or plural)

As you know, the idea is to attach suffixes. -de/da is the suffix that indicates location.

Otomobilde
In the car

Telefonda
In the phone

Türkiye’de
In Turkey

Nereli?
Where from?

Ankaralı
From Ankara

Kuzey Amerikalı
From North America

Amerikan
American/From North America

Yunan
Greek/From Greece

Alman
German

Italyan
Italian

This pattern is not the same for all the words indicating nations. For example,

İngiliz
English

Fransız
French

Rus
Russian

Japon
Japonese

Nereden
From where

Atina’dan
From Athens

Türkiye’den
From Turkey

When attaching certain types of suffixes (-A, -DA, -DAn, -I, etc) to the proper nouns, an apostrophe separates the suffix with the word. For some suffixes (-lI, -lIk), you don’t need to use an apostrophe. We’ll be distinguishing these suffixes in the later lessons.

——

Oturma izniniz
Your residence permit (formal or plural)

Vizeniz
Your visa (formal or plural)

Kimliğiniz
Your ID (formal or plural)

Oturma iznin
Your residence permit

Vizen
Your visa

Kimliğin
Your ID

Oturma iznim
Vizem
Kimliğim
My …

——

Yunanım
I’m Greek

Türküm
I’m Turkish

-Im gives the meaning of “I am”.

Yunansın
You’re Greek

Türksün
You’re Turkish

-sIn gives the meaning of “you are”.

Uzunum
I’m tall

This topic and suffixes for each pronoun will be covered in detail in the video Verb ‘to be’.

Vocabulary

Lütfen
Please

Hoş geldiniz
Welcome

Aile ziyareti
Family visit

Aile
Family

Bu yüzden
For that reason

Kimlik
ID

İsim, ad
Name

İzin
Permission

Oturma izni
Residence permit

Vize
Visa

Ne?
What?

Nere?
What/What place?

Amerikan
American/From North America

Atina
Athens

Yunan
Greek/From Greece

Alman
German

Italyan
Italian

İngiliz
English

Fransız
French

Rus
Russian

Japon
Japonese

Arap
Arabic

İranlı
Iranian