Basic Turkish Conversation for Beginners (+ Audio)

Even in such a big city like Istanbul, you may receive food on special days from your neighbors. Turks still like to know whom they live with. This might be good for you because you’d have more opportunity to practice your Turkish and try home-made Turkish food. 🙂

Transcript

Emre: Merhaba, siz yeni komşumuz…
Elif: Ah evet. Yeni komşu benim.
Emre: İsmim Emre bu arada.
Elif: Ben de Elif. Memnun oldum.
Emre: Ben 5. Katta yaşıyorum. Ama gelecek ay Almanya’ya taşınıyorum. Siz 4. Kat’a taşınıyorsunuz değil mi?
Elif: Evet. 4. (dördüncü) kata taşınıyorum. Hangi şehre taşınıyorsunuz Almanya’da?
Emre: Hamburg’a.
Elif: Ah çok güzel. Bir şey sorabilir miyim?
Emre: Tabii.
Elif: Sizin beyaz bir kediniz var mı?
Emre: Evet. Galiba Pamuk’tan bahsediyorsunuz.
Elif: Hmm. Evet galiba o. Geceleri balkondan çatıya tırmanıyor, biliyor musunuz?
Emre: Oo bu çok tehlikeli.
Elif: Evet. Allah korusun 5. Kat’tan düşerse…
Emre: Uyarı için çok teşekkür ederim.
Elif: Rica ederim. Memnun oldum, Emre Bey.
Emre: Ben de memnun oldum, Elif Hanım. İyi günler.

Translation

Emre: Hello, you are our new neighbor…
Elif: Ah yes. I’m the new neighbor.
Emre: My name is Emre, by the way.
Elif: I am Elif. Nice to meet you.
Emre: I live on the 5th floor too. But I am moving to Germany next month. You’re moving to the 4th floor, right?
Elif: Yeah. I move to 4th floor. Which city are you moving to in Germany?
Emre: To Hamburg.
Elif: Oh so beautiful. Can I ask something?
Emre: Sure.
Elif: Do you have a white cat?
Emre: Yeah. You are talking about Pamuk.
Elif: Hmm. Yeah, I think it is. Did you know that it climbs from the balcony to the roof at nights?
Emre: Oh that’s dangerous.
Elif: Yeah. God forbid if it falls from 5th floor…
Emre: Thank you so much for the warning.
Elif: You’re welcome. Nice to meet you, Emre.
Emre: Nice to meet you too, Mrs. Elif. Have a nice day.

Grammar Notes

Have you realized that “Siz yeni komşumuz” is not completely correct? “Siz yeni komşumuzsunuz” (You are our new neighbor) is the correct sentence. In the dialogue, this sentence is interrupted by Elif. For that reason, “siz yeni komşumuz…” is okay.

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*This structure will be covered in the next lesson.

So, şehir became şehre when dative case suffix –a is attached. The letter –e dropped. The same phenomena occurs in the following example:

It’s easier to pronounce for natives if that vowel drops.

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Ordinal Numbers

Suffix for ordinal numbers: -IncI

1. Birinci
2. İkinci
3. Üçüncü
4. Dördüncü
5. Beşinci
6. Altıncı
7. Yedinci
8. Sekizinci
9. Dokuzuncu
10. Onuncu

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Please pay attention to the sequence of adjectives.

Beyaz (color) bir (one) kedi.

Ablative case doesn’t only indicate direction. Some verbs need ablative case such as bahsetmek, nefret etmek, korkmak.

This time, an apostrophe separates the ablative case suffix. Proper nouns (such as names of people, animals, cities etc.) take an apostrophe when a suffix is attached.

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The topic of Conditionals (-sA) is covered later on. But, it might be helpful to know its suffix: –se / –sa

Vocabulary