Turkish Taxi Phrases: Audio Dialogue + PDF

Even though shuttles are going to the airport, you may need to take a taxi to Istanbul Airport. In the dialogue, you’ll hear a conversation between a taxi driver and a tourist. At the end, you’ll learn essential phrases for communicating with the driver, talking about the route and giving destinations and making the payment.

Essential Turkish Taxi Phrases

These cover requesting a taxi, giving your destination, talking about the route, and paying — the core of almost any taxi ride in Turkish.

Airport Taxi Dialogue

Now listen to a full, real conversation: a passenger calling a taxi and riding to İstanbul Airport.

Turkish Transcript

Taksici: Alo, buyurun. Taksi durağı.
Müşteri: Ah, merhaba. Ben Karanfil Sokağı’na bir tane taksi istiyorum.
Taksici: Kaç numara efendim?
Müşteri: 17 numara. Beyaz apartman. Biraz acelem var. Hızlı olabilir misiniz?
Taksici: Tabii ki, 10 dakikaya taksiniz gelmiş olur efendim. İyi akşamlar.
Müşteri: Teşekkür ederim.
…
Taksici: Nereye gideceksiniz?
Müşteri: Havalimanına, lütfen. Biraz acelem var, hızlı gidebilir miyiz acaba?
Taksici: Trafik yoksa 15 dakikaya havalimanına varmış oluruz.
Müşteri: Peki, kredi kartı kabul ediyor musunuz? Kabul etmiyorsanız, yolda İş Bankası’na uğrayalım.
Taksici: Evet, kabul ediyoruz efendim. Ama biraz komisyon var. Şuradaki tabloda komisyon oranlarını görebilirsiniz.
Müşteri: Aaa evet, tamam. Teşekkür ederim.
Taksici: Efendim, peki uçağınız Sabiha Gökçen’den mi kalkıyor yoksa İstanbul Havalimanı’ndan mı? Hangisine gidelim?
Müşteri: İstanbul Havalimanı. Bir saniye biletime bakayım tekrardan. Hmmm. Evet. İstanbul Havalimanı.
Taksici: Beşiktaş tarafından mı gidelim yoksa Karaköy tarafından mı? Bu saatte Beşiktaş’ta muhtemelen trafik vardır. Karaköy’ü öneririm.
Müşteri: Tamam, Karaköy’den gidelim.
Taksici: Karaköy tarafından birkaç lira fazla yazar ama daha hızlı çıkarız.
Müşteri: Tamamdır. Hızlı gidelim çünkü uçağın kalkmasına çok az kaldı.
Taksici: Peki, efendim.
Taksici: İç hatlara mı gideceksiniz? Yoksa dış hatlara mı, efendim?
Müşteri: Dış hatlar.
…
Müşteri: Ne kadar tuttu acaba?
Taksici: 65 lira.
Müşteri: Buyurun paranız. Üstünü vermeye gerek yok. Çok teşekkür ederim.
Taksici: Ben teşekkür ederim. İyi uçuşlar.

English Translation

Taxi Driver: Hello, this is the taxi rank. How can I help you?
Customer: Oh, hello. I’d like a taxi to Karanfil Street.
Taxi Driver: What’s the building number?
Customer: Number 17. The white apartment building. I’m a little in a hurry — could you come quickly?
Taxi Driver: Of course, your taxi will be there within 10 minutes. Good evening.
Customer: Thank you.
…
Taxi Driver: Where would you like to go?
Customer: To the airport, please. I’m a little in a hurry — could we go a little faster?
Taxi Driver: Sure, if there’s no traffic, we’ll reach the airport in 15 minutes.
Customer: Do you accept credit cards? If not, let’s stop by İş Bankası on the way.
Taxi Driver: Yes, we accept cards, sir. But there’s a bit of a commission. You can see the rates on the sign right there.
Customer: Oh, I see, okay. Thank you.
Taxi Driver: Is your flight departing from Sabiha Gökçen or İstanbul Airport? Which one should we go to?
Customer: İstanbul Airport. Let me check my ticket again, one second. Hmm, yes — İstanbul Airport.
Taxi Driver: Should we go via Beşiktaş or via Karaköy? There’s probably traffic around Beşiktaş at this hour. I’d recommend Karaköy.
Customer: Okay, let’s go via Karaköy.
Taxi Driver: The meter will run a little higher going via Karaköy, but we’ll get there faster.
Customer: That’s fine — let’s go quickly, there’s very little time left before my flight.
Taxi Driver: Alright.
Taxi Driver: Are you going to the domestic terminal, or the international one?
Customer: International.
…
Customer: How much is the fare?
Taxi Driver: 65 lira.
Customer: Here you go. Keep the change. Thank you so much.
Taxi Driver: Thank you. Have a good flight.

Note: this dialogue was recorded a while ago. Fares, card-commission policies and typical travel times all change over time — treat the specific numbers here as part of the story, not current pricing or policy.

The commission mentioned in the dialogue was specific to that driver and that day — not every taxi charges one, and accepting a card commission without question isn’t standard practice. If a driver mentions one, you’re free to ask for details or simply pay by cash instead.

How to Take a Taxi in Turkish

Taksi çağırmak means to request or call a taxi — by phone, app, or at a taxi rank — while taksiye binmek means to actually get into and take the taxi once it arrives. The dialogue above starts with the first and moves into the second.

A few lines in the dialogue are said the way people actually talk in the moment, which isn’t always the clearest model to copy. Here are more natural everyday versions of the same requests:

Grammar Notes

Acaba

Acaba softens a question or expresses uncertainty — roughly “I wonder” in English. It doesn’t change form, and it can appear at the start or in the middle of a sentence.

-Abil: Ability and Polite Requests

The suffix -Abil attaches to a verb stem to mean “can” or “may” — used here mostly for polite requests.

-A uğramak

Uğramak means “to stop by,” and it takes a dative object — the place you’re stopping at.

-mış olur

This structure describes an action expected to be complete by some future point — roughly “will have happened by then.”

Tarafından

In this dialogue, tarafından means “via” or “from the direction of” — it’s about the route, not who’s doing the action. That’s different from its more common use marking the agent in a passive sentence (“by”).

-mAsInA az kaldı: Very Little Time Left

This pattern says that very little time remains before something happens. The verb takes a possessive-dative form that matches the subject:

Ben: gitmeme / kalkmama
Sen: gitmene / kalkmana
O: gitmesine / kalkmasına
Biz: gitmemize / kalkmamıza
Siz: gitmenize / kalkmanıza
Onlar: gitmelerine / kalkmalarına

Vocabulary

Practice

Fill in the blanks using phrases from this lesson, then check your answers against the essential-phrases table above:

1. Bir taksi …? (Can you call a taxi?)
2. Beni havalimanına …? (Could you take me to the airport?)
3. Taksimetreyi …? (Could you turn on the meter?)
4. Kredi kartı …? (Do you accept credit cards?)
5. … kalsın. (Keep the change.)