Turkish Phrases Blog

I’m finding more nice bits of audio to share with you from the Türkçe Öğreniyorum podcast.  Here is the audio and my transcription/translation of another Turkish greeting interaction:

Learning Turkish part 2

Ahmet: Merhaba.  Benim adım Ahmet.
(Hello.  My name is Ahmet.)

Ayşe: Merhaba.  Ben de Ayşe.  Memnun oldum.
(Hello.  And I’m Ayşe.  Pleased to meet you.)

Ahmet: Ben de memnun oldum.
(I’m pleased to meet you too.)

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I’ve written a lot about Turkish phrases, but now you can listen for yourself.  Below is an audio clip of spoken Turkish greetings.  The clip is from a podcast put out by Turkey Radio Television (TRT)  called Türkçe Öğreniyorum (I’m Learning Turkish).

Have a listen to the recording and follow along below.

Learning Turkish: Greetings

Ayşen: Merhaba Mili.  Nasılsın?
(Hello Mili.  How are you?)

Milli: Merhaba Ayşen.  Teşekkür ederim.  İyiyim.  Sen nasılsın?
(Hello Ayşen.  Thank you.  I’m fine.  How are you?)

Ayşen: Ben de iyiyim. Çok teşekkür ederim.
(I’m also fine.  Thank you very much.)

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Here is a list of Turkish numbers and how to pronounce them.  These can be added to the Turkish phrases you are learning before visiting Turkey.  I would highly recommend learning the numbers before you visit.

0        sifir        sih-fur
1        bir          beer
2        iki          ee-kee
3        üç          ooch (say the oo in your throat)
4        dört       dohrt
5        beş        besh
6        altı         all-tuh
7        yedi       yeh-dee
8        sekiz      seh-keez
9        dokuz     doe-kooz
10        on         ohn
11        on bir    ohn beer
12        on iki      ohn ee-kee
13        on üç      ohn ooch
20        yirmi       yeer-mee
30        otuz        oh-tooz
40        kırk         kerk
50        elli           el-lee
60        altmış        alt-mesh
70         yetmiş        yet-meesh
80         seksen        sek-sehn
90         doksan       dohk-sahn
100         yüz          yewz
101        yüz bir      yewz beer
200        iki yüz       ee-kee yewz
1000        bin          bean
2000        iki bin     ee-kee bean
10,000        on bin
1,000,000        bir milyon
1,000,000,000    bir milyar

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Tsilla Chelton

If you are feeling too old to learn Turkish phrases, read on.  Stories like this inspire me.

Tsilla Chelton is 90 years old and recently played a key role in the film Pandora’s Box.  The movie won the “Best Picture” award at the San Sebastian film festival in Spain.

Yeşim Ustaoğlu, the director of the film “Pandora’s Box,” was at first a little hesitant to have Ms. Chelton play the key role in the film because she is 90 years old. But Ustaoğlu was soon impressed with the actress.  “She…began learning Turkish as soon as she accepted the role in my film.”

Chelton went on to win the “best actress” prize at the film festival–an impressive feat!

Ustaoğlu says, “I have never met anyone like her. I admire her ambitiousness and her nerve. She deserved the best actress award in Spain.”

Check out the whole story.

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Turkish Mantı by d u g y u

My family and I had our first visit to a Turkish home this weekend.  It was a very special occasion for us and I was eager to try one of the Turkish phrases I learned.

Our neighbors had invited us to have dinner with them and we had a lovely time.  They served us lentil soup, “manti,” which is kind of like tortellini, stuffed peppers, a parsley, dill, lemon and lettuce salad and a coffee flavored moist cake that sounds like “terramisou” for dessert.

After we were served the delicious food I said, “Elleriniz sağlık,” (el-ehr-een-eez saah-lick) which literally means, “health to your hands!”  It is a way of saying, “Thank you for the food!”  Our gracious hostess replied, “Afiyet olsun!” (Bon appetit!).

Another way to say thanks after a meal is, “Sofranıza bereket,” which means, “Thank you for your hospiality.”  It literally means, “May your table be blessed (or overflowing).”

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“Please don’t burn the hair out of my ears with a flaming cotton ball!” is one of those Turkish phrases you should learn if you are a guy who needs to visit the barber in Turkey–that is, unless you enjoy having your ears smell like burnt hair.  I’m not making this up.

Barbers in various parts of the world come up with very creative ways to serve their customers.  I’ve had neck and scalp massages before without being asked.  But when it comes to ear hair (and yes guys, as you get older the hair does get thicker in your ears) I never had this experience until recently.

I visited the barber and was enjoying a very professional (and badly needed) haircut when the barber went to his table and picked up what looked like a metal skewer with cotton on the end.  He messed with it a bit to get it ready as I curiously and innocently looked on.  Then he dipped the cotton ball in some kind of flammable liquid and barked at his apprentice to get matches.

**Please Do NOT Try This At Home**

When he lit it, the cotton ball had a six-inch flame coming off of it and he brought it over to me.  By then I was getting nervous, but I figured, “Hey, this guy is a professional.  I’ll let him do his job.”  Sure enough, the barber skillfully singed all the hair out of my ears without turning me into a toasted marshmallow!  He did a kind of burn-wack-burn-wack move where he expertly slapped my ear to put out the burning hair before it burned down to my skin.  I was amazed.

So if you need to visit a barber in Turkey and don’t want the flaming cotton ball treatment, I’m told a simple, “istemiyorum” (iss-tay-mee-yor-um) will suffice.  It means, “I don’t want it.”

If you really want to say the whole phrase say, “Lütfen, kulak tüylerimi yanan pamukla yakmayın!” (Loot-fan, koo-lock tooy-lar-eem-i yon-on pom-ook-la yock-my-in).

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This is one of those Turkish Phrases you really should learn if you want to actually get to know a Turkish speaker.  To say, “What’s your name?” you say, “Senin adin ne?” (sehn-een ahd-een nay?).  The response is , “Benim adim _____.” (ben-eem ahd-eem ____).

The somewhat tricky part for English speakers and others is that you should use a different form for a more formal situation.  For example, if the person you are talking with is quite a bit older than you, you would say, “Sizin adiniz ne?” (seez-een ahd-een-eez nay).  The meaning is the same, but it’s more formal–more polite.  For an informal setting “Senin adin ne?” works great.  The response is the same: “Benim adim ______.”

“Pleased to meet you,” is “Memnun oldum,” (mem-noon old-um).

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Wondering how to say a hearty Turkish Hello?  All you need to say is “Merhaba” (Mare-ha-ba).  It means “Hello” in pretty much any situation.

In Turkish there are a number of other ways to say Hello, which you could also learn.  In the morning, you can say, “Günaydin,” (goon-eye-din) which means, “good morning.”  In the afternoon you can say, “Tünaydin,” (toon-eye-din), which means, “good afternoon.”  In the evening people say, “İyi akşamlar,” (ee-ak-sham-lar), which means, “good evening.”

After you say a Turkish Hello to someone and you are parting company, you can usually say, “İyi günler,” (ee-goon-lehr), which means, “Have a nice day!”  If you are leaving someone’s house after a visit, say, “hoşça kal,” (hosh-cha-kal), which means “good bye.”  The proper response is to say, “güle güle,” which means good bye, but literally means smile, smile!

Update: For audio see my latest posts: part 1 or part 2.

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This has to be one of the most useful Turkish phrases I’ve memorized: Musait bir yerda (moo sigh it bir yar da).  When you are on a dolmush (dolmuş) minibus it means, “Stop somewhere convenient, please.”

Once I tried to tell a dolmuş driver I wanted to get off before a certain supermarket.  Of course, I only knew the name of the supermarket, so he didn’t understand what I was saying.  When we came to where I wanted to get off he would not stop because we weren’t at the supermarket yet!  I learned to say Musait bir yerde right after that.

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I don’t claim to have checked out all the online dictionaries, but for what it’s worth, here’s the one I like best so far:Seslisozluk.com.

For one, it’s fast.  For two, it drops down a whole list of suggestions as you type, which is great for Turkish, as sometimes one might not know what the root of the word is.

It looks like there is a mobile option as well.

This dictionary is just easy to use overall and very helpful.

Found a better one?  Comments are welcome.

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