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A1

Turkish A1: Beginner

At this level the language covers everything the first few days ask for: your name, where you are from, what you do, your family, numbers, the time, food and drink.

Sentences are short and stand on their own. Anyone who gets this far can say what is, what they have and what they want — not yet what happened yesterday.

Sounds, the simple sentence and numbers17

Alphabet and pronunciation

8

A1The Turkish alphabetTwenty-nine letters, and each always sounds the same.A1Dotted i and dotless ıTwo different letters — in small letters and in capitals.A1The soft gA letter you hardly hear — it lengthens or links the vowels.A1StressMostly at the end of the word, and with every ending the stress moves on.A1Two-way vowel harmony: e or aThe last vowel of the word decides whether an ending gets an e or an a.A1Four-way vowel harmony: i, ı, ü or uMany endings have four forms, and the last vowel picks one of them.A1Assimilation: -de or -teAfter a hard consonant, the d of an ending becomes t and the c becomes ç.A1Buffer consonants: y, s and nWhen two vowels meet at an ending, a y, s or n goes in between.

The simple sentence

6

A1The verb goes at the endWhatever else is in the sentence — the verb comes last.A1“To be” as an endingThere is no verb for “to be” — an ending on the noun or adjective says it.A1There is and have: “var” and “yok”Two words for “present” and “not present” — with them you say “there is” and “I have”.A1The question particle “mi”A yes–no question needs a little word with four forms, written separately.A1Question wordsA question word stands where the answer would stand, and needs no question particle.A1Negation with “değil”A sentence with “to be” is negated with a word of its own, which carries the person ending.

Numbers, time and date

3

A1The cardinal numbersTens before units, as written — and no plural after a number.A1Telling the time“Half” counts from the hour before, and “past” and “to” need a case.A1Dates, months and days of the weekDay, month, year with plain numbers — no “th” and no “on”.

Nouns, cases, pronouns and adjectives13

Nouns

4

A1No article, no genderA Turkish noun has no gender and no word for “the”; “bir” means “a”.A1The plural with -ler and -larOne ending for all nouns — and none at all after a number.A1My, your, his as an endingThe “my”, “your”, “his” is an ending on the noun.A1The apostrophe with namesAn apostrophe goes before the ending of a name — and almost nowhere else.

The cases

5

A1The cases at a glanceWhere English says “in”, “to” or “from”, Turkish adds an ending.A1The accusative: the definite objectThe object only gets the ending when it is definite — “the book”, not “a book”.A1The dative: where to and to whomWith -e or -a you show the direction and the receiver.A1The locative: where something isWith -de or -da you say where something is — and also when.A1The ablative: where from and of whatWith -den or -dan you say where something comes from.

Pronouns

3

A1The personal pronounsSix pronouns, one word for he, she and it — and mostly you leave them out.A1sen or siz: familiar or polite youTurkish has two words for “you” — and the polite one is also the plural.A1bu, şu, o: this, that, that over thereThree degrees of distance, where English mostly manages with “this” and “that”.

Adjectives and adverbs

1

A1The adjective comes first and stays the sameBefore the noun with no ending at all, after the noun as a statement — and “a” goes in between.

Postpositions1

Postpositions

1

A1On, under, next to: the place wordsFirst the thing, then the place with an ending: “the table’s top-on”.

Present, past and future3

The present: -iyor and the aorist

2

A1The present in “-iyor”Stem, “-iyor”, person ending — for everything going on now or firmly planned.A1Questions and negatives with “-iyor”The “not” is inside the verb; the question is a separate word after it.

The past

1

A1The definite past in “-di”Stem, “-di”, short person ending — for everything you have experienced yourself.

Moods and verb forms1

Commands, wishes and conditions

1

A1The imperative: “gel!” and “gelin!”The bare stem for “sen”, “-in” for “siz” — and “lütfen” for politeness.

Clauses and linking words2

Linking sentences

2

A1And, but, or: “ve”, “ama”, “ya da”The three linking words work almost as in English — with two exceptions.A1Too, also: “de” and “da”A little word after what it refers to — written separately and never with t.

Everyday phrases and particles1

Expressions and particles

1

A1Everyday set phrasesA set phrase for every situation — and usually a set reply to it.

Word lists at level A1

Lists: 15 · words: 560

Reading texts at level A1

Sentences from this level’s topics

Benim adım Cem.My name is Cem.

Hava çok sıcak.It is very hot.

Elif bir öğrenci.Elif is a pupil.

Öğretmen geliyor.The teacher is coming.

Practise level A1 only