First sentences

4.1 Hello, goodbye, thank you

The greeting for any time of day is merhaba, "hello". Among friends it is selam, "hi". Many other greetings wish someone well with iyi, "good", and a time of day.

Chapter 1 had the two goodbyes: the one leaving says hoşça kal, "stay well", and the one staying says güle güle, "go smiling". Görüşürüz, "we'll see each other", does for either.

"How are you?" is nasılsın?, and the usual answer is iyiyim, "I'm fine", with thanks.

nasıl is "how", and the ending -sIn says "you are"; in iyiyim, -(y)Im says "I am". These endings are chapter 5's, and the glosses under them are the person: I, you.

For "thank you" there are three, from the most formal to the least: teşekkür ederim, teşekkürler, and sağ ol, among friends. The answer is rica ederim, "you're welcome".

A guest is greeted with hoş geldiniz, "welcome", and answers hoş bulduk. Both are sentences in the past:

Literally, the host says "you came pleasantly", and the guest "we found it pleasant". The guest says "we" even when there is only one of them: it is a set answer.

Two more wishes are heard every day. Kolay gelsin, "may it come easy", is said to anyone at work: a shopkeeper, a builder, a friend at a desk. Afiyet olsun is said to someone eating, where English might say "enjoy your meal".

Names are given with ad, "name", and the endings for "your" and "my". Turkish asks "your name what?", with nothing for "is":

And on meeting someone, memnun oldum, "pleased to meet you".

4.2 Two words for "you"

Turkish has two words for "you". sen is for one person you know well: family, friends, children. siz is for more than one person, and for one person you speak to politely: someone older, a stranger, anyone in a shop or an office.

The greetings change with it. To a friend: nasılsın?, adın ne?, hoş geldin, sağ ol, hoşça kal. To a shopkeeper, a guest or a group: nasılsınız?, adınız ne?, hoş geldiniz, sağ olun, hoşça kalın.

The gloss under siz's endings is you.PL or your.PL, "plural", even when they are said to one person. With someone you've just met, siz is the safe choice.

4.3 Yes, no, sorry

evet is "yes" and hayır is "no". In everyday talk yok, "there isn't", often does for a flat "no", and tamam is "OK", "all right", "agreed".

To get a stranger's attention, or a waiter's, say affedersiniz, "excuse me". pardon does the same, and also says sorry for a small thing, such as bumping into someone. For a real apology there is özür dilerim, "I'm sorry".

Efendim? asks someone to say again what you didn't catch, and is also one of the ways Turks answer the phone. anlamadım and bilmiyorum are verbs, with endings that come in later chapters; they are worth having whole until then.

nerede, "where", has the ending -DA, "at", on it; chapter 7 has it and its cousins.

4.4 bu, şu and o: this and that

Turkish has three words for pointing. bu is "this", for something near you. şu is "that", for something a little way off, often something you point at as you say it. o is "that" for something further away, out of sight, or already talked about.

Each one can go before a noun, or stand on its own:

Turkish needs no word for "is" in sentences like these: what a thing is comes after it, and that is the whole sentence. So bu çay on its own is "this is tea", but with a word after it, as in bu çay sıcak, it is "this tea".

o is also the word for "he", "she" and "it". Turkish has one word for all three, as it has one ending, -(s)I, for "his", "her" and "its". The English says which one is meant:

To introduce people, Turkish uses bu, as English does: "this is Ali". de or da, "too", from chapter 3, joins a second one:

On their own, the three have plurals, with the n of chapter 3 before -lAr: bunlar, "these"; şunlar, "those"; onlar, "those", and also "they". Before a noun they don't change, and the noun takes the plural: bu evler, "these houses".

4.5 var and yok: there is, there isn't

var says that something is there: "there is", "there are". yok says that it isn't: "there isn't", "there aren't". Both come at the end of the sentence, and they don't change for one thing or many.

Where something is comes first, with -DA, and what is there comes next, just before var or yok:

bir is "one", and also "a"; chapter 6 says when Turkish uses it.

With mI, var and yok ask: var mı?, "is there?"; yok mu?, "isn't there?". The short answer is var or yok, often after evet or hayır: Evet, var. Hayır, yok.

A common greeting among friends is built from the two: Ne var ne yok?, literally "what is there, what isn't?", is "what's new?".

var and yok also say what someone has: Turkish says "my car there is" for "I have a car". That is chapter 10.

4.6 Bu ne? Asking what something is

ne is "what", and kim is "who". They go where the answer goes, so the answer is the question with one word changed:

A simit is a ring of bread covered in sesame seeds, sold from street carts.

A question with ne or kim is a question already, and takes no mI. mI is for questions that are answered yes or no:

Ayran is a cold, salted drink of yoghurt and water. The answer is evet or hayır, often with the word again: Evet, ayran. Hayır, süt.

One question with ne is worth knowing before any other, since it asks for every word you don't know yet:

demek is the verb "to say", in the form a dictionary lists it, with the ending -mAk; the glosses write that ending INF. Word for word the question is "this word, what to say?", and it is how Turkish asks what something means.