Negatives in Turkish
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A negative sentence defines that something is incorrect. Different words are used to express the negative in Turkish.
Lesson outline
Hide1. Değil 'not'
The word 'değil' is used to make a noun or adjective negative. A different suffix is added to the word 'değil' for each personal pronoun.
| 'değil' | 'not' | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Ben ... değilim. | I am not... | Ben hasta değilim. (I am not ill.) |
| Sen ... değilsin. | You are not... | Sen hasta değilsin. (You are not ill.) |
| O ...değil. | He/she/it is not... | O hasta değil. (He/she/it is not ill.) |
| Biz ... değiliz. | We are not... | Biz hasta değiliz. (We are not ill.) |
| Siz ... değilsiniz. | You are not... | Siz hasta değilsiniz. (You are not ill.) |
| Onlar ... değiller. | They are not... | Onlar hasta değiller. (They are not ill.) |
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2. Var/yok 'there is/ there is not'
The words 'var' and 'yok' are used to explain the presence and absence of things.
Example table
| Var (there is/are) | Yok (there isn't/aren't) |
|---|---|
| İçeride bir kedi var. (There is a cat inside.) | İçeride bir kedi yok. (There isn't a cat inside.) |
| Burada kitaplar var. (There are books here.) | Burada kitaplar yok. (There aren't books here.) |
The words 'var/yok' are also used to express the verb 'have/not have'.
| Var (have/has) | Yok (not have/ not has) |
|---|---|
| İki kedim var. (I have two cats.) | İki kedim yok. (I don't have two cats.) |
| Onun evi var. (She has a house.) | Onun evi yok. (She doesn't have a house.) |
The word 'değil' can be used as 'yok' in the sentences that the subject is definite.
- Ayşe içeride değil. = Ayşe içeride yok. (Ayşe is not inside.)
- Ahmet okulda değil. = Ahmet okulda yok. (Ahmet is not in school.)
3. -me/-ma (negatives of verbs)
The negative form of verbs are formed by adding the suffix -me or -ma after the verb root according to the last vowel of the verb root.
| Last vowel of the verb root -> | -a, -ı, -o, -u | -e, -i, -ö, -ü |
|---|---|---|
| Add the suffix -> | -ma | -me |
Examples
- okumak (to read): Ben kitap okumadım. -> I didn't read the book.
- yüzmek (to swim): Biz denizde yüzmedik. -> We didn't swim in the sea.
Exercises
- Multiple choice exercise on the negatives in Turkish
- Fill in the blanks exercise about the negatives in Turkish
Multiple choice exercise on the negatives in Turkish
Fill in the blanks exercise about the negatives in Turkish
Exercises
- Multiple choice exercise on the negatives in Turkish
- Fill in the blanks exercise about the negatives in Turkish
Multiple choice exercise on the negatives in Turkish
Fill in the blanks exercise about the negatives in Turkish
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I was born in İstanbul and I lived there. I hold a bachelor degree in cinema and television at İstanbul Şehir University. During my university years, my stories have been published in major Turkish literary magazines. After my graduation I have been specializing in children's book illustration and literature. I founded children's book publishing house in Turkey. The name is Yıldız Tozu Publishing and my books were released. I worked as an editor-in-chief in the company. I was finding books in the world and I was publishing them in Turkish. I am practically and professionally working on Turkish language and literature. Later on, I moved France to continue my education and works about literature and art. Currently, I am learning french.
I have experience in teaching Turkish in years. Furthermore, I speak English very well (TOEFL B2) and French (B1) it is advantage for students who are beginners.
Here my methodology when I teach Turkish:
I will use the grammar books and my presentations, time to time.
For speaking practice: illustrations, daily conversations
For listening practice: Turkish songs, movies, series
For reading practice: news and articles about Turkey (for advance students), stories, picture books (for intermediate students), texts from language books (for beginner and intermediate students.)
If students need to focus specific area like writing etc. I am designing my class according to that.
In addition, it is because I am using broad material about Turkish media, you will be familiar the culture and sociology of Turkey.
I like to do lesson in creative and in an organized way; therefore, I believe you will learn fast and you will enjoy learning Turkish with me!
I hope to see you in my class :)
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Hello Turkish Learners!
I am a professional Turkish Teacher and a translator with a master degree.I have visited so many countries to research cultures and Turkish Dialects.
Since I was a child, my dream was to travel to Asia and learn all the other Turkish Languages such as Kyrgyz Turkish, Kazak Turkish, Tatar Turkish, Tuva Turkish) as well as to research the similarities and differences between Modern Turkish and other Turkish languages.
In the past, I worked as a lecturer in the School of Foreign Languages of Turkish Education at Kyrgyzstan Turkey Manas University for 3 years. During my appointment, I have taught all levels of Modern Turkish to the students who are from different nationalities such as Americans, Russians, English, German, Kazaks, Kyrgyz, Tatars, Mongol, Tuvas, Uighur Turk. I am also very fluent in Kyrgyz Turkish and Kazak Turkish.
Currently, I am living in Turkey.I believe that with my experiences and love for languages, I can surely help you to speak up. As a patient and concise teacher, I: - develop and implement individual lesson plans for structured and conversational sessions. - use a variety of written and audio materials, primarily Elementary Turkish in 2 Volumes by Kurtuluş Öztopçu.- assign homework and provide regular feedback to students. - clarify complex grammar questions through examples from everyday conversations-make the language learning process less theoretical and more practical. Let me know your motivations and needs, and I will prepare an individual lesson plan for you.Just dream,you can learn language easily!Aysegul
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Hello,
I was born in İstanbul and I lived there. I hold a bachelor degree in cinema and television at İstanbul Şehir University. During my university years, my stories have been published in major Turkish literary magazines. After my graduation I have been specializing in children's book illustration and literature. I founded children's book publishing house in Turkey. The name is Yıldız Tozu Publishing and my books were released. I worked as an editor-in-chief in the company. I was finding books in the world and I was publishing them in Turkish. I am practically and professionally working on Turkish language and literature. Later on, I moved France to continue my education and works about literature and art. Currently, I am learning french.
I have experience in teaching Turkish in years. Furthermore, I speak English very well (TOEFL B2) and French (B1) it is advantage for students who are beginners.
Here my methodology when I teach Turkish:
I will use the grammar books and my presentations, time to time.
For speaking practice: illustrations, daily conversations
For listening practice: Turkish songs, movies, series
For reading practice: news and articles about Turkey (for advance students), stories, picture books (for intermediate students), texts from language books (for beginner and intermediate students.)
If students need to focus specific area like writing etc. I am designing my class according to that.
In addition, it is because I am using broad material about Turkish media, you will be familiar the culture and sociology of Turkey.
I like to do lesson in creative and in an organized way; therefore, I believe you will learn fast and you will enjoy learning Turkish with me!
I hope to see you in my class :)
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Hello,
I was born in İstanbul and I lived there. I hold a bachelor degree in cinema and television at İstanbul Şehir University. During my university years, my stories have been published in major Turkish literary magazines. After my graduation I have been specializing in children's book illustration and literature. I founded children's book publishing house in Turkey. The name is Yıldız Tozu Publishing and my books were released. I worked as an editor-in-chief in the company. I was finding books in the world and I was publishing them in Turkish. I am practically and professionally working on Turkish language and literature. Later on, I moved France to continue my education and works about literature and art. Currently, I am learning french.
I have experience in teaching Turkish in years. Furthermore, I speak English very well (TOEFL B2) and French (B1) it is advantage for students who are beginners.
Here my methodology when I teach Turkish:
I will use the grammar books and my presentations, time to time.
For speaking practice: illustrations, daily conversations
For listening practice: Turkish songs, movies, series
For reading practice: news and articles about Turkey (for advance students), stories, picture books (for intermediate students), texts from language books (for beginner and intermediate students.)
If students need to focus specific area like writing etc. I am designing my class according to that.
In addition, it is because I am using broad material about Turkish media, you will be familiar the culture and sociology of Turkey.
I like to do lesson in creative and in an organized way; therefore, I believe you will learn fast and you will enjoy learning Turkish with me!
I hope to see you in my class :)
D. D.
I have been following lessons with Esra on and off for six months now and sometimes we have communication problems because we have to speak in English and that isn't the native language for the both of us. Having said this. She is a fun teacher and we laugh a lot but I also must admit that she is strict with the time table, starting at 8 o'clock means starting at 8, ending at 9 means.... Other than that, when I have questions I can ask anytime and she will reply and if the question isn't to complicated I get an fairly quick answer, if it gets more complicated than the answer will be treated in the next lesson. Would I recommend Esra hanim. Yes! And I would like to add, she is a good teacher and she has a lot of patience and repeats the things I should know because it was in a previous lesson and I stupidtly enough forgot about it (Turkish isn't an easy language...)
Teşekkür ederim Denise:) and it is not stupidity, very normal when we learn a new language we just need many repetition... and every language has different structure so it takes a bit time to learn it but this makes knowing a different language so valuable. ;)
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Hello,
I was born in İstanbul and I lived there. I hold a bachelor degree in cinema and television at İstanbul Şehir University. During my university years, my stories have been published in major Turkish literary magazines. After my graduation I have been specializing in children's book illustration and literature. I founded children's book publishing house in Turkey. The name is Yıldız Tozu Publishing and my books were released. I worked as an editor-in-chief in the company. I was finding books in the world and I was publishing them in Turkish. I am practically and professionally working on Turkish language and literature. Later on, I moved France to continue my education and works about literature and art. Currently, I am learning french.
I have experience in teaching Turkish in years. Furthermore, I speak English very well (TOEFL B2) and French (B1) it is advantage for students who are beginners.
Here my methodology when I teach Turkish:
I will use the grammar books and my presentations, time to time.
For speaking practice: illustrations, daily conversations
For listening practice: Turkish songs, movies, series
For reading practice: news and articles about Turkey (for advance students), stories, picture books (for intermediate students), texts from language books (for beginner and intermediate students.)
If students need to focus specific area like writing etc. I am designing my class according to that.
In addition, it is because I am using broad material about Turkish media, you will be familiar the culture and sociology of Turkey.
I like to do lesson in creative and in an organized way; therefore, I believe you will learn fast and you will enjoy learning Turkish with me!
I hope to see you in my class :)
S. M.
I have just started my classes with Esra and she is a very good teacher. She guides you very well through the class with her presentation and provides you with a lot of vocabulary and visual input which is vital to start speaking and constructing sentences. Her presentations and her explanations guide you through a very dinamic class in which the student has to speak and apply the topics learned in a variety of examples. This variety and the structure helps you a lot to start with the language. Her homework assigments are also very carefully prepared and help you with the repetitions to interiorate the concepts learned and to put them into practice. I am looking forward to the next lessons because through this approach we will be able to move at a steady and fast pace!
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Difficult to understand but lesson made successfully. Hope to get also good practical excercises to deepen knowledge of new things learned.
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