PART ONE - THE BASICS
Lesson 1: To Be
Welcome to the Turkish course here at UniLang. We want to help you learn foreign languages and we hope this
little course can help you. These courses in part one are intended for absolute beginners who need a little
assistance with starting to learn some basics. This is not a complete course. When we've showed you the most
important basics we'll let go you and then you can explore our grammar reference all by yourself.
We'll start by teaching you how to introduce yourself in Turkish. Take a look at the following Turkish sentence
and it's English translation. All Turkish text will be written in blue and the English translation in green.
"Ben Ahmet'im."
"I am Ahmet"

Turkish sentence structure is different from English's. "ben" means "I", but we can't see an equivalent word of
"am" in Turkish. Instead of it, we see a suffix "-im" after Ahmet. "-im" is the conjugational suffix of verb "to be"
for the first, singular person "ben". When you introduce yourself with your name, it's optional to use this suffix.
You can say only "Ben Ahmet".
(Ben) Ahmet'im. I am Ahmet.
(Sen) Ahmet'sin. You are Ahmet.
(O) Ahmet'dir. He is Ahmet.
(O) Ayşe'dir. She is Ayşe.
(O) (bir) kedidir. It is a cat.
(Biz) Ahmet ve Ayşe'yiz. We are Ahmet and Ayşe.
(Siz) Ahmet ve Ayşe'siniz. You are Ahmet and Ayşe.
(Onlar) Ahmet ve Ayşe'dirler. They are Ahmet and Ayşe.
NOTES:
• Turkish has no gender.
• kedi = the cat
• bir = a/an, one
• There is no article in Turkish like the/der,die,das/ el, la...
• Don't forget apostrophes between proper nouns and suffixes.
• Suffix "-im" changes according to vowel harmony.
Ben Ahmet'im Ben Hasan'ım Ben Gül'üm Ben Uğur'um
Ben -(y)im -(y)ım -(y)um -(y)üm
Sen -sin -sın -sun -sün
O -dir -dır -dur -dür
Biz -(y)iz -(y)ız -(y)uz -(y)üz
Siz -siniz -sınız -sunuz -sünüz
Onlar -dirler -dırlar -dürler -durlar
VOCABULARY
We'll ask you to study a number of words in each lesson.
BABA FATHER
ANNE, ANA MOTHER
BÜYÜKANNE, NİNE GRANDMOTHER
BÜYÜKBABA, DEDE GRANDFATHER
DOKTOR THE DOCTOR
KEDİ THE CAT
BİR A/AN, ONE
VE AND

to be continued (devam edecek)