Learn how to invite someone to your dinner table and to ask about what something is
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Hello, and welcome back to TurkishClass101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, season 1, lesson 11, What’s this Delicious Turkish Dish? I’m Gabriella. |
| Feyza: Merhaba. And I’m Feyza! |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you'll learn how to invite someone to your dinner table and ask questions about food. |
| Feyza: The setting for this dialogue is Hakan’s house, and this conversation is between Hakan, Merve, and her husband Bora. |
| Gabriella: Hakan prepares dinner for the couple. |
| Feyza: The speakers know each other already so they are using casual Turkish. Ok, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Hakan: Yemek hazır! Sofraya buyurun! |
| Merve: Oo harika görünüyor! |
| Hakan: Haydi soğutmadan yiyin! Ayrandan da için! |
| Bora: (eating) Mmm. Çok lezzetli. Eline sağlık Hakan. Bu nedir? |
| Hakan: Karnıyarık. Afiyet olsun. |
| Gabriella: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Hakan: Yemek hazır! Sofraya buyurun! |
| Merve: Oo harika görünüyor! |
| Hakan: Haydi soğutmadan yiyin! Ayrandan da için! |
| Bora: (eating) Mmm. Çok lezzetli. Eline sağlık Hakan. Bu nedir? |
| Hakan: Karnıyarık. Afiyet olsun. |
| Gabriella: Now, let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Hakan: Yemek hazır! Sofraya buyurun! |
| Hakan: Dinner is ready! Here, come to the dinner table! |
| Merve: Oo harika görünüyor! |
| Merve: Oh, it looks great! |
| Hakan: Haydi soğutmadan yiyin! Ayrandan da için! |
| Hakan: Come on, eat it before it’s cold. Drink ayran as well! |
| Bora: Mmm. Çok lezzetli. Eline sağlık Hakan. Bu nedir? |
| Bora: Mmm. Very delicious. Bless your hands Hakan. What’s this? |
| Hakan: Karnıyarık. Afiyet olsun. |
| Hakan: Stuffed eggplants. Enjoy your meal! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: Feyza, during my last visit to Turkey, I got to experience the local culture first hand. And I realized the importance of honoring guests in Turkey. Can you explain the cultural background of this? |
| Feyza: Sure! Turkish people are especially courteous, and sometimes even assertive when it comes to having guests stay over, or just come over for dinner. Showing diligence and mastery are the key elements. |
| Gabriella: Can you explain what you mean about being assertive to our listeners? |
| Feyza: Of course! It means, you should expect your Turkish hosts to be persistent in their hospitality! |
| Gabriella: In other words, when you empty a generous plate of dolma with yoghurt, know that seconds and thirds will come in a jiffy. |
| Feyza: Exactly! They won’t listen to you even if you say that you're full. They’ll respond by saying, yersin yersin… |
| Gabriella: Meaning, “come on, you’ll eat it anyway.” Feyza, let’s give our listeners an explanation from a Turkish point of view. Why is it important for Turkish people to behave like this? |
| Feyza: Good question Gabriella! In Turkey, generosity—especially when it comes to food—is a highly valued trait. So by asking you to eat more, they're showing that they value and respect their guests. |
| Gabriella: Oh that’s the reason behind those lavishly decorated dinner tables, isn’t it? |
| Feyza: That’s right. |
| Gabriella: But they also act like it's their ordinary daily routine to prepare such feasts. |
| Feyza: Actually, it's highly unlikely that they'd prepare such time-consuming and costly meals everyday. |
| Gabriella: So is it just a performance for their guests? |
| Feyza: Yes, or for a special celebration like the Ramadan Bayram. |
| Gabriella: Well, it sounds nice anyway! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gabriella: The first word we shall see is... |
| Feyza: sofra [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: dinner table (a table which has a meal laid out on it) |
| Feyza: sofra [slowly - broken down by syllable] sofra [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Feyza: lezzetli [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: delicious |
| Feyza: lezzetli [slowly - broken down by syllable] lezzetli [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Feyza: eline sağlık [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Bless your hands (for your cooking) (lit. "Health to your hands!") |
| Feyza: eline sağlık [slowly - broken down by syllable] eline sağlık [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Feyza: afiyet olmak [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Enjoy your meal! (lit. "May it be a feast for you!") |
| Feyza: afiyet olmak [slowly - broken down by syllable] afiyet olmak [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Feyza: haydi! [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Come on!, Go ahead! |
| Feyza: haydi! [slowly - broken down by syllable] haydi! [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Feyza: içmek [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to drink |
| Feyza: içmek [slowly - broken down by syllable] içmek [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Feyza: ne [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: what |
| Feyza: ne [slowly - broken down by syllable] ne [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Feyza: soğutmak [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to cool |
| Feyza: soğutmak [slowly - broken down by syllable] soğutmak [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Feyza, what’s our first phrase? |
| Feyza: Eline sağlık! and it is an idiomatic phrase meaning "health to your hands!" |
| Gabriella: Oh, I hear this a lot in Turkey, especially after eating something a Turkish person prepared for me. |
| Feyza: Yes, you can use this phrase to thank the person who prepared and served the food for you, whether it's breakfast, lunch, dinner, or just a simple snack. |
| Gabriella: What do we say if we want to be more polite? |
| Feyza: Adding the second person plural suffix to both words will suffice! |
| Gabriella: Ah yes, the formal setting is achieved through second person plural suffixes. |
| Feyza: Yes, you get the formal imperative mood by adding -ınız or -iniz to the verb stem, depending on the vowel harmony rules. |
| Gabriella: Great! And listeners, please check our lesson notes to learn more about the different settings where you're expected to say this phrase, and where it's not really necessary. |
| Feyza: Our next phrase is also related to Eline sağlık. It’s Afiyet olsun, and it's used as a reply to Elinize sağlık. |
| Gabriella: Turkish phrases often have very interesting literal meanings. What does this one mean Feyza? |
| Feyza: It literally means, “May the food I prepared be a feast for you.” |
| Gabriella: When should you use this phrase? |
| Feyza: You say it when you're the person who cooked or prepared the meal for someone else. |
| Gabriella: And you don’t need to wait to be praised right? |
| Feyza: No, you can go ahead and say, Afiyet olsun! |
| Gabriella: Meaning, “Enjoy your meal!” |
| Feyza: Please check the lesson notes to learn various ways of replying to Afiyet olsun. |
| Gabriella: So Feyza what’s our final word? |
| Feyza: içmek, meaning “to drink” |
| Gabriella: It's a verb that applies to all soft drinks, medicine, and alcoholic drinks with a name. Let’s give a couple of examples, Feyza. |
| Feyza: Sure! For example, Her sabah çay içerim. |
| Gabriella: "I drink tea every morning." |
| Feyza: İlacı içtim. |
| Gabriella: "I took my medicine." |
| Feyza: Notice that the expression ilaç içmek applies both to pill and liquid medicine. |
| Gabriella: Quite different from English. |
| Feyza: Indeed it is. Our final example is, Viski içmek ister misin? |
| Gabriella: Meaning “Would you like some Whisky?” |
| Feyza: Keep in mind that the alcoholic beverage you're talking about should have a label or category like “whisky,” “wine,” “beer,” and so on. |
| Gabriella: Is that so? What happens when our listeners want to say, “I don’t like to drink alcohol” |
| Feyza: In that case, we don’t use içmek. Simply say, Alkol almayı sevmiyorum. |
| Gabriella: Meaning “I don’t like to take alcohol." |
| Feyza: You can also say, Alkol kullanmıyorum. Teşekkürler. |
| Gabriella: Literally meaning, "I don’t do alcohol. Thanks." Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn the imperative tone in Turkish. |
| Feyza: Like in every other language, the imperative in Turkish is used when you demand, strongly suggest, or warn someone to do something. |
| Gabriella: Feyza, imperative tone in Turkish is quite similar to English in its logic right? |
| Feyza: Only the second person singular sen imperative tone. |
| Gabriella: Listeners, second person singular imperative tone is very similar to English, because the verb is plain. |
| Feyza: Meaning there are no suffixes attached! |
| Gabriella: That’s a relief to hear! Can we have some examples, Feyza? |
| Feyza: Well, for sure! Ayrandan da iç! |
| Gabriella: "Drink ayran as well!" |
| Feyza: Otur! |
| Gabriella: "Sit!" |
| Feyza: Dur! |
| Gabriella: "Stop!" |
| Feyza: Sigara içme! |
| Gabriella: "Don't smoke!" |
| Feyza: Let’s not forget that Turkish uses suffixes extensively. |
| Gabriella: This means suffixes for imperative form differ according to the personal pronouns. Let’s illustrate this with an example! |
| Feyza: Sen ye! |
| Gabriella: "Eat!" for second person singular. |
| Feyza: O yesin! |
| Gabriella: "Eat!" for third person singular covering “he”, “she”, and “it”. |
| Feyza: Siz yiyin! |
| Gabriella: "Eat!" for second person plural and polite imperative. |
| Feyza: Onlar yesinler! |
| Gabriella: "Eat!" for third person plural. |
| Feyza: As you can see, there's no first person singular or plural forms of imperatives in Turkish. |
| Gabriella: So how does that work in Turkish? |
| Feyza: Turkish uses a version of a wish clause to compensate for that, but we’ll learn about that in our future lessons. |
| Gabriella: Perfect! So let’s go over the different suffixes for imperative form. |
| Feyza: Ok, first up is Sen |
| Gabriella: "You" |
| Feyza: There's no suffix. For instance, Sen otur |
| Gabriella: Meaning "Sit down" |
| Feyza: Next, O |
| Gabriella: "He, she or it" |
| Feyza: The suffix is -sın, -sin, -sun, or -sün depending on the vowel harmony rules. For instance, O otursun! |
| Gabriella: "Sit!" for third person singular. |
| Feyza: Next, Siz |
| Gabriella: "You" |
| Feyza: The suffix is -ın, -in, -un, or -ün. Don't forget that sometimes buffer letters are necessary, making it yın or yin. And the extremely formal versions are -iniz, -ınız, -unuz, and -ünüz. For instance, oturun becomes oturunuz. |
| Gabriella: "Sit" in second person plural. What are the suffixes for third person plural? |
| Feyza: -sınlar, -sinler, -sunlar, and -sünler. For instance, Otursunlar! |
| Gabriella: "Sit" in third person plural. |
Outro |
|---|
| Gabriella: Well, listeners, that’s all for this lesson. |
| Feyza: Thank you very much for listening! And don’t forget to check our lesson notes for further explanations and tables! |
| Gabriella: See you next time. Bye! |
| Feyza: Hoşçakalın! |
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