Learn about asking and saying somebody's age
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Hello, and welcome back to TurkishClass101.com. This is Absolute Beginner season 1, lesson 17, Asking Somebody’s Age in Turkish. I’m Gabriella. |
| Feyza: Merhaba. And I’m Feyza! |
| Gabriella: In this lesson you’ll learn how to ask and say somebody’s age in Turkish. |
| Feyza: That’s right! It’s one of the basic things you may need to know when you meet someone. |
| Gabriella: So let’s get started! |
| Feyza: Merve and Bora are in Hakan’s house and they see Hakan’s daughter Ayla for the first time. |
| Gabriella: They engage in informal conversation since they know each other. Ok, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Merve: Ya, Hakan, küçük Ayla nerede? |
| Hakan: Orada. |
| Merve: (in a soft voice) Ah, çok tatlı maşallah... |
| Bora: Çok küçük değil mi... Kaç yaşında? |
| Hakan: Bir yaşında. (Ayla starts to cry). |
| Merve: Ah, affedersin. Çok özür dileriz. Gürültü mü yapıyoruz? Özür dilerim! |
| Gabriella: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Merve: Ya, Hakan, küçük Ayla nerede? |
| Hakan: Orada. |
| Merve: (in a soft voice) Ah, çok tatlı maşallah... |
| Bora: Çok küçük değil mi... Kaç yaşında? |
| Hakan: Bir yaşında. (Ayla starts to cry). |
| Merve: Ah, affedersin. Çok özür dileriz. Gürültü mü yapıyoruz? Özür dilerim! |
| Gabriella: Now, let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Merve: Ya, Hakan, küçük Ayla nerede? |
| Merve: Hey, Hakan, where's the little Ayla? |
| Hakan: Orada. |
| Hakan: Over here. |
| Merve: (in a soft voice) Ah, çok tatlı maşallah... |
| Merve: (in a soft voice) Ah, how sweet! |
| Bora: Çok küçük değil mi... Kaç yaşında? |
| Bora: She's so small, isn't she. How old is she? |
| Hakan: Bir yaşında. (Ayla starts to cry). |
| Hakan: One year old. (Ayla starts crying) |
| Merve: Ah, affedersin. Çok özür dileriz. Gürültü mü yapıyoruz? Özür dilerim! |
| Merve: Oh, We're sorry, so sorry! Are we loud? I'm sorry! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: For sure, Turkish people enjoy taking and giving compliments, but they always knock wood three times, or mumble some other words when they’re giving praise. I'm really curious to learn more about that. |
| Feyza: Those mumbling words are most probably blessings. |
| Gabriella: Blessings? But why? |
| Feyza: The one giving praise wants to show that he or she doesn’t have any ill wishes derived from envy or jealousy. |
| Gabriella: Wow, I would never have guessed that without your explanation! |
| Feyza: (laughs) Praise accompanied by blessings is usually about beauty, success, or wealth, or when you buy something new. |
| Gabriella: So those are the main topics where you're the target of jealous eyes. |
| Feyza: (laughs) I guess so. |
| Gabriella: So can we hear those blessings from you Feyza? |
| Feyza: Sure! The one that you’ll be hearing a lot is, Maşallah |
| Gabriella: Meaning, "May God protect you from evil." Let’s give a situational example. |
| Feyza: Having long, healthy hair is an admired trait in Turkey. So if you have such hair, you might get a compliment such as Saçınız ne kadar güzel, maşallah’. |
| Gabriella: "Praise be, your hair is so beautiful." Feyza, do people get offended if you don’t say those blessing words? |
| Feyza: It depends on the person, but it’s highly probable. |
| Gabriella: Wow! Why is that so? |
| Feyza: If you don’t utter your blessings, it shows that you have an ulterior motive. |
| Gabriella: Like a grudge or jealousy? |
| Feyza: Exactly. |
| Gabriella: But why should it matter how other people feel about your success or beauty, or even a new item you just bought? |
| Feyza: Superstition says that negative feelings create negative energy that can be harmful. It even has a name, nazar! |
| Gabriella: "the evil eye" |
| Feyza: And even nowadays, you’ll find many people wearing accessories with blue eye-beads for protection against those ill energies. |
| Gabriella: Oh my! Do all people wear it for that reason? |
| Feyza: No, not all of them. It’s also quite fashionable. |
| Gabriella: (laughs) I get it. Listeners, if you want to find out more about the mythology behind this tradition, please check our lesson notes. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gabriella: The first word we shall see is... |
| Feyza: ya [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: or, hum, ho, no kidding!? |
| Feyza: ya [slowly - broken down by syllable] ya [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Feyza: küçük [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: small |
| Feyza: küçük [slowly - broken down by syllable] küçük [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Feyza: maşallah [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: May God preserve him from the evil/ praise be! |
| Feyza: maşallah [slowly - broken down by syllable] maşallah [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Feyza: yaş [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: age, damp |
| Feyza: yaş [slowly - broken down by syllable] yaş [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Feyza: gürültü [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: loudness |
| Feyza: gürültü [slowly - broken down by syllable] gürültü [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Feyza: çok [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: a lot, much, many |
| Feyza: çok [slowly - broken down by syllable] çok [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Feyza: bir [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: one |
| Feyza: bir [slowly - broken down by syllable] bir [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Feyza: nerede [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: where |
| Feyza: nerede [slowly - broken down by syllable] nerede [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. Our first word is related to our cultural insight. What is it, Feyza? |
| Feyza: Maşallah. |
| Gabriella: Meaning "praise be" or literally, "may the protection of Allah be upon you." |
| Feyza: It's a phrase loaned from Arabic. |
| Gabriella: We’ve already talked about its contextual use. Now let’s focus on other words that go well with this phrase. |
| Feyza: Hayırlı olsun. |
| Gabriella: "May it go well." This is especially used when somebody achieves often immaterial things. Like a better opportunity in their career, a successful, happy marriage, a new home, and so on. For example... |
| Feyza: Yeni evin hayırlı olsun. Çok geniş maşallah. |
| Gabriella: "May your new house bring fortune to you. Praise be, very large." |
| Feyza: Our next word is a noun or an adjective depending on the context. It’s yaş |
| Gabriella: So, it's a homonym. Turkish uses homonym words extensively. So what does this word mean Feyza? |
| Feyza: As a noun, yaş means "age." And as an adjective, it means, "wet, humid" or "damp." |
| Gabriella: Totally different! Let’s hear it in some sample sentences. |
| Feyza: Yirmi dokuz yaşındayım. |
| Gabriella: "I'm twenty-nine years old." |
| Feyza: Burası yaş, oturmam. |
| Gabriella: "This place is wet, I won’t sit down." So let’s hear our final word now. |
| Feyza: Gürültü |
| Gabriella: It's an onomatopoeic noun meaning, "loud noise" or "clamor." |
| Feyza: Turkish is also very versatile in terms of words that originate from imitating the sounds of nature. |
| Gabriella: Let’s hear an example. |
| Feyza: Sınıf çok gürültülü. |
| Gabriella: "The class is very noisy." Do you combine it with other onomatopoeic words Feyza? |
| Feyza: I was about to mention that. An example would be, gürültü patırtı |
| Gabriella: Meaning, "hustle and bustle" |
| Feyza: Listeners, check our lesson notes for more examples of this word and to see it combined with auxiliary verbs. |
| Gabriella: Excellent! Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn about Turkish personal suffixes in detail. |
| Feyza: As you know, in lesson 1 and 4 of this series, we’ve already shown the first and second person singular and plural suffixes. |
| Gabriella: And now, let’s study further and show each suffix for different personal pronouns according to vowel harmony rules. |
| Feyza: Let’s first mention some basic rules. |
| Gabriella: Ok, We’ll start with the second person singular and informal pronoun which is… |
| Feyza: sen. sen is only used when speaking to close friends, family members, and children. |
| Gabriella: How about the formal version of second person singular? |
| Feyza: This can be a little confusing for beginners. Siz has two functions. It can be used for formal situations in second person singular. |
| Gabriella: For example, when you are talking to an elderly person or strangers. |
| Feyza: Or second person plural... |
| Gabriella: When you talk to more than one person. What’s our second point Feyza? |
| Feyza: o, which is third person singular, covers all three of "he," "she," and "it." |
| Gabriella: There's no distinction between "he" and "she" in Turkish. |
| Feyza: The gender of the person can be understood from the context. |
| Gabriella: This will be explained in detail in an upcoming lesson of this series. |
| Feyza: According to the vowel harmony rules, personal suffixes can be added to the root of the word in four different ways. The only exception is third person plural suffixes ler and lar. |
| Gabriella: Okay I think we're ready to hear them. In first person singular, when the root of the word ends in a vowel, then your suffixes are, |
| Feyza: yım, yim, yum, or yüm |
| Gabriella: As explained in our previous lessons, y functions as a buffer letter that derives from a fundamental grammar rule in Turkish... |
| Feyza: … a vowel cannot be followed by another vowel. |
| Gabriella: Great! So let’s see some examples using these suffixes. |
| Feyza: İyiyim. The suffix is yim. |
| Gabriella: "I am well." |
| Feyza: Kötüyüm. The suffix is yüm. |
| Gabriella: "I'm not well." |
| Feyza: Mutluyum. The suffix is yum. |
| Gabriella: "I'm happy." |
| Feyza: Yirmi yaşındayım. The suffix is yım. |
| Gabriella: "I'm twenty years old." So how do suffixes change when the root of the word ends in a consonant in first person singular? |
| Feyza: im, ım, üm, or um |
| Gabriella: I see. We use it without the buffer letter y because it’s unnecessary. From now on, let’s just give one example and let our listeners find more examples of the four different cases in our lesson notes. |
| Feyza: Sure! Üzgünüm. The suffix is üm. |
| Gabriella: "I'm sad." Now Feyza will tell us the suffixes for the second person singular and informal case. |
| Feyza: sin, sın, sun, and sün. |
| Gabriella: Time to hear one example! |
| Feyza: Güzelsin. The suffix is sin. |
| Gabriella: "You're beautiful." Now for the third person singular. Remember that this was mentioned under definite form or book form in our previous lessons. The suffix is... |
| Feyza: dır or dir |
| Gabriella: However, in daily speech, this ending isn't used. Let’s hear one example. |
| Feyza: Şirin. |
| Gabriella: "She's cute!" I'm already curious about the suffixes for first person plural. When the root word ends in a vowel, it has four variants just like first person singular. |
| Feyza: yız, yiz, yuz, or yüz. |
| Gabriella: Let’s hear an example. |
| Feyza: Uzunuz |
| Gabriella: "We are tall." And when the root ends in a consonant for the same pronoun... |
| Feyza: ız, iz, uz, or üz |
| Gabriella: An example please... |
| Feyza: Hazırız. |
| Gabriella: "We are ready!" Now let’s hear the suffixes for the second person plural and formal of second person singular, as we explained earlier in this lesson’s grammar point. |
| Feyza: siniz, sınız, sünüz, and sunuz. |
| Gabriella: And an example... |
| Feyza: Evlisiniz. |
| Gabriella: "You're married." And finally, for the third person plural... |
| Feyza: ler or lar |
| Gabriella: So our final example is… |
| Feyza: Kısalar. |
| Gabriella: "They're short." |
| Feyza: And with that, we’ve finally made it to the end! |
| Gabriella: Listeners, please check the lesson notes for more information on this very important and essential part of Turkish grammar, the suffixes for personal pronouns! |
Outro |
|---|
| Feyza: See you in the next lesson. Hoşçakalın! |
| Gabriella: Thanks for listening, bye! |
Comments
Hide