Learn how to use the imperative to ask directions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to TurkishClass101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 5 - Finding Your Way to a Delicious Feast in Turkey. Eric here. |
| Elif: Merhaba. I'm Elif. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask for detailed directions. The conversation takes place in the lobby in front of the reception. |
| Elif: It's between Alice and the receptionist. |
| Eric: The speakers are strangers, so they'll use formal Turkish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Alice: Yerebatan Sarnıcı’na otelden nasıl giderim? |
| Resepsiyon görevlisi: Kadıköy'den Karaköy vapuruna binin. İndikten sonra üst geçitten karşıya geçin. Zeytinburnu'na giden tramvaya binin. İneceğiniz durak Sultanahmet. |
| Alice: Teşekkür ederim. Duraktan sonra ne kadar yürüyeceğim? |
| Resepsiyon görevlisi: Beş dakika. Hemen solunuzda göreceksiniz. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Alice: Yerebatan Sarnıcı’na otelden nasıl giderim? |
| Resepsiyon görevlisi: Kadıköy'den Karaköy vapuruna binin. İndikten sonra üst geçitten karşıya geçin. Zeytinburnu'na giden tramvaya binin. İneceğiniz durak Sultanahmet. |
| Alice: Teşekkür ederim. Duraktan sonra ne kadar yürüyeceğim? |
| Resepsiyon görevlisi: Beş dakika. Hemen solunuzda göreceksiniz. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Alice: How do I get to Basillica Cistern from the hotel? |
| Receptionist: Take the Karaköy ferry from Kadıköy. After getting off, cross the pedestrian bridge. Get on the cable car headed for Zeytinburnu. The stop you are going to get off at is Sultanahmet. |
| Alice: Thank you. How far will I walk from the stop? |
| Receptionist: Five minutes. You will see it immediately on your left. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Elif, in the dialogue we heard the names of some famous places in Istanbul. |
| Elif: Yes, one of those was Sultanahmet, also known as the Blue Mosque due to its magnificent blue tiled interior decoration. It was built by the order of Sultan Ahmet I in 1616 by Sedefkar Mehmet Ağa, who was an apprentice of the world renowned architect Mimar Sinan. |
| Eric: Where is it? |
| Elif: It's located right next to the Ayasofya or Hagia Sophia and the Hippodrome in the Golden Horn area of the Old City. These are two important monuments left from the Byzantine era. |
| Eric: Being the first mosque with 6 minarets, the Blue Mosque is considered one of the - if not the number one- most beautiful Ottoman mosque. It's an active mosque that receives about 15,000 visitors daily. |
| Elif: Because of its strategic location, Sultanahmet Mosque became the headquarters for the Grand Vizier during the Janissary Corps rebellion in 1826. |
| Eric: It was visited by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006. |
| Elif: Right, the second papal visit ever to a Muslim place of worship. |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Elif: Yerebatan [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Basilica |
| Elif: Yerebatan[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: Yerebatan [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: sarnıç [natural native speed] |
| Eric: cistern |
| Elif: sarnıç[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: sarnıç [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: üst geçit [natural native speed] |
| Eric: pedestrian bridge |
| Elif: üst geçit[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: üst geçit [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: karşıya geçmek [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to cross |
| Elif: karşıya geçmek[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: karşıya geçmek [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: istikamet [natural native speed] |
| Eric: direction |
| Elif: istikamet[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: istikamet [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: durak [natural native speed] |
| Eric: stop, station |
| Elif: durak[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: durak [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: inmek [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to get off |
| Elif: inmek[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: inmek [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: binmek [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to get on |
| Elif: binmek[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: binmek [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Elif: yürümek [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to walk |
| Elif: yürümek[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: yürümek [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Elif: görmek [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to see |
| Elif: görmek[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Elif: görmek [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at the some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Elif: hemen |
| Eric: meaning "immediate." It is often used in direction descriptions to point at precise turning points, or the location of the destination itself. |
| Elif: It is an adjective and it can be used in a pair with sol, meaning “left,” as hemen sol, |
| Eric: which means “immediate left.” |
| Elif: If the location can't be easily seen, hemen shouldn't be used. When hemen is used with verbs, its adverb form means "quickly, urgently." |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this word when giving directions? |
| Elif: Sure. For example, you can say.. Hemen şuradan bir sağ yapın. |
| Eric: ..which means "Make an immediate right turn from there." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Elif: ...den sonra |
| Eric: meaning "after …" |
| Elif: Sonra means “after” and the directional suffix -den usually has the meaning “from.” |
| Eric: However, when used together to create this particular conjunction, they mean “after the verb or noun.” |
| Elif: For example, köşeden sonra means “after the corner.” Topkapı’dan sonra is “after Topkapı” and yedikten sonra means “after eating.” |
| Eric: As you can see in these examples, the -den suffix can be attached to a noun, proper noun, pronoun, or a verb in the simple past tense. |
| Elif: When attaching -den sonra to a noun, proper noun, pronoun, or verb in simple past tense, don't forget to change the consonants if the consonant harmony rule applies. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example of a sentence? |
| Elif: Sure. For example, you can say.. Sola döndükten sonra düz gidin. |
| Eric: .. which means "Go straight after turning left." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask for detailed directions. |
| Elif: When you are asking for directions or how to find a location, you can ask: ...’e nasıl giderim? |
| Eric: meaning "How do I get to ...?" Can we break down this question? |
| Elif: Yes, first of all the name of the place should be put at the beginning, followed by the directional suffix -e, meaning "to," which can change into -a due to the vowel harmonization rule. If there is a vowel before the suffix, the extra consonant -y or -n comes in between since double vowels are against Turkish grammar. Nasıl is the question word "how" and combined with giderim. |
| Eric: Meaning "I get to." Use this phrase to ask for directions. Except in cases like asking about directions to far away places such as Canada or China where it obviously wouldn’t apply, this phrase can be used in any situation involving directions. |
| Elif: For example, Nevşehir'e nasıl giderim? |
| Eric: “How do I get to Nevşehir?” |
| Elif: Another way to ask the location of a place is (place)… nerede biliyor musunuz? |
| Eric: "Do you know where ..(place). is?" |
| Elif:For example: Eminönü’ne nasıl giderim? |
| Eric: "How do I get to Eminönü?" |
| Elif: Boğaziçi Üniversitesi nerede biliyor musunuz? |
| Eric: "Do you know where Boğaziçi University is?” Now let’s see how to follow simple directions. When giving directions, the imperative form is used. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the sentence sounds commanding or rude. |
| Elif: In the lesson, the receptionist gave Alice directions to Yerebatan Sarnıcı by saying Kadıköy'den Karaköy vapuruna binin. |
| Eric: "Take the Karaköy ferry from Kadıköy." |
| Elif: İndikten sonra üst geçitten karşıya geçin. |
| Eric: "After getting off, cross the pedestrian bridge." |
| Elif: Here are some basic expressions you’d better master. Düz gidin |
| Eric: "Go straight" |
| Elif:Sola dönün, sağa dönün |
| Eric: "Turn left” or “turn right" |
| Elif: ...’in yanında |
| Eric: “Next to ..." Listeners, you can find some more in the Lesson Notes. Now, let’s see the noun clause suffixes in directions. Thanks to a couple of simple suffixes that exist in Turkish grammar, it’s possible to group many nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs to create a single noun clause. |
| Elif: When a verb is going to be included in the clause, the rule is to first add the personalized noun clause suffix to the verb root, then add inflectional suffixes after the clause suffix if it’s necessary for proper objectification or subjectification. |
| Eric: The suffixes are grouped into personalizable and non-personalizable. |
| Elif: The personalizable ones are -ma and -dık and the non-personalizable are -an and -mış. The suffix -acak is a special case in the sense that it can be included in both groups. |
| Eric: Let’s look at an example of non-personalizable suffix added verbs from the dialogue. |
| Elif: Zeytinburnu istikametine giden tramvaya binin |
| Eric: which is translated as “Get on the cable car going in the direction of Zeytinburnu” in English. |
| Elif: The object of this sentence is Zeytinburnu istikametine giden tramvay |
| Eric: literally “the cable car going in the direction of Zeytinburnu.” |
| Elif: Altogether, Zeytinburnu istikametine giden tramvaya binin. A critical part of the clause, giden, was constructed out of gitmek, “to go,” by adding -an which turned into -en to fit the sound harmony rule. Notice that at the end of the clause, the inflectional suffix -a was added to tramvay to complete the objectification, and binin is the imperative. |
| Eric: Now, let’s see an example of a personalized noun clause suffix added verb from the dialogue. |
| Elif: İneceğiniz durağın adı Sultanahmet |
| Eric: which means “The name of the stop you are going to get off at is Sultanahmet.” |
| Elif: The object is ineceğiniz durağın adı, meaning “the name of the stop you are going to get off” which includes ineceğiniz in which the verb root in-, meaning "to get off" with the received second person suffix. Once again, at the end of the clause the inflectional suffix -ı was added to ad, meaning “name,“ to complete the objectification. |
| Eric: Let’s give some more examples. |
| Elif: Gideceğim yerin adı Levent. |
| Eric: ”The name of the place where I’m going is Levent.” |
| Elif: Döneceğim köşe nerede? |
| Eric: ”Where is the corner I’m supposed to turn at?” |
| Elif: İneceğim durak hangisi? |
| Eric: ”Which station am I supposed to get off at?” |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Elif: Hoşçakalın. |
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