| Herkese merhaba, ben Seda! |
| Hi everybody, my name is Seda. |
| Welcome to TurkishClass101.com! |
| Hepiniz hoşgeldiniz! |
| Nasılsınız? |
| Ben çok iyiyim! |
| Today we will talk about the differences between Informal Turkish and Formal Turkish. |
| Before we start we need to think about Turkish pronouns: |
| Ben |
| Sen |
| O |
| Biz |
| Siz |
| Onlar |
| I, you, she/he etc… |
| We have a special pronoun “siz” |
| Siz can be used for 2 different things. First, if we are talking about more than one person. For example if you are asking two of your friends if they are hungry… |
| You would say: |
| Aç mısınız? |
| Are you hungry? |
| Aç mısınız? |
| Not aç mısın? |
| In English, there is only one “you” and there is no difference between singular and plural you. |
| In Turkish singular “you” is “sen” |
| Plural “you” is “siz”. |
| “Siz” is not just plural but also we use it when we need a singular but a formal you. For example, you are talking to a person you don’t know very well. You wouldn’t call them “sen” but “siz”. |
| For example, you have a business quest in your office and you want ask if he or she is hungry, you would again say: |
| “Aç mısınız?” |
| Are you hungry? |
| “Aç mısınız?” |
| Even though, it is just one person! |
| So let me wrap up. |
| Sen is used only for one person and it is causal /informal. |
| Siz, the plural “you” is not only used as it is in English, but also as a polite, formal way of addressing someone. The same set of rules apply to both the plural “you” and the polite “you” in Turkish. |
| So this is how you make formal and informal Turkish. If you conjugate in sen version, it is informal but in siz version it is formal. |
| Let’s give some examples. I will first say the English version which is the same and the informal and formal Turkish versions of the same sentence. |
| Here we go: |
| “Can you help me, please?” |
| Informal |
| Bana yardım edebilir misin lütfen? |
| Formal |
| Bana yardım edebilir misiniz lütfen? |
| “Can you explain this to me, please?” |
| Informal |
| Bunu bana anlatabilir misin lütfen? |
| Formal |
| Bunu bana anlatabilir misiniz lütfen? |
| “How can I access the document you mentioned?” |
| Informal |
| Bahsettiğin dokümana nasıl ulaşabilirim? |
| Formal |
| Bahsettiğin(iz) dokümana nasıl ulaşabilirim? |
| “Can you give the password of the computer?” |
| Informal |
| Bilgisayarın şifresini verebilir misin? |
| Formal |
| Bilgisayarın şifresini verebilir misin(iz)? |
| “Call me tomorrow” |
| Informal |
| Yarın beni ara. |
| Formal |
| Yarın beni arayın. |
| “Have you slept well?” |
| Informal |
| İyi uyudun mu? |
| Formal |
| İyi uyudunuz mu? |
| “Can you drive a car?” |
| Informal |
| Araba kullanabilir misin? |
| Formal |
| Araba kullanabilir misiniz? |
| “Can you open the window?” |
| Informal |
| Camı açabilir misin? |
| Formal |
| Camı açabilir misiniz? |
| As you can see, when you conjugate the sentence for a “siz” version, you make them polite! |
| Let’s talk about greetings. |
| When greeting someone, you can use any of the following words, regardless of how formal or the informal the situation is. |
| Merhaba. |
| (“Hello.”) |
| Günaydın. |
| (“Good morning.”) |
| İyi günler. |
| (“Good day.”) * |
| İyi akşamlar. |
| (“Good evening.”) * |
| If the situation is very informal, you can say: |
| Selam. |
| (“Hi.”) |
| To say goodbye in a formal manner, |
| you can use one of these phrases: |
| Hoşçakalın. |
| (“Goodbye.”) |
| [Literally: “Stay pleasantly.”] |
| Görüşmek üzere. |
| (“See you.”) |
| [Literally: “Hope to see you.”] |
| To say goodbye to someone you’re close with, you can use any of the following words: |
| Bay bay. / Bay. |
| (“Bye bye.” / “Bye.”) |
| Hoşçakal. |
| (“Goodbye.”) |
| [Literally: “Stay pleasantly.”] |
| Görüşürüz. |
| (“See you.”) |
| When you’re ending a phone call, |
| you can use any of these phrases to say goodbye, |
| regardless of how formal or informal the situation is: |
| İyi günler. |
| (“Have a good day.” / |
| Literally: “Good days”) |
| İyi akşamlar. |
| (“Have a good evening.” / |
| Literally: “Good evenings”) |
| İyi geceler. |
| (“Goodnight.” / |
| Literally: “Good nights”) |
| Keep in mind that these phrases aren’t limited to phone calls; you can also use them when saying goodbye in other situations. |
| And here are two phrases you can only use in informal situations: |
| Öptüm. |
| (“I kissed you.”) |
| Öpüyorum. |
| (“I am kissing you.”) |
| These two we say when departing in real life or on the phone but very casual! |
| These are the basics of formality in Turkish. There is not much to talk about. Just one last note before I go. |
| We don’t have Mr. and Mrs. thing in Turkish. Yes, we do have |
| Bay - Mr |
| Bayan - Ms |
| as a word. But we don’t use them much. Instead we use “bey” and “hanım”. |
| The way we use it like this |
| We say the first name then bey or hanım. It is not like in English. |
| In English, you say Ms. / Mr and then the last name Johnson. |
| Let’s give an example: |
| Seda Hanım |
| Mehmet Bey |
| So if you are speaking formally and you need to address the person by name, you need to do it using either Bey or Hanım. |
| So we are done. There is nothing much to say as I said before. This is a relatively easy subject. I hope you understand it very well. Just remember siz is used as a polite version of you. |
| And if you have any questions please leave them below and try to write the sentences like the same sentences formal and an informal way to practice. Okay? I will see you next time. |
| Öpüyorum in a very casual way. Bye. Görüşürüz. |
Comments
Hide