Turkish Pronouns and Tenses

Itz me again.. if u have not read the previous entry..please do so before u proceed to this entry..

Yup.. as i had mentioned earlier, turkish is a SOV language. The subject is followed by the object and lastly by the verb.

It is definitely a must to look at the pronouns of the turkish language before we move to the tense coz the subject is basically the pronouns so as to speak..

Ben-I
Sen - you (singular)
Siz - you (plural)
O - he/she/it
Biz - We
Onlar - They

There is no distinction in gender in the turkish grammar. If u look above carefully, u will notice that *O* refers to either he, she or it....depending on the context where the word is used.

Fundamentally, the turkish pronouns r used as below:

Ben (I)
I - ben
me - beni
of me - benim
to me - bana
in me - bende
from me - benden

Sen (you-singular)
you - sen
you - seni
of you - senin
to you - sana
in you - sende
from you - senden

Siz (you-plural)
you - siz
you - sizi (depending on the context)
of you - sizin
to you - size
in you - sizde
from you - sizden

O (he/she/it)
he,she,it - o
him,etc - onu
of him,etc - onun
to him, etc - ona
in him,etc - onda
from him,etc - ondan

Biz (we)
we - biz
us - bizi
of us - bizim
to us - bize
in us - bizde
from us - bizden

Onlar (they)
they-onlar
them - onları
of them - onların
to them - onlara
in them - onlarda
from them - onlardan

irregularities:

The usage of *siz* .. the plural *you* can also be used to refer to a singular *you*. This is normally in used to refer to a person in a formal and polite situation.The same goes with *biz* (we).. in a formal interaction, biz will be used to refer to *I* (ben)

Now let us move on to the tenses. In english, we have simple, progressive,perfect and perfect progressive as the tenses group. I am not gonna bother to clasify the turkish tenses in categories. This is not a formal paper.. nor am i a linguist who loves to use jargons n technical terms. We will ignore terms for now.

what i will do is to write illustrations of the tenses. You will try to decide urself how the tenses in this language work. Of course, i will be there to point out something here and there....my way..

The one sentence we will use in these examples is simple:

Subject ( ben,sen,o,biz,siz,onlar)
Object (okul = school)
Verb (git = go ..derived from the word *gitmek)

Illustration One

Ben okula gittim
Sen okula gittin
O okula gitti
Biz okula gittik
Siz okula gittiniz
Onlar okula gittiler

It means...i went ..(i remember)

Illustration Two

Ben okula gitmişim
Sen okula gitmişsin
O okula gitmiş
Biz okula gitmişiz
Siz okula gitmişsinin
Onlar okula gitmişler

It means..I went.. (but i am not sure)

Illustration Three

Ben okula giderim
Sen okula gidersin
O okula gider
Biz okula gideriz
Siz okula gidersiniz
Onlar okula giderler

It means...I go (in general)

Note that the *t* in *git* has become *d*. This is to ensure a smooth flow in the pronounciation. The language is flexible in that sense.

Illustration Four

Ben okula gidiyorum
Sen okula gidiyorsun
O okula gidiyor
Biz okula gidiyoruz
Siz okula gidiyorsunuz
Onlar okula gidiyorlar

It means.. I am going...

Illustration Five

Ben okula gideceğim
Sen okula gideceksin
O okula gidecek
Biz okula gideceğiz
Siz okula gideceksiniz
Onlar okula gidecekler

It means.... I will go..

Notice too that *k* becomes *ğ* in some sentences. Tha tis again to ensure a smooth flow in the pronounciation.

There are also not so common tenses...there r..

gidecektim - i would go
gitmiştim - i have gone
giderdim - i used to go
gidiyordum- i used to go/ i was about to go
gittiydim -i have gone

The tenses.. if u have noticed by now, the change of pronounce (sen, ben, biz, siz, onlara,o) will be followed by the change at the end part of the sentence... the change must be paralel.. u cannot say..

ben okula gittiniz

that is the wong ending match...
it should be..

ben okula gittim

The matching is simple actually.. we just need to get used to the language and everything will come to u quite easily...

THis entry had caused me great distress.. for one, stupid me..i had chosen to ignore my forever correct instinct n not saved this entry bit by bit while writing it.. u can imagine how it must have been for me when just before i finished typing the last word for this entry..the electricity went down... i had to retype this entry again..

For the pronouns part, i had referred to a book given to me by my dad in law..*teach urself turkish* a book i had never really read at all coz of the jargons n too much technical terms... maybe coz the writer is an oxford lecturer..he is too brilliant for me :0)
but for u all.. i did...read that book...without remembering most of the content mind u heheh.phewwww.. i should be proud of myself this time hehehehe

And for the tenses... my beloved hubby..halil... i really really thank him for his explanation on the tenses... he really helped me to understand the tenses much better..(though i doubt i will remember them..n i too will have to look at this entry once again hehehe)

I try to be as less technical as i possibly can...

Thank You for hopping by...Hope to see u again the next time..

Malay Vs Turkish Language (an old Entry)-a New entry to follow suit

Some of you may have missed this entry.. an entry i had written in May 2006. My next entry will be on the tenses (as i had promised *Gab* in my comment section)..so i thought it is only fair if i re enter this one old entry so that u will have a better understanding of the turkish language.

An Overview of the Turkish Language with simple comparison to the Malay Language

Malay and Turkish.Yes. There are a few similarities and differences between the two languages.Malay or Bahasa Melayu first of all is an Austronesian language, once upon a time, was very widely used in the Malay Archepalago. Turkish on the other hand, is from a different language family called Ural-Altaic languages.

When Islam arrived in the Southeast Asia during the 14th century, the Arabic script was adapted to write the Malay Language. In the 17th Century,the Arabic script was replaced by the Latin Alphabet under the influence from the Dutch and British.The Turkish Language also went through almost the same fate.Under the Ottoman Empire,the Arabic script was used.However, when the Republic of Turkey (Turk Cumhuriyet) was formed under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,Latin Alphabet replaced the Arabic script.

The Latin Alphabet for Malay consists of 8 vowel and diphtongs and 28 consonants. They are:

vowels and diphtongs
a e i o u ai au ua

consonants
b c d dz f g h j k kh l m n ny ng ngg
p q r s sy t ts v w x y z

Turkish alphabet consists of 29 letters - 8 vowels and 21 consonants.
-Each letter has exactly one associated sound which never changes
-Three letters of the English alphabet are missing in the Turkish alphabet. They are:

(Q-q)
(W-w)
(X-x)
-There are six additional characters not found in the English alphabet.
(Ç-ç)
(Ğ-ğ)
(I-ı)
(İ-i)
(Ö-ö)
(Ş-ş)
(Ü-ü)

Letter Pronunciation

A, a
like the a in car
B, b
like the b in bet
C, c
like the g in gender
Ç, ç
like the ch in chance
D, d
like the d in debt
E, e
like the e in less
F, f
like the f in felony
G, g
like the g in game
Ğ, ğ
this is a very weak sound, not pronouncing at all will be ok
H, h
like the h in hello
I, ı
like the e in halted
İ, i
like the ee in keen
J, j
like the ge in garage
K, k
like the k in kelly
L, l
like the l in lamb
M, m
like the m in man
N, n
like the n in neighbor
O, o
like the a in ball
Ö, ö
like the u in urge
P, p
like the p in pen
R, r
like the r in rent
S, s
like the s in send
Ş, ş
like the sh in shed
T, t
like the t in tennis
U, u
like the oo in good
Ü, ü
like the u in nude
V, v
like the v in vent
Y, y
like the y in yes
Z, z
like the z in zen

Malay is a SVO language (subject-verb-object).

The basic sentence in Malay is formed with the subject followed by verb and lastly object. For instance;
Saya (subject) makan (verb) nasi (object)
I eat rice

Comparatively,
Turkish is a SOV language (subject-object-verb).

An example of a turkish sentence is:

Ben (subject) seni (object) seviyorum (verb)
I you love

One thing that make Malay and Turkish similar to each other is the vocabulary. Quite a few number of words in turkish are similar to malay. This is due to the fact that these words came from the same root; either persian or arabic words. The words to name a few are:

Malay- Turkish
Askar- asker
Mahkamah- mahkeme
Kitab - kitap
Sabun - sabun

The spelling may be a bit different but in Malay a is usually where the e is used in Turkish.Nonetheless,when the word is pronounced, one can guess the meaning.

Thank You for hopping by...Hope to see u again the next time..