If you are reading this article, congratulations! You can speak Turkish, you can understand it and you want to improve your speaking skills even more! I will be sharing some tips about how to speak Turkish like Turk and what you need to know in order to speak Turkish like a native speaker.
First of all, we can say that the Turkish that is spoken in Turkey has different dialects as in every language. However, this is not exactly what the article is about. I would like to talk about how standard Turkish is used in the streets rather than the way different dialects are spoken.
You can hear different expressions even in any district of any city in Turkey. The discourses and the jargons may also vary. But there is a common street language that you hear no matter where in Turkey.
When you think that you are learning a language according to its rules and you can speak it perfectly, have you ever met someone who speaks that language as a native speaker and you realize that that person does not actually speak perfectly with the grammar rules you learned?
Of course, every language has its own rules, but none of us usually speak by the rules in our daily life. Even if you understand the grammar rules of a language very well, you may not be able to fully understand the local words, abbreviations or slang words used in colloquial language.
Turkish speaking language is very comprehensive. You can easily encounter a different accent or way of speaking in every city. Even a “ne yapıyorsun?” can vary depending on the city or the region you are in, it can simply be “napıyon”!
Are you ready to speak Turkish like your native language? So let’s get started!
Below you will find the differences between written and spoken Turkish.
How to Speak Turkish: Değil mi?
You won’t hear this word “isn’t it in English” as “değil mi?” The colloquial version of “değil mi” is “di mi”. You can even hear it as ”de mi’‘ or ”diğ mi”.
We’ll be out early tomorrow morning, right?
Written Language: Yarın sabah erken çıkarız, değil mi?
Spoken Language: Yarın sabah erken çıkarız, di mi?
You think the same as I do, right?
Written Language: Sen de benim gibi düşünüyorsun, değil mi?
Spoken Language: Sen de benim gibi düşünüyorsun, di mi?
How to Speak Turkish: Present Tense Suffix -yor
When we speak we drop the -r letter in the present tense suffix. ”Ne yapıyorsun?” becomes in colloquial language “ne yapıyosun” or more often ”n’apıyosun”. You can immediately impress the Turks by dropping the ”r”, which is the last letter of the present tense suffix -yor lol.
Where are you coming from like this?
Written Language: Nereden geliyorsun böyle?
Spoken Language: Nereden geliyosun böyle?
If you think I’m sorry, you’re mistaken.
Written Language: Üzüldüğümü sanıyorsan, çok yanılıyorsun.
Spoken Language: Üzüldüğümü sanıyosan, çok yanılıyosun.
Important Note: When you drop the letter ” r ”, remember that the letter after ” r ” should not be a vowel. Otherwise, you will leave the two vowels together and this does not fit the Turkish grammar rules.
I don’t know what I’m doing either.
Written Language: Ne yapıyorum ben de bilmiyorum.
Spoken Language: Ne yapıyorum ben de bilmiyorum.
Wrong: Ne yapıyoum ben de bilmiyoum.
- In Turkish, 2 vowels cannot come together. However, there are words in which two vowels are next to each other and that have been transferred to Turkish from other languages. For example; saat, inşaat, vaaz, vaad, zaaf etc.
How to Speak Turkish: Future Tense Suffix ”-ecek”
The future tense suffix is not read as it is written. For example, if you write ”Birazdan yanına geleceğim” (I’ll be right next to you soon), it is grammarly perfect. But when it is said it does not sound that perfect. Instead, you should say ”Birazdan yanına gelicem” in the spoken language. So gel-eceğim must become gel-icem and gel-eceğiz must become gel-icez.
We can only apply these changes for first and third person pronouns. Other personal pronouns are the same in both written and spoken language.
I will not come home tonight.
Written Language: Bu akşam eve gelmeyeceğim.
Spoken Language: Bu akşam eve gelmicem.
Which hotel will we stay?
Written Language: Hangi otelde kalacağız?
Spoken Language: Hangi otelde kalıcaz?
I’ll be back home tomorrow.
Written Language: Yarın eve döneceğim.
Spoken Language: Yarın eve dönücem.
I will run on the weekends.
Written Language: Hafta sonları koşacağım.
Spoken Language: Hafta sonları koşucaz.
How to Speak Turkish: Ya, Be
We Turks love to add “ya” or “be” to the end of sentences depending on our mood. These two words alone have no meaning, but I can safely say that these words change the meaning of the sentence they are added to, or rather, the feelings.
- Eve ne zaman geliyorsun? (When are you coming home?)
We want to know when you will come home.
- Eve ne zaman geliyorsun ya?
We want to know when you will come home because we either miss you or are curious.
- Eve ne zaman geliyorsun be?
We want to know when you will come home and we are very angry!
- Beni ilgilendirmez. (None of my business, I don’t care)
We think this is not our concern.
- Beni ilgilendirmez ya!
We think this doesn’t concern us and we are a little nervous.
- Beni ilgilendirmez be!
This does not concern us at all and we are very angry.
- Ne? (What?)
Someone called us or asked for something.
- Ne ya?
Probably this is someone we get angry with.
- Ne be?
Probably this someone is someone we hate.
But of course it doesn’t always happen like the examples above. Ya and Be can also be used at the beginning or end of sentences without thinking about any emotions. Some people use it because they have a habit. That’s why you can completely change the meaning of sentences with just the tone of your voice.
How To Speak Turkish: Bana ne, Sana ne, Ona ne, Kime ne
- Bana ne.
None of my business, I don’t care.
- Sana ne.
It’s none of your business.
- Ona ne.
None of her/his business.
- Kime ne.
None of their business.
Even though they are exactly the same as in English, we Turks use these expressions everywhere. Sometimes we just use it for joking. When someone says “sana ne”, don’t immediately feel bad, because the other person may even be flirting with you. Intonation is of great importance in the use of these words.
How to Speak Turkish: Çüş, Yuh, Oha, Vay be
Although these words are some of the most used slang words in Turkish, I still do not recommend you to use them everywhere! You can use them without hesitation while talking with your friends. Even though they all mean “whoa” in English, there are some differences between them in terms of courtesy. If we sort them from the roughest to the most gentle, it would be like this; çüş, oha, yuh.
Vay be is not a slang word, so you can use vay be anywhere and it means ”wow”.
These words usually express anger or confusion.
For instance
- Oha! Gerçekten öyle mi dedi? (Whoa! Did he really say that?)
- Yuh! Biraz yavaş olsana! (Fie! Take it slow!)
- Çüş. Önüne bak! (Woah. Mind your eye!)
- Vay be. Ne zeki çocuk. (Wow. What a smart kid)
How to Speak Turkish: Yani
Yani is one of the most used words in Turkish. It means “so, briefly, in other words, so so”.
- Yani, ben kimseye hiçbir şey söylemedim. (açıklama) I mean, I didn’t say anything to anyone. (explanation)
- Bence güzel kız. (I think she is pretty)
- Yani (güzel sayılır ama çok da değil) So so (nice but not so much)
- Yani , kimler geliyor şimdi? (O halde) So, who’s coming now? (In that case)
- Yani evlenmek istiyorsun. (demek) So you want to get married. (in other words)
- Yani sonuç olarak gitmiyoruz. (kısaca) So, as a result, we’re not going . (briefly)
How to Speak Turkish: Hani
As a Turkish woman I still don’t know what exactly hani means haha. This word can be used almost anywhere in a sentence, but its initial and real meaning is “where?”
- Çıplak bir adam yürüyor sokağın ortasında, gördün mü? (A naked man walks in the middle of the street, did you see?)?
- Hani? (Where?)
“Hani” has 2 different uses in spoken language. It’s used when someone can’t find what to say in between, like “like, you know” in English;
- Hani geçenlerde bir yere gitmiştik, orada bir yemek yemiştik. Hani böyle değişik bir sos hazırlamışlardı. Neydi o? (You know, we went somewhere recently, we had a meal there. Like.. they prepared such a different sauce. What was that?)
The other is used when you want to say something like “well, uhm” in English and also you want to give examples of what you want to say. You can easily replace the “hani” used in this sense with “yani”.
- Hani ben istemedim aramasını da, çok ısrar etti yani. Hani istemediğimden de değil de, bilmiyorum bir süre konuşmasak daha iyi olur. (Well, I didn’t want him to call, but he insisted. Uhm, not because I don’t want to but it’s better not to talk for a while.)
I do not recommend using this word too often. It is really annoying .. But unfortunately people use it very often..
You can listen to the song below to discover the best use of Hani!
I hope that after reading this article, you have grasped the differences between written language and spoken language in Turkish.
You are ready now! Go ahead and reinforce what you have learned by talking to your Turkish friends!
For other articles about learning Turkish, please check here.
If you want to check articles about other languages, click here.
Don’t forget to comment if you have any questions and let me know how your Turkish studies are going!
İyi yolculuklar – Have a good journey!
