In this lesson, you will learn Turkish language grammar basics ;Vowel Harmony Sentence Structure
Teacher : Orhan HOCA, Turkish Language Teacher
For your online Turkish language learning needs, you can contact with Orhan HOCA via one of his e-mails below;
orhanhoca@outlook.com
orhanbas74@hotmail.com
info@study-turkish.com
2. Orhan Hoca is an English Language teacher and he has been teaching
Turkish language (his mother tongue) for more than 7 years.
As an expeirenced Turkish language teacher, he offers one to one live
online Turkish language lessons. He teaches Turkish language via a
virtual classroom application that gives all the benefits of face to face
lessons such as screen sharing, voiced and video conference.
In his virtual classroom, he makes use of his own Powerpoint classes,
Turkish Language PDF documents, word documents, interactive tests
and so on.
He offers free trial lessons in order to meet his learners and discuss
their personel needs in developing Turkish Language
For further information about his Turkish language services
you can contact him via one of his e-mails below;
orhanhoca@outlook.com.tr
orhanbas74@hotmail.com - info@study-turkish.com
Prepared and Narrated by
ORHAN HOCA, Turkish Language Teacher
3. VOCABULARY
EV
Bir ev
KİTAP
Bir kitap
ADAM
Bir adam
SEPET
Bir sepet
ÖĞRENCİ
HOUSE
a house
BOOK
a book
MAN
a man
BASKET
a basket
STUDENT
a student
orhanhoca@outlook.com.tr
Click to Listen
4. DEFTER
Bir defter
BİR
Bir çocuk
BU
Bu okul
ŞU
Şu adam
O
O masa
VOCABULARY
NOTEBOOK
a notebook
A , AN
A child
THIS
This school
THAT
That man
THAT
That table
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5. GÖZ
Bir göz
SÖZLÜK
Bir sözlük
GÜL
Bir gül
-- DIR (-dır, -dir, -dur, -dür)
O bir okuldur
KALEM
Bir kalem
VOCABULARY
EYE
an eye
DICTIONARY
a dictionary
ROSE
a rose
AM, IS, ARE
That is a school
PENCIL
a pencil
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6. VOWEL HARMONY
Turkish is a suffix based language. The root does not
change but takes suffixes.
The suffixes indicate things like ;
•Verb Tenses
•Personal Pronouns
•Plurals
•Negatives
orhanhoca@outlook.com.tr
7. In this lesson we will look at the ‘ be-
suffix ‘. The English verb ‘ to be ‘can be
translated by the Turkish ‘ olmak ‘.
VOWEL HARMONY
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8. In the third-person singular, the be-suffix may
be –d(t)ir, --d(t)ır, --d(t)ur, --d(t)ür.
Which of these is used follows certain rules “
The Vowel Harmony”.
VOWEL HARMONY
orhanhoca@outlook.com.tr
9. Vowel harmony is one of the most imporant
features of Turkish, unlike anything in English.
It is the character of the eight vowels which
establishes the rules, these eight vowels being
divided into two basic groups:
•The back vowels : a , ı , o , u
•The front vowels : e , i , ö , ü
VOWEL HARMONY
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10. When adding suffixes to roots, the vowels
used in the suffixes are determined by the
last vowel of the root.
If the last vowel of the root is a front
vowel, then all suffix vowels will also be
front vowels , and vice versa.
VOWEL HARMONY
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11. Example :
Masa Masa - dır
last vowel is ‘ a ‘ which is a back vowel. So the
vowel of the suffix also be a back vowel ‘ dır ‘.
Root Suffix
After e or i --dir is used.
After a or ı --dır is used.
After ö or ü --dür is used.
After o or u --dur is used.
VOWEL HARMONY
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12. In the examples below, because the root
words have front vowels ( as the last vowels ),
sufixes also have front vowels.
Ev e i = dir Bu bir evdir.
Öğrenci i i = dir O bir öğrencidir.
Göz ö ü = dür Bu bir gözdür.
Gül ü ü = dür Şu bir güldür.
VOWEL HARMONY
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13. In the examples below, because the root words
have back vowels ( as the last vowels ), sufixes
also use back vowels.
Masa a ı = dır Bu bir masadır.
Kapı ı ı = dır O bir kapıdır.
Salon o u = dur Şu bir salondur.
Okul u u = dur Bu bir okuldur.
VOWEL HARMONY
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14. SENTENCE STRUCTURE
Having looked at Vowel Harmony, Let’s see
basic sentence structure.
Bu bir evdir. This is a house.
Bu This
bir a
ev house
-dir is
As shown above English and Turkish have
different sentence structures.
orhanhoca@outlook.com.tr
15. For example the root word ‘kitap’ ends with ‘p’ so
the –dır suffix becomes –tır.
Kitap Bu bir kitap-tır.
Çocuk O bir çocuk-tur.
Sepet O bir sepet-tir.
Sözlük Şu bir sözlük-tür.
Using ‘ t ‘ instead of ‘ d ‘ in suffixes.
When the root ends in ‘ ç – f – h – k – p – s – ş or t
‘ and the first suffixes begins with ‘ d ‘ , this ‘d’ is
changed into ‘t’.
VOWEL HARMONY
16. SENTENCE STRUCTURE
Let’s study the similarities and the differences
in sentence patterns between Turkish and
English Languages.
orhanhoca@outlook.com.tr
17. 1.In both languages the subject comes at the
beginning of the sentence. Bir ( a,one ) may
come before the noun and after the subject. In
English, however, ‘is’ comes before the object,
whereas in Turkish the verb ( in this example –
dir, the be suffix ) comes after.
Bu bir …. This … a … This is a ….
Bu bir ev… This is a house.
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
orhanhoca@outlook.com.tr
18. www.study-turkish.com
VOWEL HARMONY
2. Turkish sentences take -dır, -dir, -dur, -dür
according to vowel harmony.
Bu bir evdir
Bu bir öğrencidir.
Bu bir gözdür.
Bu bir güldür.
Bu bir masadır.
Bu bir kapıdır.
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
This is a house.
This is a student.
This is an eye.
This is a rose.
This is a table.
This is a door.orhanhoca@outlook.com.tr
19. Bu bir salondur.
Bu bir okuldur.
Bu bir kitaptır.
Bu bir sepettir.
Bu bir cocuktur.
Bu bir sözlüktür.
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
This is a hall.
This is a school.
This is a book.
This is a basket.
This is a child.
This is a dictionary.
orhanhoca@outlook.com.tr
20. BU – ŞU - O
In Turkish to talk about nearby things, bu (this)
is used, and for far away things şu or o (that)
are used.
Bu bir defterdir.
Şu ( O ) bir kedidir.
O ( Şu ) bir kalemdir.
Bu bir öğrencidir.
Şu ( O ) bir sepettir.
Bu bir güldür.
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
This is a notebook.
That is a cat.
That is a pencil.
This is a student.
That is a basket.
This is a rose
orhanhoca@outlook.com.tr
22. Orhan Hoca is an English Language teacher and he has been teaching
Turkish language (his mother tongue) for more than 7 years.
As an expeirenced Turkish language teacher, he offers one to one live
online Turkish language lessons. He teaches Turkish language via a
virtual classroom application that gives all the benefits of face to face
lessons such as screen sharing, voiced and video conference.
In his virtual classroom, he makes use of his own Powerpoint classes,
Turkish Language PDF documents, word documents, interactive tests
and so on.
He offers free trial lessons in order to meet his learners and discuss
their personel needs in developing Turkish Language
For further information about his Turkish language services
you can contact him via one of his e-mails below;
orhanhoca@outlook.com.tr
orhanbas74@hotmail.com - info@study-turkish.com
Prepared and Narrated by
ORHAN HOCA, Turkish Language Teacher