LESSON NOTES

Survival Phrases S1 #7
Use English to Your Advantage in
Turkish

CONTENTS
2 Turkish
2 English
2 Vocabulary
3 Sample Sentences
3 Grammar
4 Cultural Insight

# 7
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 TURKISH

1. İngilizce biliyor musunuz?

2. İngilizce biliyor musun?

3. Almanca biliyor musun?

4. Evet, İngilizce biliyorum.

5. Hayır, İngilizce bilmiyorum.

ENGLISH

1. Do you know English? (formal)

2. Do you know English? (informal)

3. Do you know German? (informal)

4. Yes, I do know English.

5. No, I don't know English.

VOCABULARY

Tur kish English C lass

biliyor musunuz do you know (formal) verb

biliyor musun do you know (informal) verb

İngilizce English noun

Almanca German noun

T URKI S HCLAS S 101.COM S URVI VAL PHRAS ES S 1 #7 - US E ENGLI S H T O YOUR ADVANT AGE I N T URKI S H 2
 biliyorum I know verb

bilmiyorum I don't know verb

SAMPLE SENTENCES

Fransızca biliyor musunuz? Almanca biliyor musun?

"Do you know French?" "Do you know German?"

O İngilizce konuşur. Ben İngilizce ve Almanca konuşurum.

"He speaks English." "I speak German and English."

Evet, İngilizce biliyorum. Hayır, Türkçe bilmiyorum.

"Yes, I do know English." "No, I don't know Turkish."

GRAMMAR

In this lesson we'll cover another extremely important phrase: "Do you know English?" Using
this phrase as opposed to speaking English at someone is important for many reasons. For
one, if the party you're speaking to doesn't understand English, at least they'll be able to
understand what you're asking. Furthermore, it shows a lot of respect on your part, because
you've made an effort to learn even a little bit of the language. For these reasons and many
more, we're going to cover this very important phrase.

In Turkish, "Do you know English?" is İngilizce biliyor musunuz?

The first word, İngilizce, means "English." After this comes biliyor, a form of the word for "to
know." The last part, musunuz, makes the sentence a question.

All together, that's İngilizce biliyor musunuz?

The phrase that we just learned is formal. This means you can use it in situations with older
people or with people you don't know.

When you're speaking to young people, it's OK to use informal speech. In that case you will
say İngilizce biliyor musun?

Here we just drop -uz from the last word to get musun. While the difference seems small, it

T URKI S HCLAS S 101.COM S URVI VAL PHRAS ES S 1 #7 - US E ENGLI S H T O YOUR ADVANT AGE I N T URKI S H 3
completely changes the formality level, from formal to casual.

Again, you can use the formal İngilizce biliyor musunuz? with older people or those you don't
know. İngilizce biliyor musun is more direct. Do not use it with people you don't know or with
elders.

Now for a change, let's try a different language: German. "Do you know German?" is Almanca
biliyor musun?

The word for "German" is Almanca. Here, just the word for the language changes; the rest is
the same.

When you ask whether someone speaks another language besides Turkish, you might get
the answer in Turkish. Here are few ways they might answer this question.

"Yes, I know English" would be Evet, İngilizce biliyorum.

The first word, evet, means "yes." After this comes the word for "English," İngilizce, which
we've seen before. Finally, we have biliyorum, which comes from the word for "to know." All
together, that's Evet, İngilizce biliyorum.

This phrase could be made shorter, just by saying "Yes": Evet.

Or by taking out the word for English and just saying saying "Yes, I do know": Evet, biliyorum.

If the answer is negative, Turkish people could say "No, I don't know English": Hayır, İngilizce
bilmiyorum.

The first word, hayır, means "no." Again we have the word for "English," İngilizce. Finally, we
have our form of the word "to know.": bilmiyorum. All together, that's Hayır, İngilizce
bilmiyorum.

Sometimes, people will leave out the word for "English" and just say "I don't": Hayır,
bilmiyorum.

CULTURAL INSIGHT

Quick Tip 1

The number of English speakers in Turkey is quite low. Most people know English but have
no chances to practice it. In tourist areas people can generally speak many languages.
However, you can never go wrong by knowing the local language, so keep studying the
Survival Phrases!

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Quick Tip 2

Turkish people are very aware of the unique language they speak. The roots of the language
can be traced to Central Asia, with the first known written records dating back nearly 1,300
years. So if you learn just a couple of sentences in Turkish, it will definitely be appreciated
and will take you a long way.

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