Lesson 10 — Buyurun, alın: asking, wishing and shopping

1Gel! Bak! Telling a friend

Back in Lesson 7 you learned Kendine iyi bak — “take care of yourself” — along with a promise: bak is an order, “look”, and orders would come in Lesson 10. Well, this is Lesson 10. And the news is good: you can already make the most common form. Take the dictionary form from Lesson 4, chop off the -mak or -mek, and that’s it.

And one new word you’ll hear on the street more than any other: Dur! — “stop”, “hang on”. It’s durmak, “to stand, to stop”.

This is the “you” for one person you’re close to — a friend, a child, the cat. It doesn’t sound rude: tone does all the work, and Lesson 3’s lütfen softens anything.

And “don’t” is -ma or -me — the same negative as in Lesson 4’s gelmiyorum, just without the -yor. Listen to the pairs out loud; you can hear the difference at once.

2Buyurun: polite, and to more than one

To one friend it’s gel. To someone you’d be polite with, or to several people at once, you add -ın: gelin. The ending follows harmony — four versions, like Lesson 2’s mı: -ın, -in, -un, -ün. And if the stem ends in a vowel, a y steps in between.

And now for a pleasant discovery: you’ve been saying this form since Lesson 1. Buyurun comes from an old, polite verb, buyurmak — “kindly do”, “please, go ahead”. Lesson 5’s Hoşça kalın is “stay pleasantly”. Lesson 6’s Sağ olun is “be well”. Every one of them is a polite request — you’ve just been taking them whole.

Three verbs with a mind of their own. Gitmek softens its t, as in gidiyorum. And ye and de (from yemek and demek) become yiyin and deyin — Sevim teyze will say it to you about five times over dinner.

The negative is the same -ma/-me, and between it and the ending, the y steps in again. Take the word apart and you’ll see there’s nothing new in it.

There’s an even more official version too, with -ınız. You’ll read it on signs and hear it in announcements — in conversation it sounds like a form from the council.

And finally, last lesson’s debt. There, directions came in -yor: “you go straight on, you turn right”. Now you can give them as orders. People say it both ways — take your pick.

3Kolay gelsin: “let it…”

You can also ask for things about someone who isn’t there: “let him come”, “they can wait”. For him or her it’s -sın, four ways by harmony. For them, -sınlar.

And once again, you’ve been saying it for ages. Lesson 5’s Kolay gelsin is “may it come easy”. Afiyet olsun is “may it be good for you”. Kutlu olsun, from Lesson 7. Olsun — “let it be” — is one of the hardest-working words in the language. Tamam, olsun is “fine, so be it”, for when you can’t be bothered to argue any more.

If you don’t want it, it’s -masın: gelmesin. And the question is just mı after it: Gelsin mi? — “Should he come?”, “Shall I have him come?”

4Hadi gidelim: “let’s”

Two persons left: I and we. For “we” it’s -alım or -elim: gidelim, “let’s go”. Most often with hadi in front — “come on”. And hadi is a rallying cry all by itself: Hadi! — “Come on!”

For “I” it’s -ayım or -eyim: “let me”, “I think I’ll”. Bakayım — “let me have a look”; alayım — “I’ll take it, then”. And with mı you get the question you’ll ask in every shop: Alayım mı? — “Should I get it?”

The negative is the same old -ma/-me, with a y after it: gitmeyelim, “let’s not go”.

Here’s the whole family on one verb. Say both columns out loud — the ear gets used to it faster than the eye. One detail: “you” has no question form. You can’t ask “Shall you take it?” this way — only I, we, he and they.

5At the market: how much?

In Lesson 2, Ayşe haggled with Hakan over apples and asked Bir kilo kaç lira? Today we’re back at the market with a bigger kit — more food, and more ways of asking the price. Say each line out loud, have a go at it — and only then open the translation.

Kaça is kaç plus Lesson 5’s -a: “for how much”. It sounds like the market; in a shop you’ll more likely hear Ne kadar? And Domatesin kilosu is Lesson 8’s izafet, “the tomato’s kilo” — that’s exactly how market prices are called out. Take Ne kadar whole for now, the way you took Kendine iyi bak; kadar gets its own turn later.

A lira is a hundred kuruş. On a supermarket shelf you’ll see 49,90 — that’s kırk dokuz lira doksan kuruş.

And now for what you came for.

Turkish yoğurt is no dessert: it isn’t sweet, and it goes with soup, pilav and börek. And zeytin covers olives of every colour — green or black, one word for all of them.

Kilo you know. Add yarım — “half” — paket, “packet”, and şişe, “bottle”. Gram and litre you’ll recognise anyway. And at the counter the easiest way to ask is the polite form from section 2:

Para üstü is “change” — literally “the top of the money”, with last lesson’s üst. And “your” replaces the -ü exactly as Lesson 8’s rule says: para üstü → para üstünüz.

6Clothes: colour and size

From the market to a clothes shop. Nobody haggles here, but you will be asked three things: what size, what colour, and would you like to try it on.

Now the colours. The pictures can’t help here — every drawing in this course is one colour. But you do have things whose colour everybody knows:

Kahverengi is kahve rengi, “coffee colour” — Lesson 8’s izafet, glued into one word. Siyah and beyaz are the everyday “black” and “white” that turned up last lesson next to kara and ak. For shades, use Lesson 3’s koyu and açık, just like tea: koyu mavi, açık yeşil. And pembe you know from Sevim teyze’s slippers.

A clothes size is beden; a shoe size is numara — Lesson 3’s “number”. To wear, to put on, is giymek. To try on is denemek. And nearly everything the assistant says comes in today’s forms:

8Dialogue: green or blue?

Ayşe needs a jumper. Can has come along, but Can’s football match — maç — kicks off soon, and he fully intends to catch it. The shop assistant is called Selin.

Çabuk ol is “be quick”, so “hurry up”: olmak in the “you” form. And ya da is “or”, when there’s a choice to make.

9Reading

In Lesson 6, Sevim teyze taught Deniz that a plate never goes back to a neighbour empty. It’s been travelling up and down the stairs ever since, and last lesson Efe’s anneanne, Nermin, arrived from İzmir. Today is Tuesday — and on Tuesdays there’s a market in Kadıköy.

Zeytinci, peynirci, balcı, üzümcü — the same -cı as in pazarcı and çaycı: the one selling olives, cheese, honey, grapes. Turkish can make a trader out of anything.

10The lesson’s new words

Everything new from today, in the order it turned up. Gram, litre, kabin and maç aren’t here — you’ll recognise them anyway. Nor are gel or bak: all that’s new about them is the ending.

11Say it yourself

No options here — you build the answer. Read the cue, say it in Turkish out loud, and only then check. Got it wrong? Great — the miss is what sticks. Peeking first doesn’t help: that trains recognising, not speaking.

12Check yourself

Six items: what’s on the stall, how to ask, how to suggest and how to wish someone well. A miss still shows you the right answer, so there’s no shame in guessing.

13Homework

The imperative sticks once you actually use it — so everything below is out loud, ideally at someone. If gelin and gelsin keep swapping at first, don’t worry: for the first few weeks they swap for everyone.