Lesson 12 — Geçmiş olsun! Health, -lı/-sız and ile

1Neyin var? What’s wrong?

Today’s topic isn’t the cheeriest, but it’s one you’d much rather learn now than work out with a temperature. If you feel ill in Türkiye, the first thing you’ll hear is Neyin var? — literally “what have you got?”. Recognise it? It’s Lesson 8’s “I’ve got”, with a question where the sister was: Bir ablam var → Neyin var? A doctor or a stranger will say it the polite way: Neyiniz var?

And you answer the same way — with what you’ve “got”. Ateş is “fire”, and also “a temperature”: English runs a fever, Turkish has a fire. Öksürük is “a cough”; the k softens before the ending, just like Lesson 7’s çocuğum.

Some things you just say about yourself, with Lesson 1’s endings — like Lesson 2’s hasta. Nezle is “a cold”: Nezleyim — “I’ve got a cold”.

To sneeze is hapşırmak, and “atishoo” in Turkish is hapşu. What you say to someone who sneezes you’ve known since Lesson 6: Çok yaşa! — Sen de gör.

And the most important phrase of the lesson: Geçmiş olsun, “may it be behind you”. Olsun is Lesson 10’s “let it be”. Geçmiş is a form we’ll reach in Lesson 18, so for now take the phrase whole. The answer is Sağ ol or Sağ olun — and sağ, as Lesson 6 told you, means “alive, healthy”. It’s a lovely exchange: they say “may it pass”, you say “stay well”.

2Başım ağrıyor: where it hurts

What hurts is the verb ağrımak. It’s always something of yours that hurts, so you take the body part with Lesson 7’s “my” ending and add ağrıyor. That’s it — the sentence is done.

The doctor will ask where it hurts — and that’s nere with the same ending: Neren ağrıyor?, or politely Nereniz ağrıyor? Literally “your where is hurting?”. Odd at first, and very handy.

Lesson 7 gave you göz, el, ağız, burun and alın. Here’s the rest, top to bottom. Three of them behave like ağız → ağzım — the vowel drops out as soon as an ending arrives: boynum, göğsüm, karnım. And Turkish splits two things the way English does: kol is the arm, Lesson 7’s el the hand; bacak is the leg, ayak the foot. Say them out loud while pointing at yourself — it isn’t silly, it works.

The ache itself is ağrı. “Headache” is Lesson 8’s izafet, like doğum günü: baş ağrısı. Toothache is diş ağrısı.

And three phrases that are easiest learned whole. Başım dönüyor — “I feel dizzy”: that’s Lesson 6’s dönmek, your head literally “turning”. Midem bulanıyor — “I feel sick”. Burnum akıyor — “my nose is running”: akmak is “to flow”.

3Şekerli mi, şekersiz mi? -lı and -sız

Since Lesson 1 people in Türkiye have been pouring you tea, and sooner or later someone asks: Şekerli mi? — “with sugar?”. That’s the lesson’s first affix: -lı, “with something, having something”. And here’s the good news: you’ve been saying it for ages. Lesson 2’s tatlı is tat, “taste”, plus -lı. Lesson 6’s heyecanlı and lezzetli are “with excitement” and “with flavour”. It was just hiding inside the words.

Harmony works in four teams, like mı. And the l never changes — not after a hard sound, not after anything. One less thing to think about.

Akıl is “mind, sense”, and akıllı is “clever”. And here’s an everyday one: akıllı telefon — a smartphone, “clever phone”.

-sız is its mirror: “without”. Four teams, just the same: -sız, -siz, -suz, -süz.

Tuz is “salt”. Parasız is “without money” — free. Sessiz is “without sound”, quiet: you know ses from Lesson 9. And the personal endings sit on top, as on any adjective: şanslıyım — “I’m lucky”, with Lesson 7’s şans.

And -sız leads straight to the doctor’s. Rahat is “comfortable, at ease”; rahatsız is “unwell” — the polite way to say you’re not feeling right. The same word hangs on hotel doors: Lütfen rahatsız etmeyin, “please do not disturb”, with Lesson 10’s negative. Hal is “state, strength”; halsiz is “run-down, drained”. Uyku is “sleep”; uykusuz is “short of sleep”.

-lı does one more thing: it says where someone’s from. Nereli? — “from where?”, nere plus -li. The answer is the town with -lı and a personal ending. No apostrophe: it’s not a case ending, it’s a new word. Anneanne Nermin from Lesson 9 is İzmirli.

And one trap. Evli, “with a home”, means “married”. But “not married” isn’t evsiz — evsiz means “homeless”. Single is bekâr.

4Seninle: ile and -la / -le

In Lesson 9 we said iki evin arasında — “between the two houses” — and promised that “between this and that” would come with ile. Here it is. Ile means “with, together with”. It comes after the word, and it’s either written separately — Ayşe ile Can — or grows onto it: Ayşe’yle. Grown on, ile becomes -la or -le, and that brings two bits of good news: just two teams, like -lar, and the l never turns into a t. After a vowel, the familiar y steps in.

With pronouns, ile hooks onto Lesson 7’s “whose” form: benimle, seninle, onunla, bizimle, sizinle. Only onlar goes in plain: onlarla. And “with whom?” is kiminle — kimin plus -le.

Ile is also “with what” and “by what”: tools and transport. “By what?” is neyle. Uçak is a plane.

And between two nouns, ile simply means “and”. Which pays Lesson 9’s debt: “between this and that” is X ile Y arasında.

“Together” is beraber. It likes standing next to ile: Can’la beraber — “together with Can”.

And last — maybe the most useful bit. English has one “with”, Turkish has two. -lı describes a thing: what it has, what kind it is. -la is about doing: with whom, with what, by what. Coffee with milk is sütlü kahve. Coffee with your mum is annemle kahve. And “with you” has a partner, “without you” — that’s -sız: seninle, sensiz.

5At the doctor’s and the pharmacy

Now let’s put it all into one visit. A hospital is a hastane, a pharmacy an eczane. Hear the -ne at the end? That’s hane, “house”, which you met in Lesson 4’s kıraathane. Hastane is “the house of the sick”, eczane “the house of medicines”… and Lesson 6’s pastane is “the house of cakes”. After a vowel, the ha drops out: hasta + hane = hastane.

You book the doctor in advance — a randevu, “an appointment”. And “at what time” you already have from last lesson.

And here’s what the doctor will say. Almost all of it is Lesson 10’s polite imperative. Try to understand each line before you open the translation. Nefes is “breath”, derin is “deep”, önemli is “important” — önem, “importance”, plus -li.

Dinlenmek, “to rest”, looks a lot like Lesson 4’s dinlemek, “to listen”. One n, and the doctor’s advice turns into a request to listen to the doctor. Not bad advice either.

Then off to the pharmacy with your prescription: a reçete. Medicine is ilaç, a pill is hap, syrup is şurup. How many times is kere: günde üç kere, “three times a day” — “a day” is Lesson 2’s locative. A spoon is a kaşık.

And two phrases you’ll certainly get from the box or the pharmacist. Aç karnına — “on a hungry belly”, on an empty stomach: aç is from Lesson 2, and karın becomes karnına, with the n before the case as in masanın altına. Tok karnına — “on a full belly”, after food: you’ve known tok since the very first lesson.

7Dialogue: the pharmacy on duty

Sunday, eleven at night. Deniz is ill and hasn’t a thing in the house. Ayşe is off to the pharmacy — and Can, naturally, goes too. Güneş means “sun”: it’s the pharmacy’s name.

Siz de görün is the polite form of Sen de gör: Can has just sneezed in front of a stranger. Liste, “list”, you’ll recognise anyway.

8Reading

Last lesson the stairs’ plate went off to İzmir with anneanne Nermin, full of börek. Now it’s Monday, and Deniz is in bed with a temperature — the morning after that night at the duty pharmacy. Let’s see who turns up, and with what.

Yatak is a bed. Kapı çalıyor is “the door is ringing” — someone’s at the door. Kase is a bowl, tavuk is chicken, and zaten means “already, anyway”.

9The lesson’s new words

Everything new from today, in the order it turned up. The body parts stay in their own grid further up — they’re more use together. The -lı and -sız words built on roots you know (şekerli, sütsüz, sessiz) aren’t here: you build those yourself now. Doktor, telefon, liste and konser you’ll recognise anyway.

10Say it yourself

No options here — you build the answer. Read the cue, say it in Turkish out loud, and only then check. Mix up -lı and -la? Great: that’s exactly the miss that sorts them out in your head.

11Check yourself

Six items: the body and medicines, what hurts, “with” and “without”, “by what” and “from where”. A miss still shows you the right answer, so there’s no shame in guessing.

12Homework

Today the training kit is you: your body is always to hand. Everything out loud — and don’t worry about looking odd, nobody’s watching.