Morning, everyone. The board’s replied. There’s just one question.
1cumbada oturan kız: “the girl who sits”, in one ending
How do you say “the girl who sits in the cumba”? Turkish has no word here for “who” or “which”. The whole clause shrinks to one ending on the verb and moves in front of the noun: cumbada oturan kız.
Cumbada oturan kız kim?— Who’s the girl sitting in the cumba?
TDK’s dictionary calls a word like this a sıfat-fiil, an “adjective-verb”: it’s made from a verb but does an adjective’s job, like güzel in güzel kız. In English grammar it’s a participle. Add -an or -en to the stem — the last vowel picks which, as with -a / -e. After a vowel the buffer y steps in: oku, okuyan; bekle, bekleyen.
You’ve said one already, last lesson: kar durana kadar. Look closely: durana is duran plus the -a of “up to what” that stands before kadar in akşama kadar. Course 1 Lesson 13’s geçen hafta, the week “that went by”, is one too: geç and -en.
The thing to get used to is the order. oturan comes last in its phrase, right before the noun, and everything that belongs to it — where, with whom, what — goes in front. English says “the girl sitting in the cumba”; Turkish says “in-the-cumba sitting girl”.
Sokakta boza satan adamı tanıyor musun?— Do you know the man who sells boza in the street?
Kapının önünde bekleyen adam kim?— Who’s the man waiting by the door?
gelen can be “that comes” or “that came”: here the rest of the phrase says when, like dün in the first example below. The negative puts -ma / -me in front of the ending: gelmeyen. And any voice will do: Lesson 10’s passive -Il gives “that’s been done”, “that was taken”.
Dün gelen mektup masada.— The letter that came yesterday is on the desk.
Toplantıda telefonunu kapatmayan biri var!— Someone in this meeting hasn’t switched their phone off!
Belediye tarafından çekilen fotoğrafların hepsi yeni.— The photos taken by the municipality are all recent.
| Last vowel | -an | -mayan |
|---|---|---|
| a ı o u | otur → oturan | otur → oturmayan |
| e i ö ü | gel → gelen | gel → gelmeyen |
Two words can’t take the ending: Course 1 Lesson 2’s var and yok. olan and olmayan, from olmak, do their job. Eski fotoğrafı var is “he has an old photo”, and “everyone who has an old photo” is eski fotoğrafı olan herkes:
Eski fotoğrafı olan herkes bize yazsın.— Anyone who has an old photo, write to us.
2yapılacak işler: “that will be”
In Course 1’s Lesson 17 you had gelecek hafta, “next week”, where gelecek literally means “the one that will come”. That’s another participle: the future -acak with no person ending. gelecek misafirler, “the guests who’ll come”; onarılacak cumba, “the cumba that will be repaired”.
Yarın gelecek misafirler için pasta aldım.— I’ve bought a cake for the guests coming tomorrow.
With Lesson 10’s passive -Il it means “that will be done”, which is just what a plan or a list needs:
Bu hafta yapılacak işler listede.— The jobs to be done this week are on the list.
Kurula gönderilecek çizimler hazır mı?— Are the drawings going to the board ready?
Bu, hiç bitmeyecek bir iş!— This is a job that’s never going to end!
Some of these participles have become ordinary words, as Course 1’s Lesson 17 showed you: içecekler, “drinks”, and yiyecek, “food”. And gelecek is “the future” itself: TDK’s dictionary explains it as time that hasn’t come yet and is still to be lived.
Geleceği kimse bilmez.— Nobody knows the future.
3gelenler, yapılacaklar: the participle as a noun
When it’s clear who you mean, the noun after a participle can go, and the participle becomes the noun, endings and all: gelen kişiler, gelenler, “the people who came”; gelenlere, “to those who came”. English does a little of this too: “the living”, “the wounded”.
Gelenlere çay verelim.— Let’s give everyone who’s come some tea.
Toplantıya gelmeyenler kim?— Who didn’t come to the meeting?
A very short, very useful question is Bilen var mı?, literally “is there one who knows?”: “does anyone know?”. -acak works the same way: yapılacaklar, “the things to be done”, and yapılacaklar listesi, a to-do list.
Bilen var mı?— Does anyone know?
Several of Course 1’s lines rest on exactly this. Course 1’s Lesson 21 had the Avanos saying Çanak yapmayana kız vermezler, and you took yapmayana, “to one who doesn’t make”, whole. Now you can see what it’s made of: yap, -ma, -yan, -a. Course 1’s Lesson 26 had Parayı veren düdüğü çalar, where veren is “whoever paid”. And back in Course 1’s Lesson 10 a market trader called out: Seçene değil, seçmeyene kızıyorum! — “I’m not cross with the ones who pick — I’m cross with the ones who don’t!” That’s the same -a as in yapmayana.
Çanak yapmayana kız vermezler.— They won’t give a daughter to a man who doesn’t make pots.
Parayı veren düdüğü çalar.— Whoever paid gets to blow the whistle.
4bulduğum fotoğraf: “the photo I found”
-an works when the noun does the thing itself: the girl sits, the man sells. But “the photo I found”? The photo doesn’t do anything; I found it. That takes -dık, and you know it already: Lesson 7’s başladığımdan beri is -dık with the possessive -ım. Today any noun can follow it:
Bu, dün bulduğum fotoğraf.— This is the photo I found yesterday.
The possessive ending says who found it, as in kitabım: bulduğum is me, bulduğun is you. To name whoever did it, put them in front in the genitive: Sabiha Hanım’ın verdiği zarf, “the envelope Sabiha Hanım gave”. Before a vowel k becomes ğ, softening, as in başladığım. Here’s every person, on bulmak:
ben → bulduğum fotoğraf— I → the photo I found
sen → bulduğun fotoğraf— you → the photo you found
o → bulduğu fotoğraf— he, she → the photo he (she) found
biz → bulduğumuz fotoğraf— we → the photo we found
siz → bulduğunuz fotoğraf— you → the photo you found
onlar → buldukları fotoğraf— they → the photo they found
With onlar the ending -ları starts with a consonant, so k stays k. -dık comes four ways, like the past -dı: -dık, -dik, -duk, -dük, and after a voiceless consonant d becomes t, as in Course 1 Lesson 24’s bittikten: yaptığım, sattığım. For the future it’s -acak, with the same persons: bulacağım fotoğraf, “the photo I’ll find”.
| Last vowel | -dığım | -acağım |
|---|---|---|
| a ı | al → aldığım | al → alacağım |
| e i | ver → verdiğim | ver → vereceğim |
| o u | bul → bulduğum | bul → bulacağım |
| ö ü | gör → gördüğüm | gör → göreceğim |
çizdiğim can be “that I’m drawing” or “that I drew”: in the first two examples below, şu anda and geçen ay decide. çizeceğim, in the third, looks ahead.
Şu anda çizdiğim cephe çok eski.— The façade I’m drawing right now is very old.
Geçen ay çizdiğim cephe kurulda.— The façade I drew last month is with the board.
Çizeceğim cephe beş numaranın cephesi.— The façade I’m going to draw is number 5’s.
And the same trap as last lesson. Yarın bulacağım is “I’ll find it tomorrow”, Course 1 Lesson 17’s future. yarın bulacağım fotoğraf is “the photo I’ll find tomorrow”. One form; the noun after it decides, as zaman did in geleceğim zaman.
Course 1 Lesson 18’s Duyduğuma göre…, “From what I’ve heard…”, is one you took apart back in Lesson 7: duy, -duğ, -um, “what I heard”, with -a göre, “according to”. Now you can settle another of Course 1’s debts. Course 1’s Lesson 19 had the cat: Kedi uzanamadığı ciğere “pis” dermiş. uzanamadığı ciğer is “the liver it can’t reach”: uzan, Course 1 Lesson 21’s “can’t”, -ama, and -dığı, the cat’s.
Duyduğuma göre beş numaranın da cumbası varmış.— From what I’ve heard, number 5 had a cumba too.
Kedi uzanamadığı ciğere “pis” dermiş.— The cat, they say, calls the liver it can’t reach “dirty”.
And like gelenler, -dık and -acak can be nouns too: gördüklerim, “what I saw”; yapacaklarımız, “what we’ve still to do”.
Gördüklerimi sana yazacağım.— I’ll write and tell you everything I saw.
Daha yapacaklarımız var.— We’ve still got things to do.
5gören or gördüğüm: who does it
Now the lesson’s big choice: -an or -dık? Look at this pair:
Beni gören adam selam verdi.— The man who saw me said hello.
Gördüğüm adam selam verdi.— The man I saw said hello.
Ask who does it. If the noun does it itself — the man saw — it’s -an, with no person ending. If someone else does it, and the noun is what they see, where they live or when they come, it’s -dık or -acak, and the ending says who. English gives you a clue: if “who” or “which” goes straight before the verb — “the man who saw me” — it’s -an; if someone else stands between — “the man I saw”, “the house I was born in” — it’s -dık: gördüğüm, doğduğum.
Bu, doğduğum ev.— This is the house I was born in.
Geldiği gün kar yağdı.— It snowed the day he came.
The passive turns the choice round. belediyenin çektiği fotoğraflar: the municipality took them, so it’s -dık with its ending. belediye tarafından çekilen fotoğraflar, “the photos that were taken”: now the photos themselves do the “being taken”, and that’s -an. Same meaning.
belediyenin çektiği fotoğraflar— the photos the municipality took
belediye tarafından çekilen fotoğraflar— the photos taken by the municipality
6Türkiye up close: the muhtar a neighbourhood chooses
In Lesson 10 the office put up a notice in an Üsküdar street, and the neighbours wrote their questions under it. But a neighbourhood like that also has someone of its own, chosen by the people who live there: the muhtar.
TDK’s dictionary defines the word with today’s grammar: o köy veya mahallede oturanların seçtikleri kimse, “the person those who live in that village or neighbourhood choose”, to run the business the law gives it. oturanların is “of those who live”, seçtikleri “whom they choose”. A village has one and so does a city neighbourhood: köy muhtarı, mahalle muhtarı.
The word came from Arabic and, the TDV encyclopaedia says, means “chosen”. But the first muhtars weren’t chosen; they were appointed. They appeared in 1829, in İstanbul and the “three towns” beside it — Üsküdar, Galata and Eyüp — so Üsküdar, where the office is working now, was among the first. Then other cities got muhtars too. The sultan approved each muhtar’s name, and a seal with that name on it, a mühür, was cut at the mint and sent to its muhtar. Today, as the dictionary says, the residents choose.
Since 2015 muhtars have had a day of their own, 19 October, Muhtarlar Günü. And TDK’s dictionary gives the word one more, figurative sense, a participle again: her işe burnunu sokan, “someone who pokes their nose into everything”. That one’s about character, not the job, and it could fit anyone. And here’s one about the job itself:
İyi bir muhtar mahallede oturan herkesi tanır.— A good muhtar knows everyone who lives in the neighbourhood.
7Dialogue: a photo in an envelope
A Monday in early March. A reply has come from the board — the one Kerem was so nervous of in Lesson 3. While everyone’s poring over it, Tolga Bey comes in with an envelope.
Zehra:
Günaydın, arkadaşlar. Kuruldan cevap geldi. Tek bir soru var.
Kerem:
Ne sorusu, Zehra Hanım?
What question, Zehra Hanım?
Zehra:
Beş evin eski hâli. Bu cepheler eskiden nasıldı?
What the five houses used to look like. What were these façades like before?
Zehra:
Kurulun istediği şey eski fotoğraflar.
What the board wants is old photos.
Defne:
Belediyenin çektiği fotoğraflar var, ama hepsi yeni.
There are the photos the municipality took, but they’re all recent.
Defne:
Sokağı en iyi bilen kişi muhtar. Mahallede tanımadığı kimse yok.
The person who knows the street best is the muhtar. There’s nobody in the neighbourhood he doesn’t know.
Kerem:
Ya da sokakta oturan herkese soralım. Eski fotoğrafı olan herkes bir fotoğraf getirsin!
Or let’s ask everyone who lives in the street. Anyone who’s got an old photo should bring it in!
Zehra:
Güzel fikir, Kerem Bey. Muhtarlıkta küçük bir sergi de yapabiliriz.
Good idea, Kerem Bey. We could put on a small exhibition at the muhtar’s office, too.
Tolga:
Günaydın! Eski fotoğraf mı? Bakın: Sabiha Hanım’ın dün akşam bozayla bana verdiği zarf.
Morning! An old photo? Look: the envelope Sabiha Hanım gave me last night with the boza.
Tolga:
İçinde bir fotoğraf var. Arkasında “1986 kışı” yazıyor.
There’s a photo inside. On the back it says “Winter 1986”.
Defne:
Bizim sokak! Karda!
It’s our street! In the snow!
Kerem:
Üç numaranın cumbasında oturan genç kadın kim?
Who’s the young woman sitting in number 3’s cumba?
Tolga:
Sabiha Hanım! Kırk yıl önce de cumbadaymış.
Sabiha Hanım! Turns out she was in the cumba forty years ago too.
Defne:
Ya kapının önünde boza satan genç adam?
And the young man selling boza by the door?
Tolga:
Hayri Bey. Sabiha Hanım’a göre bu, onun ilk kışı.
Hayri Bey. According to Sabiha Hanım, it’s his first winter.
Tolga:
Durun! Beş numaraya bakın. Beş numaranın da cumbası varmış!
Hang on! Look at number 5. Number 5 had a cumba too!
Kerem:
Ama bugün orada cumba yok. Sadece iki pencere var.
But there’s no cumba there now. Just two windows.
Defne:
Cumbada oturan bir kız da var. Bu kız kim?
And there’s a girl sitting in the cumba. Who’s she?
Zehra:
Bilmiyoruz. Ama kurulun istediği fotoğraf bu!
We don’t know. But this is the photo the board wants!
Zehra:
Kerem Bey, yapılacaklar listesine yazın: beş numaraya bir cumba.
Kerem Bey, put it on the to-do list: a cumba for number 5.
Tolga:
Payandaları benden!
The supports are on me!
istediği, çektiği, verdiği and tanımadığı are -dık with a possessive: the board, the municipality, Sabiha Hanım and the muhtar do those. bilen, oturan, olan and satan are -an: the noun does it itself. yapılacaklar listesi is a to-do list. eski hâli is “what they used to look like”: hâl is “state, look”. cumbadaymış and varmış are Course 1 Lesson 18’s -mış, “it turns out”, and Sabiha Hanım’a göre, “according to Sabiha Hanım”, is from the same lesson. And Payandaları benden sounds just like Tolga Bey’s answer under Lesson 10’s notice: Kaleci bizden!
8Reading
Two weeks later. There’s a small exhibition of the street’s old photos at the muhtar’s office, and on the table an anı defteri. TDK’s dictionary explains it as içine anıların yazıldığı defter, “a notebook memories are written in”. The muhtar wrote the first page, the neighbours the rest; the entries in the book start with a dash. Read it through; open a translation only where you’re stuck.
Anı defteri
The book at the exhibition — and who found themselves in it.
Muhtarlıkta küçük bir sergi var: “Sokağımızın eski fotoğrafları”.
There’s a small exhibition at the muhtar’s office: “Old photos of our street”.
Fotoğrafları getirenler, bu sokakta oturan komşular.
The people who brought the photos are the neighbours who live in this street.
Masada bir anı defteri var. İlk sayfayı muhtar yazdı:
There’s a visitors’ book on the table. The muhtar wrote the first page:
— Fotoğraflarda tanıdığınız biri varsa, adını bu deftere yazın.
“If there’s anyone you recognise in the photos, write their name in this book.”
Bilmediğimiz çok şey var. Bilenler yazsın!
“There’s a lot we don’t know. Let those who know write it down!”
Sonraki sayfalarda başka el yazıları var.
On the pages after it there’s other handwriting.
— Üç numaranın önünde boza satan genç adam benim.
“The young man selling boza outside number 3 is me.”
O kış, boza sattığım ilk kıştı.
“That was the first winter I sold boza.”
İmza: Hayri, bozacı.
Signed: Hayri, the bozacı.
— Bakkalın önünde duran adam babam.
“The man standing in front of the shop is my father.”
Bakkal o zaman onundu, şimdi benim.
“The shop was his then; now it’s mine.”
İmza: köşedeki bakkal.
Signed: the grocer on the corner.
Bir sayfada çocuk el yazısı var:
One page is in a child’s handwriting:
— Bu fotoğrafların hepsi çok eski. Ocakta pazar günü oynadığımız maçın fotoğrafı nerede?
“These photos are all really old. Where’s the photo of the match we played that Sunday in January?”
Son sayfada uzun bir yazı var.
On the last page there’s a long entry.
— Beş numaranın cumbasında oturan kız benim.
“The girl sitting in number 5’s cumba is me.”
O ev, doğduğum ev.
“That house is the house I was born in.”
Babam cumbayı doksanlı yıllarda yıktırdı, sonra biz İzmir’e taşındık.
“My father had the cumba pulled down in the nineties, and then we moved to İzmir.”
Bu fotoğrafı bana torunum gönderdi. Sergiyi o gördü.
“My grandson sent me this photo. He was the one who saw the exhibition.”
Otuz yıldır görmediğim cumbam!
“My cumba, that I haven’t seen for thirty years!”
Sergideki notu da okudum: Beş numaraya yine bir cumba yapılacak.
“I read the note at the exhibition, too: number 5 is getting a cumba again.”
Cumbayı yapacağınız gün buradayım.
“The day you build the cumba, I’ll be here.”
İmza: Nevin, İzmir.
Signed: Nevin, İzmir.
Altına muhtar bir satır ekledi:
Underneath, the muhtar added a line:
— Cumbada oturan kızı bulduk. Şimdi sıra cumbada!
“We’ve found the girl in the cumba. Now it’s the cumba’s turn!”
getirenler and bilenler are -an standing in for a noun: “those who brought”, “those who know”. tanıdığınız, bilmediğimiz, sattığım, oynadığımız, doğduğum, görmediğim and yapacağınız are -dık and -acak with a possessive. yıktırdı is Lesson 9’s causative: her father didn’t pull it down himself, he had it done. doksanlı yıllarda is “in the nineties”: doksan with Course 1 Lesson 12’s -lı. otuz yıldır is “for thirty years now”, from Lesson 7. Şimdi sıra cumbada, “now it’s the cumba’s turn”: sıra is “turn”, as last lesson.
1Who’s selling boza outside number 3 in the photo?
2Who’s standing in front of the shop?
3What does Nevin Hanım promise?
9The lesson’s new words
These are the words the lesson brought in for the first time, in the order you met them. Participles in -an, -acak and -dık aren’t here: you can build those yourself from verbs you know.
New words
- sıfat-fiilparticiple
- muhtarmuhtar, the elected head of a village or neighbourhood
- mühürseal, stamp
- hâlstate, look
- muhtarlıkthe muhtar’s office
- sergiexhibition
- anı defterivisitors’ book; a book of memories
- defternotebook
- taşınmakto move (house)
10Say it yourself
Out loud first, then the answer. The first three need -an, the last three -dık and -acak: each time, ask yourself who does it. Getting it wrong and then checking is exactly what this is for.
who’s the man selling boza?
Boza satan adam kim?
anyone who has an old photo, write to us
Eski fotoğrafı olan herkes bize yazsın.
who didn’t come to the meeting?
Toplantıya gelmeyenler kim?
this is the photo I found yesterday
Bu, dün bulduğum fotoğraf.
the house I was born in is in Üsküdar
Doğduğum ev Üsküdar’da.
the day you come, I’ll be at home
Geleceğiniz gün evdeyim.
11Check yourself
Six items. A miss shows you the right answer straight away, and why.
1Match each picture to its word.
2Fill in the right word: “Who’s the girl sitting in the cumba?”
Cumbada ? kız kim?
3How do you say “the photo I found”?
4beni gören adam means…
5Fill in the right word: “The day you build the cumba, I’ll be here.”
Cumbayı ? gün buradayım.
6toplantıya gelmeyenler means…
12Homework
Two to say aloud, three to write. Write by hand or in your phone’s notes, then read it aloud: the ear finds what the eye let through.
- Out loud, both ways: gör, ara, bekle, tanı, sev — each with -an and with -dığım: beni gören, gördüğüm…
- Out loud, every person: bulduğum fotoğraf, bulduğun fotoğraf — and on to onlar. Then the same with -acak.
- Take an old photo — of your family, your yard, your street — and write who’s in it, in five or six sentences: Solda duran kadın annem…
- Your to-do list for the week, Yapılacaklar: five or six items, each saying who asked or who it’s for: annemin istediği kitap, kurula gönderilecek çizimler…
- An entry for a visitors’ book, like the one at the muhtar’s office: what you saw, what you recognised, what you liked best — with -dık: Bu sergide en sevdiğim fotoğraf…