Welcome, Kerem Bey! Look: not one draught through that window all winter.
1geldiğini biliyorum: “that” in an ending
How do you say “I know you came”? Turkish doesn’t need a word for this “that”, just as last lesson it needed none for “which”. What it has is -dık with a possessive, which you know already. Last lesson it stood in front of a noun: bulduğum fotoğraf, “the photo I found”. Today there’s no noun: the case goes straight onto the -dık and its possessive, and the whole thing becomes the verb’s object, like any other word. “I know — what? — your coming”:
Geldiğini biliyorum.— I know you came.
The possessive says who came, as it did last lesson: geldiğim is me, geldiğin is you. A name goes into the genitive, like the owner in Kerem’in kitabı; last lesson that gave you belediyenin çektiği fotoğraflar, “the photos the municipality took”. Word for word, it comes out as “I know Kerem’s coming”, with “coming” as a noun:
Kerem’in geldiğini biliyorum.— I know Kerem’s come.
And if there’s no verb — Zehra Hanım toplantıda, Kerem yorgun — olmak takes its place, as olan did last lesson: toplantıda olduğunu, yorgun olduğunu.
Zehra Hanım’ın toplantıda olduğunu biliyor musunuz?— Do you know that Zehra Hanım is in a meeting?
Every person is below, with bilmek. Look at sen and o: geldiğin + -i and geldiği + n + -i come out the same, geldiğini. senin or onun will say who you mean, and more often the conversation does. Hence the lesson’s title: Bildiğini biliyorum is “I know you know”, or “I know she knows”.
ben → geldiğimi biliyorsun— I → you know I came
sen → geldiğini biliyorum— you → I know you came
o → geldiğini biliyorum— he, she → I know he (she) came
biz → geldiğimizi biliyorlar— we → they know we came
siz → geldiğinizi biliyorum— you → I know you came
onlar → geldiklerini biliyorum— they → I know they came
| Last vowel | -dığını | -acağını |
|---|---|---|
| a ı | al → aldığını | al → alacağını |
| e i | ver → verdiğini | ver → vereceğini |
| o u | bul → bulduğunu | bul → bulacağını |
| ö ü | gör → gördüğünü | gör → göreceğini |
As last lesson, after a voiceless consonant d becomes t: yaptığını, gittiğini. “That you’ll come” is the same with -acak: geleceğini. And anlamadığını, like last lesson’s çizdiğim, can be both “that she doesn’t understand” and “that she didn’t”. The negative is -ma before the ending, as ever. Here’s -acak, then two negatives:
Yarın geleceğinizi biliyorum.— I know you’re coming tomorrow.
Toplantıya gelmediğini biliyorum.— I know you didn’t come to the meeting.
Geç kalmayacağını biliyorum.— I know you won’t be late.
2geldiğine sevindim: the verb picks the case
The accusative -ı in geldiğini is there because of bilmek: “know — what?”. Another verb asks for its own case, the same one it would want with any other word. inanmak, “to believe”, wants the dative — sana inanıyorum, “I believe you” — and with -dık that makes -dığına:
Doğru söylediğine inanıyorum.— I believe you’re telling the truth.
sevinmek, “to be glad”, takes the dative too: Meral Hanım’s letter in Lesson 8 had Buna çok sevinir, “He’ll be delighted”. Which gives you something to say to a guest:
Geldiğinize çok sevindim.— I’m so glad you came.
emin, “sure”, isn’t a verb, but it asks for a case just the same: the ablative -dan, bundan eminim, “I’m sure of it”:
Geleceğinden eminim.— I’m sure he’ll come.
And söylemek, görmek, duymak, hatırlamak, unutmak and the new fark etmek, “to notice”, take the accusative, like bilmek:
Kapıyı kapattığımı hatırlıyorum.— I remember shutting the door.
Toplantının yarın olduğunu unuttum!— I forgot the meeting’s tomorrow!
Kerem’in yorgun olduğunu fark ettim.— I noticed Kerem was tired.
One geldiğin- with three verbs and emin, side by side:
bilmek → geldiğini biliyorum— to know → I know you came
inanmak → geldiğine inanıyorum— to believe → I believe you came
sevinmek → geldiğine sevindim— to be glad → I’m glad you came
emin → geldiğinden eminim— sure → I’m sure you came
3kar yağdığını: no -ın
Here, though, the subject has no -ın. The first two examples have var and yok. Last lesson they wouldn’t take endings themselves, and olan and olmayan did their job; here it’s olduğunu and olmadığını. Bahçede eski bir gül ağacı var — and “I know there’s an old rose bush in the garden”:
Bahçede eski bir gül ağacı olduğunu biliyorum.— I know there’s an old rose bush in the garden.
Ofiste hiç çay olmadığını gördüm!— I saw there wasn’t a drop of tea in the office!
Then the weather — kar yağıyor, yağmur yağacak. Here the snow and the rain stay as they are, too:
Sabah kar yağdığını gördüm.— In the morning I saw it was snowing.
Yarın yağmur yağacağını söylüyorlar.— They say it’ll rain tomorrow.
4ne yaptığını biliyorum: a question inside
English keeps these two apart already: “I know you did it” and “I know what you did”. So does Turkish. In the second, the question word ne stays where it was, and the verb takes the same -dık with its possessive and case. Here are both:
Yaptığını biliyorum.— I know you did it.
Ne yaptığını biliyorum.— I know what you did.
It works with any question word: kim, nerede, ne zaman, ne kadar, nasıl. When kim is the subject, it goes into the genitive, like a name: kimin geldiğini. And “asked where” is sormak: who you ask in the dative, what you ask in the accusative.
Kimin geldiğini gördün mü?— Did you see who came?
Kerem’e nerede oturduğunu sordum.— I asked Kerem where he lives.
And last lesson’s Bilen var mı?, “Does anyone know?”, can now say what:
Toplantının ne zaman biteceğini bilen var mı?— Does anyone know when the meeting will finish?
5geleceğini söyledi or gelmemi söyledi: “that” or “to”
Course 1’s Lesson 22 had Gelmeni istiyorum, “I want you to come”, and its Lesson 23 had gelmemi söyledi, “told me to come”: -ma with a possessive. Now söylemek has two ways to pass on what someone said, and the difference between them is “that” against “to”. Three sentences about what Mum said:
Annem “Yarın geleceğim” dedi.— Mum said, “I’ll come tomorrow.”
Annem yarın geleceğini söyledi.— Mum said she’d come tomorrow.
Annem yarın gelmemi söyledi.— Mum told me to come tomorrow.
In the first, Mum speaks for herself, in quotation marks, and the verb is demek. In the second, her words are passed on: “I’ll come” has become “that she’ll come”, geleceğim has become geleceğini, now in the third person. In the third sentence, she told me to come: that’s Course 1 Lesson 23’s -ma. And both passed-on ones use söylemek: demek stays with the quotation marks, as it did there.
If you read English, the “to” is your clue in sentences like these: “said that she’d come” is -acak, “told me to come” is -ma. With bilmek it is so; with istemek you only want it to be:
Defne’nin geleceğini biliyorum.— I know Defne will come.
Defne’nin gelmesini istiyorum.— I want Defne to come.
Just remember -mayı bilmek from Course 1’s Lesson 22: with -ma, bilmek means “can”, “know how to”. Yüzmeyi biliyor musun? is “Can you swim?”, and Yüzdüğünü biliyorum is “I know you swim”.
6Türkiye up close: Kız Kulesi, the Maiden’s Tower
Lesson 10’s street of cumbas and Orhan Bey’s house are both in Üsküdar, on İstanbul’s Asian shore. And in the water off Salacak, Üsküdar too, a tower stands on a tiny islet: Kız Kulesi, the Maiden’s Tower — kız is “girl”, kule “tower”. A lot is told about it, and it’s told in today’s grammar.
The best-known efsane, “legend”, is about a king’s daughter. That’s how the tower’s official site tells it — the site run by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The king was warned, and the site puts it in our construction: kızının yılan sokması nedeniyle öleceği hakkında, “that his daughter would die of a snakebite”. To keep her safe, he built a tower on the rocks off Salacak and put her in it. Her food was sent over in baskets. And one day a snake was hiding in the fruit basket. Told plainly, the beginning goes like this:
Falcı, kızın yılan sokmasından öleceğini söyledi.— The fortune teller said the girl would die of a snakebite.
It has a European name, too: Leander’s Tower. That story, the same site says, was written down by Ovid, and it didn’t happen here at all but at the Dardanelles: every night Leander swam the strait from Abydos to Hero in Sestos. One stormy night the light in the tower went out, Leander lost his way and drowned. In the eighteenth century, European travellers moved the legend onto the İstanbul tower, and that’s how it got its second name.
And one more legend is about letters, like Meral Hanım’s in Lesson 8. The Galata Tower and the Maiden’s Tower fell in love, but the Bosphorus lies between them. For centuries the Galata Tower wrote the Maiden’s Tower letters and poems. One day Ahmet Çelebi climbed the Galata Tower to fly across to Üsküdar, and took the letters with him. Near the shore at Salacak the wind scattered them, but the waves carried the letters to the Maiden’s Tower. That’s when she understood:
Kız Kulesi, Galata Kulesi’nin onu ne kadar sevdiğini anladı.— The Maiden’s Tower understood how much the Galata Tower loved her.
And a story made for Zehra Hanım’s office. In 1944 the tower’s wooden floors and its pointed roof were redone in concrete, the most popular material of the day. The concrete was made with sea sand and shells, and in time it started to damage the tower: the steel inside rusted, and cracks opened up. The Ministry began restoring it in 2021; it was decided to take the concrete out entirely and restore the tower with original, natural materials. The work finished on 11 May 2023, and the tower opened to visitors.
7Dialogue: what if the keeper stops it?
A Saturday evening in April. Zehra Hanım has sent Kerem over to Üsküdar to see how the garden window came through its first winter, and Orhan Bey has kept him for the derby. In Lesson 8, Meral Hanım wrote Kerem a letter: he understands the penalty now, but Orhan mustn’t be told. And he’s to ask a question.
Orhan:
Hoş geldiniz, Kerem Bey! Bakın: bu kış pencereden hiç soğuk girmedi.
Kerem:
Harika! Zehra Hanım’a pencerenin kışı çok iyi geçirdiğini söyleyeceğim.
Great! I’ll tell Zehra Hanım the window came through the winter beautifully.
Meral:
Orhan her sabah çayını orada içiyor, biliyor musunuz?
Orhan has his tea there every morning, you know.
Orhan:
Maç başlıyor! Ben çayları getireyim.
The match is starting! I’ll get the tea.
Meral:
Kerem Bey, mektubumu aldığınızı biliyorum.
Kerem Bey, I know you got my letter.
Kerem:
Aldım, Meral Hanım. Penaltıyı da anladım.
I did, Meral Hanım. And I understood the penalty.
Meral:
Orhan’a anladığınızı söylemeyin. Ama soruyu unutmayın!
Don’t tell Orhan you understand it. But don’t forget the question!
Orhan:
Çaylar geldi! Aa… Penaltı! Penaltı!
Here’s the tea! Oh… Penalty! Penalty!
Orhan:
Kerem Bey, Meral’in otuz yıldır penaltıyı anlamadığını biliyorsunuz.
Kerem Bey, you know Meral hasn’t understood the penalty in thirty years.
Meral:
Anlamayacağımı biliyorsun, Orhan. Ama anlat, dinliyorum.
You know I won’t get it, Orhan. But go on, I’m listening.
Orhan:
Bak: bir oyuncu kendi ceza alanında faul yaptı. Hakem penaltı verdi.
Look: a player fouled in his own penalty area. The referee’s given a penalty.
Orhan:
Top, kaleden on bir metre uzakta. Kalede yalnız kaleci var.
The ball sits eleven metres from the goal. There’s no one in goal but the keeper.
Kerem:
Kaleci topu tutarsa ne olur?
What happens if the keeper stops it?
Orhan:
Kerem Bey… Bu soruyu kimden öğrendiğinizi sormayacağım.
Kerem Bey… I won’t ask who you learnt that question from.
Meral:
Orhan, çaylar soğuyor!
Orhan, the tea’s getting cold!
Kerem:
Gol oldu mu?
Was it a goal?
Orhan:
Bilmiyorum, Kerem Bey. Kimse bakmadı!
No idea, Kerem Bey. Nobody was watching!
aldığınızı, anladığınızı, anlamadığını and öğrendiğinizi are -dık with a possessive and the accusative; anlamayacağımı is the same with -acak. pencerenin … geçirdiğini has the window in the genitive, like Kerem in section 1, and kimden öğrendiğinizi is a question inside a sentence. Orhan, çaylar soğuyor! is word for word what Meral Hanım said in Lesson 7. And now listen to Orhan Bey: Top, kaleden on bir metre uzakta. Kalede yalnız kaleci var — the very words of Meral Hanım’s letter in Lesson 8. You do wonder where she got them.
8Reading
On Monday there’s another letter from Üsküdar at the office. In Lesson 8, when Defne told him one had come, Kerem asked: Orhan Bey’den mi? Eğer yine penaltıysa, ben yokum! — “From Orhan Bey? If it’s the penalty again, count me out!” That one was from Meral Hanım. This one is from Orhan Bey. And yes, it’s the penalty again. Read it through; open a translation only where you’re stuck.
Orhan Bey’den bir mektup
Orhan Bey’s letter — and what he’s known for thirty years.
Sayın Kerem Bey,
Dear Kerem Bey,
Cumartesi akşamı geldiğinize çok sevindik.
We were so glad you came on Saturday evening.
Size bir şey söylemem lazım.
There’s something I need to tell you.
Otuz yıl önce, ilk akşam, Meral’e penaltıyı anlattım.
Thirty years ago, on the very first evening, I explained the penalty to Meral.
Sonra Meral bana bir soru sordu: “Kaleci topu tutarsa ne olur?”
Then Meral asked me a question: “What happens if the keeper stops it?”
Ben cevap vermeden, kendisi cevap verdi: “Gol yok.”
Before I could answer, she answered it herself: “No goal.”
Sonra da “Hiçbir şey anlamadım, Orhan” dedi.
And then she said, “I haven’t understood a thing, Orhan.”
O akşamdan beri Meral’in penaltıyı anladığını biliyorum.
Ever since that evening I’ve known that Meral understands the penalty.
Size mektup yazdığını da biliyorum.
I know she wrote to you, too.
Mektubu postaya ben götürdüm ve zarfta adınızı gördüm.
I took the letter to the post myself, and I saw your name on the envelope.
Cumartesi akşamı sorduğunuz soru da onun sorusuydu.
And the question you asked on Saturday was her question.
Peki neden otuz yıldır her akşam yine anlatıyorum?
So why have I gone on explaining it every evening for thirty years?
Çünkü Meral dinlerken çok mutlu oluyor.
Because Meral’s so happy when she’s listening.
Meral benim bildiğimi bilmiyor.
Meral doesn’t know that I know.
Bilmesini de istemiyorum.
And I don’t want her to.
Sizden bir ricam var: bunu Meral’e söylemeyin.
I have one favour to ask: don’t tell Meral.
Artık iki sırrı da siz biliyorsunuz.
Now you’re the one who knows both secrets.
Saygılarımla,
Kind regards,
Orhan
Orhan
Not: Penaltıyı size bir kere daha anlatmamı ister misiniz? Seve seve anlatırım.
P.S. Would you like me to explain the penalty to you once more? I’d be glad to.
geldiğinize sevindik is the dative, as in Buna çok sevinir. anladığını, yazdığını and bildiğimi are “that”, while sorduğunuz soru is last lesson’s participle in front of a noun. Bilmesini de istemiyorum is Course 1 Lesson 22’s -ma: “that” and “to” in two sentences running. söylemem lazım, “I need to tell you”, is from the same lesson. vermeden is “before I answered”, Course 1 Lesson 24’s -madan. sır is “secret”, and before a vowel it has two rs: sırrı. Seve seve is from Lesson 3, and the Not under the letter is a P.S., like Kerem’s in that lesson.
1When did Orhan Bey find out that Meral understands the penalty?
2How does Orhan Bey know that Meral wrote to Kerem?
3What does Orhan Bey want?
9The lesson’s new words
These are the words the lesson brought in for the first time, in the order you met them. Phrases in -dığını and -acağını aren’t here: you can build those yourself from verbs you know.
New words
- eminsure
- fark etmekto notice
- kuletower
- efsanelegend
- yılansnake
- sokmakto bite, to sting (of a snake, a bee)
- sırsecret
10Say it yourself
Out loud first, then the answer. Each one takes -dık or -acak: ask yourself whose ending goes on it and which case it needs. Getting it wrong and then checking is exactly what this is for.
I know you came
Geldiğini biliyorum.
I’m sure he’ll come
Geleceğinden eminim.
I’m so glad you came
Geldiğinize çok sevindim.
did you see who came?
Kimin geldiğini gördün mü?
Mum said she’d come tomorrow
Annem yarın geleceğini söyledi.
I know she knows
Bildiğini biliyorum.
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: “I know Kerem’s come.”
Kerem’in ? biliyorum.
3Fill in the right word: “I’m sure you’ll come.”
? eminim.
4How do you say “Mum told me to come early”?
5Ne yaptığını biliyorum means…
6Bildiğini biliyorum 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, every person: geldiğimi biliyorsun, geldiğini biliyorum — and on to onlar. Then the same with -acak: geleceğimi…
- Out loud, one geldiğin- with three verbs and emin: geldiğini biliyorum, geldiğine inanıyorum, geldiğine sevindim, geldiğinden eminim. Then the same with bul, anla, gör.
- Pass on this week’s conversations in five or six sentences: who said what, who promised what, who asked you to do what: Annem hafta sonu geleceğini söyledi, Defne bana erken gelmemi söyledi…
- A letter like Orhan Bey’s: a secret you know, though someone doesn’t know you know it — or a small surprise. Five or six sentences with -dığını and one with -masını, ending Saygılarımla or Sevgilerimle.
- A legend from your town or region, in five or six sentences: Efsaneye göre…, … -acağını söyledi, … ne kadar … olduğunu anladı.