Learn Turkish online. The best textbooks for learning Turkish - self-study for beginners

Those who have been to Turkey probably know that almost all major hotels and retail outlets have English or Russian speaking staff. Therefore, during the rest and buying souvenirs, there should not be any discomfort. However, the tourist must have at least a minimal set of Turkish expressions in their vocabulary.

Why does a tourist need to know Turkish?

If you want to not only sunbathe and swim in the warm sea, but also get to know the culture and peculiarities of the country, you certainly need to know the Turkish language at least to a minimum extent. Basics for a tourist includes not so much information that will allow you to communicate with the local population.

Another factor that speaks in favor of the need to take a Turkish language course is that unforeseen situations may arise during the trip. Faced with the staff of hospitals, police or other services, you are unlikely to meet a person who is sufficiently fluent in English, and even more so in Russian.

Features of the Turkish language

First you need to figure out what Aze is for a tourist, it may seem quite complicated, but this is only at first glance. The thing is that in terms of grammar it is very different from Russian. Also, pronunciation can cause some difficulties. So, we can distinguish the following features of the Turkish language that will be useful to tourists:

in 90% of cases, the stress falls on the last syllable;
most of the concepts associated with scientific and technological progress, are borrowed, so they do not cause difficulties in understanding;
Turkish speech is filled with many set expressions, which are associated with traditions of politeness, superstition and religion;
no matter how long the sentence is, the predicate is always put at the end;
Turks often break the rules of syntax when it comes to emotional speech or poetry;
despite the fact that the alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, some letters can cause difficulties for the tourist. Here is some of them:

How to learn Turkish?

Of course, it is simply impossible to learn Turkish in a short time. The basics for a tourist include a minimum set of rules and words that will allow him to at least superficially communicate with the local population. In this case, you can go in several ways:

take a Turkish language course at a language center or school (this is one of best options giving the fastest results)
hire a tutor or take lessons via Skype;
study with the help of a self-instruction manual, as well as materials posted on the Internet.

Whatever method you choose, it is important to proceed from the purpose for which you are learning Turkish. The basics for a tourist should include elementary basics that will allow you to speak politely and competently in the most common life situations.

How to understand Turkish by ear?

Communication involves not only speech, but also auditory perception. It is not so easy to understand any foreign language, and even more so Turkish. To learn how to parse fluent speech, theoretical knowledge alone is not enough. You need to use additional tricks:

Listen to songs in Turkish. And do not just listen, but try to recognize and translate individual words and sentences. If the task turned out to be too much for you, find the lyrics of the song on the Internet and read it while listening to the song.
Watch Turkish films. Thanks to them, you will not only learn to perceive speech by ear, but also get acquainted with its main intonations. Ideally, you need to use the video without translation (in extreme cases, with subtitles).

Sign language

One of the most mysterious countries is Turkey. it is very important for tourists to know so as not to get into an awkward or even conflict situation. Here are the highlights:

A thumbs up signifies approval. But it's better for girls not to use it, and even more so - not to catch a car in this way. Such a gesture can be misinterpreted by hot Turkish men.
Do not use if you wish good luck. The Turk might think that you don't want to continue the conversation.
A clenched fist with an outstretched little finger symbolizes resentment towards a person.
If the Turk pulls the lower eyelid with his finger, this means that he noticed the deception. This is a kind of distrust.
Never use the "OK" gesture. In Turkey, it is associated with homosexuality.
"Dulya", which in our country is considered a fairly harmless gesture, in Turkey is equated to a raised middle finger.
Nodding your head means denial.

Sign language is quite insidious, so if you don't know their meaning thoroughly, it's best to be as discreet as possible.

Some common phrases

Going on a trip, many take a Russian-Turkish phrasebook with them. For a tourist, this is an important acquisition, but you also need to learn the most popular phrases in Turkish:

This, of course, is not all the words necessary for a tourist. Start small, and the Turkish language will definitely give in to you!

Turkish from scratch can be learned quickly with Turkish lessons for beginners. To realize your potential in various areas (travel, business, education, etc.) in the wonderful country of Turkey, you just need to learn the Turkish language, which has been attracting people from all over the world since ancient times. Now, millions are already fluent in Turkish, which is in the forefront in terms of the number of speakers among other Turkic languages.

Learn Turkish from scratch

Today it is not difficult to learn Turkish from scratch in any convenient location with help the latest technologies presented on the web and on mobile devices. Distance learning has advantages, providing a chance to gain knowledge anywhere in the world, with different social status and employment at work.

Turkish for beginners is educational special materials that help you get comfortable with Turkish pronunciation and facilitate communication in everyday situations (hotel, airport, shop, restaurant, etc.). On various sites you can find online materials for learning Turkish from scratch.

How to learn Turkish from scratch

To comprehend this difficult language, you need to learn the basics of grammar, grammatical constructions and understand exactly how to practice, typing "your" vocabulary. Exclusive materials will not only help you learn a language and not lose interest in this process, but will also push you to comprehend other languages later. And speaking practice will become a real exam and the final practical result of training.

There are many Turkish tutorials for beginners. For example, the tutorial Sidorina N.P. for beginners from scratch without a tutor will allow you to check your knowledge with the help of various tasks, checking yourself with answers. With the help of educational materials (films, audio books, dictionaries, television, voice engines (speech synthesizers, speech synthesizer programs), computer programs), you can not only expand your vocabulary, but also learn a lot about Turkish culture, customs and customs.

Learn Turkish for Beginners with Audio

It is very productive to learn Turkish from audio recordings (audio tutorials, audio literature, audio classes, audio courses), when there is an excellent understanding and assimilation of letter combinations and correct pronunciation. All you need is a music player and headphones. Despite the simplicity of the lessons provided, the Turkish language is not easy to master. We do not shelve. We learn Turkish from scratch and set off to fulfill our plans and opportunities! Good luck!

A selection of useful sites for learning the Turkish language. Save yourself so as not to lose!

turkishclass.com. Free English site for learning Turkish. Turkish lessons include sections: pronunciation, vocabulary, chat, stories, poetry, site rules and contacts. The site is convenient for vocabulary training. In addition, there is a lot of information about Turkey, photographs, detailed reports of students and travelers, essays and essays. The user must go through authorization, and then select a lesson from one of the teachers on the desired topic. There is both theoretical material and homework to the lesson. The site will be interesting not only for students, but also for teachers. After authorization, the teacher can post his version of the lesson.
turkishclass101.com. Free English site. The material is divided into levels - from zero to intermediate. The menu contains the following sections "Audio lessons", "Video lessons" for pronunciation training, a dictionary for vocabulary. There is a support service and user manual. It is possible to take notes in a special form during the lesson. Lessons in PDF can be downloaded. There are iPhone, iPad, Android Apps free apps. Content is divided into free and paid. Authorization is required to work with the site. Quick user registration is available.
umich.edu. English site. The University of Michigan has prepared a selection of electronic lessons, textbooks, tests, training exercises, here you will also find literary works and reference materials. You can download audio and video files that are used in different universities around the world when learning the Turkish language. There are a lot of materials, there is content for learning old Turkish.
sites.google.com . An English-language site that contains theoretical information on the grammar of the Turkish language. There is an interesting application that conjugates Turkish verbs.
lingust.ru. Free Russian-language site, suitable for beginners and beginners. The theoretical material is arranged by lessons, which makes it easier to find the right topic. There are no training exercises, but there is audio support and lessons from Voice of Turkey Radio (TRT-World).
cls.arizona.edu. An English-language online textbook developed by the University of Arizona for learning Turkish from beginner to advanced level. After authorization, the user works with DVD lessons, after each video there is a training exercise on grammar topics, pronunciation or listening comprehension.
book2.de. English and German site. Simple and user friendly interface. You can use the main services of the site for free and without authorization. The main sections are vocabulary, an example of pronunciation, flash cards to consolidate vocabulary, you can download audio for free for work. There is an iPhone App and an Android App . The textbook can be purchased. Suitable as an additional material.
internetpolyglot.com. Free site, Russian-language version of the menu is available. It is an interesting and convenient additional tool in language learning. The site offers to memorize words and expressions by performing vocabulary games. There is a demo version. Authorization will help you track your success, and will allow you to post your materials on the site.
languagecourse.net. A free website for learning Turkish with an intuitive interface, suitable for practicing vocabulary. Ukrainian- and Russian-language versions of the site are available. suitable for vocabulary training. Levels from beginner to advanced. You can choose the desired topic for training - work, travel, transportation, hotel, business, romance / date, etc. upon registration, success is tracked and study results are saved. Educational material is available for download and work on a PC. The service also offers to buy a language trip to the country or pay for a course at a language school anywhere in the world.
franklang.ru. Russian-language free site, extremely easy to use. It contains a lot of useful information - Turkish textbooks in PDF, a library of texts in Turkish, Turkish via Skype with teachers from I. Frank's school, texts for reading according to the method of I. Frank and useful links to Turkish channels, radio stations, series.
www.tdk.gov.tr. Free Turkish website where you will find different types dictionaries, publications of Turkish bloggers and an online library of works of various genres.
www.w2mem.com. A free site with a Russian menu, but before you start you need to log in. A very simple interface. The site was created for practicing vocabulary - you compile your own vocabulary, and then consolidate your knowledge by completing tests.
languages-study. A free site that contains links to services that allow you to learn the Turkish language from all aspects - grammar, aphorisms, poems, crossword puzzles, various types of dictionaries.
seslisozluk.net. Free Turkish online dictionary. Working languages are Russian, Turkish, German, English. Services that are provided for by the rules for using the site - translation and decoding of words and expressions, text editor, correspondence, pronunciation. The site offers training exercises in the form of online games to consolidate vocabulary.
onlinekitapoku.com. Free Turkish site where you will find books, reviews, reviews, information about the author. Quick search available. The site contains e-books and audio books of various genres.
hakikatkitabevi.com. A free Turkish site where you can find and download audio books in Turkish for free.
ebookinndir.blogspot.com. A free resource where you can download books in Turkish in PDF format in various genres.
www.zaman.com.tr. The site of a daily Turkish online newspaper, the main headings of the publication are politics, sports, economics, culture, blogs of public and political figures, video reports.
resmigazete.gov.tr. The site of the Turkish online legal newspaper that publishes laws and bills, legislative acts and other legal documents.
evrensel.net. Turkish newspaper official website. Lots of headings, reviews and applications.
filmifullize.com. Free Turkish site where you can watch or download movies with Turkish translation or dubbing. Each video has short description plot. In addition, a reviews section is available.

But if a person has other priorities, if he wants to communicate with those who interest him, then no one will wait for someone to learn Russian in order to allow him to communicate with him.

This is where motivation comes in, the main engine of successful learning. Those who are going to Turkey to work, for permanent residence, or simply to cooperate with one of the Turkish firms, do not need to be convinced. They themselves want. And this is one of the strongest motivations.

No less important is motivation - self-development. Very well reveals its meaning Chekhov's expression that a person is as many times a person as he knows languages. Convincing, isn't it? Each language represents a country with its traditions, worldview, culture and rules. Realizing and studying this, a person touches the past of another country, making his present spiritually richer and brighter.

What is important, a person studying another language trains memory, brain activity increases, its aging slows down, and intelligence increases. But where to start learning Turkish for someone who cannot different reasons study it with a tutor or in courses? The tips below will help you get started.

The earlier the better. Many of those who are going on a trip/work/permanent residence to Turkey think that they will be able to learn the language on the spot. This is a profound delusion: none of the locals will explain the rules of grammar, teach how to use words and many other subtleties of the language.

Therefore, it is best to start learning the language at home, before the trip. In 2-4 months, you can learn about half a thousand phrases, which are the most common. So it’s best not to waste time now, because later the language will still need to be learned and no one knows what circumstances a person who does not understand at all what his interlocutors are talking about can get into.

As the Turks themselves say - fill your ears. But you can not only ears, but also eyes, memory, consciousness. This means that you need to surround yourself to the maximum with the Turkish language. Books, audio and video recordings, movies, songs are the best things to watch/listen to in Turkish. At first, of course, only films with subtitles, songs of your favorite singers are desirable. But as some words, phrases are already clear, you can add audio recordings.

Reading, listening, communication are the three main components of the successful study of not only Turkish, but also any other foreign language. One letter and reading is not enough. It is necessary to speak this language. The best way is to find a native Turkish speaker on the Internet and start communicating with him.

Experts also recommend doing the following: print the text of any audio recording you like and, when playing it, pronounce the text along with the announcer. At the same time, you need to follow what is written in the printout, with what intonation the announcer pronounces each word. Then, after several listenings, you can already pronounce the text with the announcer. This is how pronunciation is developed, and words / phrases are better remembered, since visual and auditory memory is involved.

Translation. Strange as it may sound, even a beginner can do translation. You just need to choose the book (story, fairy tale) that you like. Then the translation will go easier and be interesting than the text that you don’t like. Of course, it is not worth translating the whole book at once - this will not work right away, and it will be burdensome. But for 15 minutes every day, but only - every day, you definitely need to do it.

No one can explain this phenomenon, but when translating words are remembered best. And this technique will help to understand how much you managed to learn the language. To do this, you need to translate the translated text back into the original language (you should not peek into it) and then compare both texts. Of course, at first it’s not worth waiting for the texts to coincide, but as you learn the language, there will be less and less discrepancies.

In many ways, it is extremely logical, consistent and understandable, despite the fact that it differs significantly from the system of European languages that we are used to and therefore at first glance it seems frighteningly confusing. Today we will analyze those aspects of Turkish that are easiest for those who start from the "zero" level, and show you how to make your life easier in mastering Turkish.

Turkish Beginner's Guide

I spent several days looking through textbooks and manuals in terms of understandability for someone who is learning a language from scratch, and I realized that, undoubtedly, the best option will be "Colloquial Turkish: The Complete Course for Beginners" (authors - Ad Backus and Jeroen Aarssen).

In this textbook, the most necessary grammar and basic vocabulary in all areas and topics is given in a logical sequence, which allows you to read full-fledged original passages in Turkish after the first chapters. In addition, the focus is on exactly as opposed to the formal "academic" version of the language.

This manual does not repeat the answers and translations of what has already been once explained or analyzed, which encourages us to turn to the information already studied and assimilated.

Reading Turkish is very easy

The first thing to note is that Turkish is a phonetic language and modern Turkish uses the Latin alphabet. Prior to the Atatürk Revolution and the reform of 1928, during which the Latin alphabet was adapted to the Turkish pronunciation of sounds, the Turkish language used the Arabic alphabet.

So, in Turkish, each letter corresponds to one sound, there are no consonant combinations (such as sh, ch, ght), so each letter is pronounced separately. The pronunciation generally corresponds to what you see in the written text, with the following exceptions:

- c pronounced like English j (j am), so the word sadece(only, just) is pronounced like sah-deh-jeh.

- ç pronounced like English ch (ch arge), do not confuse with French ç , which is pronounced like s.

- ğ - unpronounceable letter (lengthens the previous vowel sound)

- ş pronounced like English sh .

- ı - looks like i without a dot. It is confusing that in Turkish capital letters ı is I (like capital I in English), but capital Turkish I- this is İ , so that the city where all the tourists end up is not I stanbul (Istanbul), and İ stanbul. ı pronounced as a neutral vowel.

Umlauts ö/ü pronounced like in German.

Knowing these rules and exceptions, you will already be able to read something in Turkish, although be prepared for the fact that the locals may pronounce the words a little differently. For example, I found that the letter "e" in words was pronounced by many as "a".

Many Turkish words you already know

I was very happy to find many familiar words in Turkish that I recognized instantly. As with all languages, you tend to start with a thousand-word base before you even start learning the language. Turkish has borrowed many trademarks and technological terms from English, like most other languages.

But much more curious, I found that Turkish has a huge number of loanwords from other languages, the most surprising (and useful for me) is borrowing from French. One source I found states that there are approximately 5,000 words in Turkish that come from French. For comparison, 6500 words come from Arabic, 1400 from Persian, about 600 come from Italian, 400 from Greek and about 150 from Latin. In many cases, the borrowing has a Turkish counterpart, which is considered more preferable in everyday communication, but in some cases the borrowed word is the only designation of a word or concept, and sometimes both words are used (as Sehir and kent for "city", where Sehir is a non-Turkish word).

Loanwords that I have personally encountered include kuaför, şans, büfe, lise (lycee), bulvar, asensör, aksesuar, kartuş, ekselans, sal …and I'm sure there are many more. Of course, they are sometimes difficult to recognize, because they are written according to the rules of Turkish transcription, but when pronounced, they are very similar to French words (although they do not have French nasal sounds). Even if you don't speak French, you will certainly recognize many of these words, since many of them are well-acquainted in English as well.

It's funny that I even learned the Spanish word banyo in Turkish!

As for the vocabulary, which is unique and native to Turkish, it can be picked up surprisingly quickly if you just apply effective methods memorization by or download a selection of basic vocabulary, upload it to the application for memorizing and practicing words and run it regularly to get used to new combinations of sounds as quickly as possible. The roots of words in Turkish, as a rule, are short, which makes them even easier to remember and then decipher more complex derivative words based on them.

Suffixes will help you in expanding your active vocabulary

Returning to derived words, it is important to note that a key skill in expanding the vocabulary will be understanding how the structure of the word is arranged and how the language “works”. In this regard, vocabulary and grammar are quite closely related to each other: you will not be able to look up most words in the dictionary as they are written in the text, but if you know the basic grammatical structures, you will immediately determine the root of the word and be able to look up its meaning in the dictionary.

One of the most quick ways expand your vocabulary - memorize standard suffixes. Many of them perform important functions: turning nouns into adjectives (or vice versa) or verbs (infinitives end in -mek/-mak), or the designation of a person who belongs to a particular profession, for example, using suffixes -ci/-ci (ogrenci– student from the verb oğrenmek- to study).

Another important suffix is the possessive form suffix. You will encounter it everywhere, so learn to recognize it. For example, Istiklal is the name of the main street/avenue, or cadde, next to which I lived, so the street is called Istiklal caddesi. Suffix -si here reflects the meaning of possessiveness, and the word Istiklal means "independence". (Consider an English example: it turns out that in Turkish they prefer to say Avenue of independence, but not independence avenue). In the same way, the names of all universities (üniversite) in the city have university si .

Thus, Turkish suffixes express those meanings that in other languages would be conveyed by separate words, for example, prepositions.

Another important observation regarding all suffixes and words in general: the laws of vowel harmony, which you just have to get used to. I also encountered this in Hungarian, but in other languages this phenomenon is practically not found, so it is necessary to accustom yourself to a completely different way of thinking. Like many other aspects of Turkish, vowel harmony is simpler than it looks, but takes time to develop the habit of lining up vowels in a certain order. By the way, at the initial stage in a conversation you will still make mistakes, but in most cases people will still understand you.

Put words and sentences together like a puzzle

One point that requires some "restructuring" of thinking with a focus on the Turkish language is that the usual verbs "to be" or "to have" in Turkish simply do not exist. This may sound absurd, but with a little getting used to saying "my car exists" instead of "I have a car", you will understand what's what.

Another "weird" aspect of Turkish is word order. For example, verbs tend to come at the end of a sentence. So you say: Turkce öğreniyorum- "I'm learning Turkish." In my opinion, this is even more logical than in English, because what you study is more important than what you study it. It is very important to remember that languages differ in the way they "process" information, and not to panic if something in a language does not fit into our usual way of thinking.

One has only to think about some constructions and realize how they work, and they will become logical and obvious. For example:

Nerelisin(iz) means "Where are you from?" Let's break it down in parts: Ne-re-li-sin(iz): -sin= you -siniz= you (polite/plural) -li= from, place suffix, -ne= what (or just nere= where). Since there is no verb to be, the meaning of the phrase is made up of separate significant components of the word.

The same is true for the word nereye, which means "Where?" ( nere+ e (to) and letter "at" to separate two vowels).

Grammar will seem extremely logical to you

How it happened to me. The language has so few exceptions, and conjugation and word formation are so consistent, that the grammar system is very easy to get used to: the simple past tense, two present tenses (one is similar to the English continuous tense and the other is the standard present tense), the future tense, and so on.

One example of the formation of the present tense using the ending -er there will be a verb donmek(turn), which in the form of the third person singular sounds familiar to everyone doner.

Yes, there is a difference with English or Russian, but based on my experience of learning other languages, Turkish has far fewer exceptions and absolutely unimaginable and illogical constructions.

In addition, Turkish has no grammatical gender, definite or indefinite articles, and no irregular shapes plural (in some cases you don't even need to add a plural suffix -ler/-lar, if the meaning of the plural is clear from the context, for example, when used with a numeral).

The only case that can cause you some problems at the beginning is the accusative, which has already rattled me a lot of nerves in German. If the very idea of the accusative confuses you, then I highly recommend that you study Esperanto for at least a few weeks: the use of the accusative in Esperanto helped me understand it better than any theoretical explanations in Turkish or German, and besides, it is almost the only "difficult » to understand grammatical construction throughout the language.

Using ĉu in Esperanto also helped me intuitively understand the suffix/particle question mi/mI/mu in Turkish. This particle is added to questions that require a simple yes/no answer (in English we would just show this difference with intonation). It's actually very easy to understand, but not easy to get used to, so learning this phenomenon first in a simpler language can really give you a boost in understanding.

For example, the word calIssIyor means "it works", and calışıyor mu? - "she works?"