Lesson 36 © Turkish Tea Time

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This Party is Too Crowded Made with love.
Join us for today's plural party at Turkish Tea Time. We'll be serving rakı,
börek, and a huge party plate of -ler's and -lar's.

Plurals (ler). Noobie

Dialog

1 | Demet Alo? Merhaba Burcu. Parti nasıl?

2 | Burcu Merhaba canım. Parti kalabalık. Çok öğrenci var.

3 | Demet Öğrenciler mi? Yabancılar var mı?

4 | Burcu Birkaç yabancı var galiba.

5 | Demet Fransız erkekler var mı?

6 | Burcu Evet. Üç Fransız adam var burada. Hadi gel!

7 | Demet Ay, Fransızlar çok tatlı. Geliyorum.

Dialog Translation

1 | Demet Hello? Hi Burcu. How's the party?

2 | Burcu Hello my dear. The party is crowded. There are a lot of students.

3 | Demet Students? Are there foreigners?

 4 | Burcu I'd guess there are several foreigners.

5 | Demet Are there any French boys?

6 | Burcu Yes. There are three French men right here. Hurry - come!

7 | Demet Ay, French guys are so cute. I'm coming.

Language Points

Plurals

Plurality is expressed in Turkish with the suffix -ler. This suffix follows e-type vowel harmony so can take one other
form: -lar. To make a word plural, simply add -ler or -lar to the end of the word.

Kediler. (kedi)
Cats

Adamlar. (adam)
Men.

Gözler. (göz)
Eyes

Kızlar. (kız)
Women.

When Not to Use the Plural Suffix

You don't use plurals in Turkish in all the same instances that you do in English. In particular, if a word is ever
preceded by another word that indicates plurality, you don't use -ler. For example, in Turkish, you say üç kedi
(three cat), not üç kediler (three cats). This isn't that strange - we already know that the word kedi is plural from
the number three. The -ler would be redundant. Besides numbers, other commons cases are quantitative
adjecives like çok (a lot), birkaç (a few), and the question word kaç (how many) - don't add -ler when using these
words.
 Dört kedi var.
There are four cats.

Çok kedi yok.

There aren't a lot of cats.

Birkaç köpek var.

There are a few dogs.

Kaç insan var burada?

How many people are there?

Nasıl

You probably already recognize nasıl from the word nasılsın (how are you). Nasıl by itself means how and can be
used to ask about things in the same way as in English: how is it going?, how is the food, etc. Simply add nasıl
after whater you want to ask about.

Rakı nasıl?
How do you find the rakı?

Kız kardeşin nasıl?

How is your sister?

Bu sabah koşun nasıldı?

How was your run this morning? (past tense)

Vocabulary

tatlı sweet

kalabalık crowded

galiba presumably
parti party

canım my dear

öğrenci student

yabancı foreigner

birkaç several, a few

Fransız French

hadi come on!

Review

1. How do you say two cats?

a. İki kediler.

b. İki kedilar.

c. İki tane kediler.

d. İki tane kedi

2. Parti nasıl?

a. Parti biraz tatlı.

b. Parti kalabalık.

c. Saat sekizde.

d. Üç tane yabancı.
3. Which of the following use the plural suffix correctly? (pick all)

a. Üç kediler var.

b. Dört tane öğrenci var.

c. Kaç adamlar var burada?

d. Adamlar var burada.

e. Çok Fransız erkekler yok.

f. Birkaç yabancı galiba.

4. Translate: there are 5 dogs. (write)

5. Translate: there are dogs here. (write)

Answer Key

1. d
2. b
3. b d f
4. Beş köpek var , Beş tane köpek var
5. Köpekler var burada , Burada köpekler var , Köpekler burada var

More. . .

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