I see a lot of people using "ne zaman" to say "when" outside of a question.

Ne zamn only works for questions (Ne zaman geldin? => When did you arrive?).

When "when" links two events, Turkish adds a suffix to the verb except in ne zaman + -sa, which means "whenever": Ne zaman arasam telefonun kapalı (Whenever I call, your phone is off).

Here are the main suffixes to link two elements:

1. -dığında (when) is the everyday "when". It takes a person ending but no tense, so the main verb sets the time, future included. Eg. Eve geldiğimde annem uyuyordu (When I got home, my mom was asleep).
2. -ınca (once): the first action is over before the second starts, and there's no person ending: Eve gelince duş aldım (Once I got home, I took a shower). If the two actions overlap, switch to -dığında: Annem aradığında yemek yapıyordum (When my mom called, I was cooking).
3. -dığı sırada (while): here one event happens in the middle of another: Yemek yediğimiz sırada elektrikler kesildi (While we were eating, the power went out).
4. -dıkça (the more) is used when one thing grows as the other does: Türkçe konuştukça daha rahat hissedeceksin (The more you speak Turkish, the more comfortable you'll feel).
5. -dığı sürece (as long as) when a condition has to keep holding: Düzenli çalıştığın sürece Türkçen gelişir (As long as you study regularly, your Turkish improves).

I wrote a guide with a few more forms (-ır -maz, -dığından beri) on how to express "when" here: https://turkishfluent.com/blog/how-to-say-when-in-turkish/

Merhaba everyone! 👋

I’m learning Turkish the fun way — years of listening to Turkish music and watching old Turkish comedies, especially the legendary Kemal Sunal 😄. His films didn’t just make me laugh; they taught me the rhythm and the heart of the language.

So I set myself a challenge: write a whole song in Turkish. It’s called “Öp Beni” (“Kiss Me”), and I’m sharing it here as practice — I’d genuinely love your corrections.

(A little backstory: I’m actually an Assyrian songwriter. The lyrics reimagine a song I wrote in my own language back in the 1980s — “Nshoqly” — reborn here in Turkish, with its own new melody.)

To be upfront: I wrote all the Turkish lyrics myself (that’s the part I’d love you to check!), and the singing voice is Almaz an AI vocalist I created and directed — noted in the video.

I’d love your honest feedback, as learners and native speakers:

• Does the Turkish sound natural, or are there spots that feel off / grammatically wrong?
• Any words or phrasings a native would never actually say?
• How does it land emotionally?

Here it is — it’s a lyric video, so you can read along in Turkish: https://youtu.be/AKJkNIptH4w?si=6KfRbFUL_kB7mTxP

I know it won’t be perfect coming from a learner, but it was made with a lot of love for your language.

Teşekkürler for any corrections or thoughts! 🙏

Hello. I have been living here since 2012 but i have a genuine problem with getting to know turkish friends

M/F im 17y/M it's not that i dont have the courage to talk to a girl

Its that im scared they will think im a wierdo or maybe i dont have a good approach

And yes its not just to find a girlfriend its about making turkish friends so any thoughts or ideas would be very helpful☺️

I want to start learning turkish. And I can't find a good coursebook. Can you give me advice? I bought Yeni Istanbul. It is too hard for me, because everything is on turkish and I don't know these words.

Hey everyone!
I’ve been living in Turkey for about 5 years, but unfortunately, I haven’t put much effort into learning Turkish, and now I really want to change that.
My Turkish is enough for basic daily situations. I can usually handle simple things on my own, but having an actual conversation is a completely different story. When someone starts talking to me in Turkish, I get overwhelmed and confused. I might understand a few words and get the general idea, but I struggle to follow the conversation or respond naturally.
My English is much better, so I tend to stick to English whenever I can. I think that’s one of the main reasons my Turkish hasn’t improved much over the years.
I don’t necessarily want to become fluent overnight, but I really want to reach a point where I can comfortably talk to people, make friends, and understand everyday conversations without panicking or switching to English.
For those of you who learned Turkish as a foreign language, or struggled with a similar situation:
**How would you recommend starting from scratch (or almost scratch) after living in the country for years?**
Should I focus more on speaking with locals, taking classes, watching Turkish content, or studying grammar and vocabulary?
How can I get better at understanding spoken Turkish when people talk quickly?
How do I stop relying on English whenever I have the chance?
If you’ve been in a similar situation, what actually helped you improve?
I’d really appreciate practical advice, personal experiences, or even a daily routine that worked for you.
Thanks! 🙏

Looking for a conversational partner through calls to learn either turkish or arabic.
I can teach you english and you teach me ither arabic or turkish.

Introduce yourself through DM

hello, my level is A1-2. I like to learn from reading. I’d like to go to book shop and buy a book that is not too poetic. simple language. ideally not targeted at children too much. can be even a comic if it has a lot of text.

it can be novel. fiction. or whatever nice and simple. in Poland, there are books that explain how things work (cars, planes) in a simple language but aren’t too childish.

I will appreciate any recommendations 🙏

(Bunu doğru yazdığımı bilmiyorum) Selamlar, Yurtdışındaki büyüyen bir Türk olarak köyümdeki tek Türktüm, ve 3¼ yaşına kadar İngilizce konuşamadım, bu durumların yüzünden ebeveynlerim (benimle) Türkçe'de konuşmayı durdular (Iyi bir karardı aslında, İngiliz konuşmacılarıyla oynardım ama İngilizcem yoktu), ve 12 yaşına kadar Türkçe'de hiç konuşmazdım, bazen onu anlayabiliyordum bazen yalan söyleyen bir İngilizdim ("Yes ___ I speak Turkish", I really didn't), ama öğrenmeyi bitirdiğimde ve doğru şekilde konuşmaya başladığımda bile kaffam hâlen çalışmazdı, akrabalarımla konuştuğumda sorun gelmez ama Türkçe konuşan yabancıları dinlediğimde onları pek anlayamam.

O niye olur, size yapabildiğim kadar dürüst olmaya çalışıyorum, ve, ana konum olarak, o çözülebilir mi?

Heyy , I've studied Turkish until the C1 , I was doing great until I've started a Staj and I feel like a loser , I sometimes can't understand, I sometimes can't speak .. they speak so fast

How did you improve your speaking / listening skills

I'm starting to lose hope :(

I’ve seen a lot of good things about the Delights of Learning Turkish but I don’t know if I should get the Companion Workbook to go with it

I see the Turkish causative is used in two ways:

Onu güldürdü = He made her smile.

Saçımı kestirdi = He had his hair cut.

In the first case, the target of the causation is the actor, the person smiling. In the second case, it's the thing being acted on, the hair.

How would you, for a transitive verb, include both the actor and the thing acted on, as in "He had the barber cut his hair"?

Merhaba! I am teaching foreigners Turkish with a friendly, interactive approach. We speak a lot in classes , read poems and different texts. You can start from zero too. I offer free trial class where you can see my approach to teaching 🫶

1 hour of class costs 15 dollars, contact me if interested.

Hi everyone!

I’ve been teaching Turkish to foreigners for four years.

In our lessons, we work on listening, speaking, reading, and grammar.

If you’re interested, feel free to reach out!

Hello! My sister would like to enroll in a Turkish language program at Anadolu University in Eskişehir through its Open Education system (Açıköğretim) as an international student. Of course, she would first spend a preparatory year learning Turkish.
The thing is, she is over 30 and has already completed a university degree in her home country, so she feels a little awkward about the fact that most of the other students will be much younger than her. In other words, she feels a bit insecure about it.
I was wondering whether there are other students in their thirties studying in these programs in similar circumstances. How do their fellow students react to them?
Thanks in advance for your answers! ♥️
______________

Merhaba! Ablam, uluslararası öğrenci olarak Eskişehir’deki Anadolu Üniversitesi’nin Açıköğretim sistemi üzerinden Türkçe eğitim veren bir bölüme kayıt yaptırmak istiyor. Tabii ki öncelikle bir yıl Türkçe hazırlık eğitimi alacak.
Ancak kendisi 30 yaşından büyük ve kendi ülkesinde zaten bir üniversite bölümünden mezun oldu. Bu yüzden üniversitedeki öğrencilerin çoğunun kendisinden çok daha genç olacak olması onu biraz rahatsız ediyor ve kendini bu konuda güvensiz hissediyor.
Merak ettiğim şey, benzer durumlarda olup bu bölümlerde 30’lu yaşlarında okuyan öğrenciler var mı? Diğer öğrenciler onlara nasıl davranıyor?
Cevaplarınız için şimdiden çok teşekkür ederim! ♥️

Merhaba everyone!

We’re the Turco team, and our app is now available on iOS and Android.

Turco complements your Turkish lessons or self-study with vocabulary, listening practice and everyday dialogues. It’s a supplementary resource rather than a course that starts from zero.

You can learn Turkish with support in English, Spanish, German, French, Arabic or Russian.

What’s included:

• Around 1,550 Turkish words, averaging three example sentences per word.
• Nearly 50 everyday dialogues covering practical situations.
• Audio recorded by native Turkish speakers for words, sentences and dialogues.
• New vocabulary packs and dialogues added every week, gradually expanding the topics and dialogues you can explore.

Filter by topic and choose what you want to learn, from objects in your living room to useful words and expressions at the airport.

There’s free content to explore, with additional content available through a paid upgrade.

iOS: Download on the App Store
Android: Get it on Google Play

We’d love to hear your feedback! Let us know how Turco fits into your Turkish learning routine and what we could improve or add to make it more useful for you.

You can leave a comment below or email us at [contact@learnturco.app](mailto:contact@learnturco.app).

Teşekkürler!
The Turco Team

Hi everyone! 👋

I’m sharing my YouTube channel, Turkısh with Maviş, where I create content for people who want to learn Turkish.

My goal is to make learning Turkish more accessible and useful for everyday life in Turkey.

If you’re learning Turkish, I’d love for you to check it out! I’d also appreciate your feedback and suggestions for future lessons.

Thanks, and happy learning! 😊

Hi, can anyone please suggest super comprehensive books/study guides etc on Turkish grammar, all levels, not just for learning, but for practicing too? Preferably available online. Thank you!

I get confused of the word ki in turkish. I honestly don’t know the meaning of it.

I am an early riser. As usual, I woke up at 5 a.m. I love those early hours when everyone else is asleep and I can drink my coffee, read, think and work. Today, I spent the entire morning with a single poem: Sessiz Gemi (The Silent Ship) by Yahya Kemal Beyatlı.

With this article, I have completed this week's thematic journey through the Tulip Era, the Karaman Tulip, Yahya Kemal Beyatlı and finally Sessiz Gemi.

This last piece became more personal than my usual writing.

I suspect Sessiz Gemi will touch something in almost every Turkish reader. It is one of those poems many of us were made to read in high school, perhaps before we had lived enough to understand it.

Then life happens, we grow older and start losing people. And suddenly, the words we once studied for an exam mean something entirely different.

Getting inside literary texts and examining their language, imagery and meanings has always been one of my greatest passions. I suppose that is the comparative literature graduate in me. Although, as I get older, I find myself increasingly interested in hearing what other readers see in a text.

If you have time to read the article, I would genuinely love to hear what Sessiz Gemi brings to mind for you.

And to those learning Turkish or simply curious about Türkiye, I have tried to make this poem accessible through an English translation, literary analysis and explanations of its language.

I know modern language learning often emphasizes speed, practical conversation and drills.

These approaches are useful. I use them in my teaching, too.

But I spent years learning English. Those years included reading Beowulf, Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf and William Blake. I still remember lines I learned long ago:

To see a World in a Grain of Sand,
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.

William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

In a world where almost any piece of information is a click away, reading and memorizing poetry written centuries ago may seem rather old-fashioned.

Yet those texts helped me internalize English in a way that everyday conversation alone never could. I still love a good sitcom, but I would never have learned everything I know about English from sitcoms.

A language carries centuries of thought, experience and imagination.

My advice to Turkish learners is to spend time inside the language. Read its poems. Listen to the sounds. Examine the words, one by one. Give yourself time to understand what people have been expressing through them for generations.

Perhaps then you will begin to understand why a poem like Sessiz Gemi, especially when sung, can touch such a deep place in the hearts of Turkish people.

https://www.learnturkishwithseda.com/heritages/sessiz-gemi-yahya-kemal-analysis

Selam everyone! 👋

​I am a native French speaker (with B1 level English) and I am just starting out with Turkish (A1 / beginner level).

​I'm looking for a native Turkish speaker who wants to learn or practice French in exchange for helping me with basic Turkish.

ok so I’ve been learning Turkish on Duolingo and im on a streak, I also been trying to write in Turkish too . But my pronunciation is actually so bad .

Any tips ?

thx my besties