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Online Turkish Language Learning Tips, Tipoffs, Tricks, Traps, Techniques, Curiosities, and Oddities... Turkish Language Tipoffs #1 An 'iffy' Proposition Related Pages: Other 'Tips' pages When Politics and Language Collide Better, Kinder Turkish Language Usage A Fable for Language Learning Original Folktale in Turkish-language Not An Exception To A Turkish Grammar Rule Also Related Pages: Translating Turkish, the basics Essential Turkish Vocabulary Turkish Verbs Essential Idioms, Index Essential Suffixes, Index Sentence Structure, Standard Turkish Pronunciation Turkish Accenting Numbers in Turkish NewsReaders' Dictionary, Index We are going to make a bold statement now [and risk the ire of all three of our regular native-Turkish site-visitors]. Here goes...The Turkish word eğer does not mean 'if' -- as every bi-lingual dictionary and grammar book says it does. It means nothing at all, zip, zero -- by itself...It's just a tipoff that a conditional 'if ' statement is on the way -- coming up, right around the corner, somewhere down the line... The good news is that, if you see or hear it (and usually it'll be the first word in a sentence or be found immediately following a comma near the start of the sentence), you can be sure that the sentence you find it in, is in fact a conditional 'if ' sentence --such as... Eğer hava güzel olursa gezmeye çıkarız; If the weather becomes nice, we'll go out for a walkaround. The bad news is that a sentence need not begin with eğer -- in order for the sentence to be a perfectly good and legitimate conditional 'if ' sentence. For example... Daha yavaş konuşursan, daha iyi anlayabilirim; If you speak more slowly, I can understand you better. I'd like to see the full conjugation of a verb in the conditional mood -- including more examples without eğer... So you'll be damn glad to see it in such sentences as: Eğer Elvis Presley 1955'de Hound Dog'unu söylememiş olsaydı seks, uyuşturucu, ve rock 'n roll âlemini aynı ileri vaziyette bulacağımızpek şüpheli idi; If Elvis Presley hadn't sung his Hound Dog in 1955, it is very doubtful whether we would find [today's] world of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll -- in the same advanced position! [At least that's what our granny told us.] Now we're goin' out on a limb... You will never see or hear eğer by itself -- in any correct Turkish sentence. It must always be coupled with the conditional suffix, that begins with se or sa which you'll find attached to some verb -- coming up, right around the corner, somewhere down the line... Eğer verdiğiniz sözde durmazsanız çok kötü olur; If you don't keep your promise, it'll be very bad. Incidentally, our All Turkish-to-Turkish Dictionary defines eğer as, "a word that is placed at the beginning of a conditional sentence, for strengthening the conditional purpose." It doesn't say the word has any meaning, at all... Now why didn't the bilingual dictionaries and grammar books explain it that way in the first place? If they had done so, it would have saved us from developing the [incorrect] habit of [incorrectly] using eğer by itself in order to [incorrectly] convey the 'if ' conditional meaning -- when we first started speaking Turkish [incorrectly]! And, yes. Sometimes, we still [incorrectly] do it -- because old habits die hard. (There. D'ya feel better -- now that we've publicly humiliated ourselves?) Editors Note: As stated above, this grammar rule is 99.99% true. Click following for a special-case "No Exceptions to the Rule" comment. Related Pages: Other 'Tips' pages When Politics and Language Collide Better, Kinder Turkish Language Usage A Fable for Language Learning Original Folktale in Turkish-language Not An Exception To A Turkish Grammar Rule Also Related Pages: Translating Turkish, the basics Essential Turkish Vocabulary Turkish Verbs Essential Idioms, Index Essential Suffixes, Index Sentence Structure, Standard Turkish Pronunciation Turkish Accenting Numbers in Turkish NewsReaders' Dictionary, Index Unrelated fun: Habibullah and The Great Cannon Caper Turkish Tongue Twisters Turkish Belly Dancers Turkish Terms Of Endearment Turkish Personal Names Politically Incorrect Turkish Humor Off-Color Turkish Gossipy Turkish Who's Who Turkish Kinsey Report #1 - Turkey opens up about its seks Turkish Kinsey Report #2 - Did they hear it through the grapevine? Turkish Kinsey Report #3 - Was it good for you? Turkish Kinsey Report #4 - The first time, by age group... Turkish Kinsey Report #5 - Who's gotta have it? He? Or she? Hülya Avşar -- in a league of her own Translating Danielle Steele

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