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Learning Turkish Language Difficulties Reverse English! Can set your head to spinning... Language-learning pages: How To Learn Basic Turkish -- A Practical Philosophy for beginners (Found in the 'Introduction to The Whole Earth Catalog of Turkish Movies'.) Why Off-color language is important too... Translating Turkish, the basics Translating Turkish, advanced Essential Turkish Vocabulary Turkish Verbs Essential Idioms, Index Essential Suffixes, Index Sentence Structure, Standard Sentence Structure Variations Turkish Pronunciation Turkish Accenting Numbers in Turkish Other Turkish Language Difficulties The Turkish Language sentence may have a standard word order, but, God...what an order! In our Regularities of Turkish section, we pointed out the advantage of consistent and regular word order in Turkish sentences. But since the word order is basically the opposite of English, this is really a two edged sword...On the one hand, it's helpful to the new student of Turkish, and on the other -- it's brain twisting. Let's look again -- this time with a more jaundiced eye -- at the notion of the standard word order of sentences in Turkish. Since the English sentence we used -- in Regularities of Turkish section -- was quite simple, let's look at a slightly more complex example here... We'll observe the example in English and then work with the Turkish translation, a phrase at a time, until we understand the whole sentence. Here's the example... The United States has long held a leading position in science and invention. from This is America145 In Turkish that will become... Amerika Birleşik Devletleri bilim ve yeni buluşlarda eskiden beri başta gelmektedir. from İşte Amerika145 Now look at the way the Turkish sentence is structured. If we translate it -- phrase by phrase -- back into English, we'll get a full appreciation of the difficulty of the word order for us English speakers... Turkish Sentence Parsing Example Turkish Literal Translation Comments Amerika Birleşik Devletleri America-United-States In one respect Turkish and English sentences agree...the subject of the sentence is its most important part and, in both languages, it gets "top billing". Note that "The United States [of America]" could be abbreviated to ABD in Turkish. bilim science   ve and   yeni buluşlarda new-inventions-in   eskiden beri longpast-since   başta at-the-top; at-the-head; first; before-everything, in-the-lead (leading) Note that in-the-lead (leading) is not the first choice for the meaning of başta gelmektedir has been in the act of coming The verb gelmek means to come, usually. But in this sentence, instead of insisting on to come as the meaning, we must allow the sense of to come to be or simply to be. So that the meaning of gelmektedir here is... [The USA] has been in the act of being, or more simply [The USA] has been... So our sentence in Turkish word-order sequence would read... America-United-States __ science-and-new-inventions-in __ longpast-since __ in-the-lead __ has-been. Thus, except for the sentence's subject (which comes first in both languages) the Turkish sentence must be read from back to front in order to understand the English meaning. We think you'll agree that this word order, (no matter how consistent and regular it may be) ain't easy for native English language speakers! Language-learning pages: How To Learn Basic Turkish -- A Practical Philosophy for beginners (Found in the 'Introduction to The Whole Earth Catalog of Turkish Movies'.) Why Off-color language is important too... Translating Turkish, the basics Translating Turkish, advanced Essential Turkish Vocabulary Turkish Verbs Essential Idioms, Index Essential Suffixes, Index Sentence Structure, Standard Sentence Structure Variations Turkish Pronunciation Turkish Accenting Numbers in Turkish Other Turkish Language Difficulties Also Related: Saying 'if' in Turkish A Turkish Language-Learning Fable Towards Better, Kinder Turkish Language Usage A Collision Between Turkish Language and Political Correctness Unrelated fun: Frequently asked questions about Turkey and the Turkish language llustrated Nargile Users Guide -- and Encyclopedia Our Honda Generator -- A Member of the Family Habibullah and The Great Cannon Caper Turkish Tongue Twisters Turkish Belly Dancers Turkish Terms Of Endearment Turkish Personal Names Politically Incorrect Turkish Humor Why Off-Color Turkish is important too 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 Post a comment...»

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