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dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Are there any Turkish words that you always get confused?

I am constantly mixing up tanismak and tasinmak. My dear old secretary can't work out why I will be aquainted with my new house.

Golightly · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 8:21 am Post subject:

When I first came to Turkey, I used to say 'yasmaklar' rather than 'iyi aksamlar'.
A friend of mine had difficulty with saying 'I'm bored' (go work it out.... Twisted Evil

)
Another colleague made a horrendous mistake in class with a student's name - instead of Yaprak, he called her 'Yarrak' Embarassed

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

(I don't have undotted i on this computer) a friend of mine always used to want a feshly squeezed Orange juice for lunch. She used to phone up and ask for a freshly F#*&%# Orange!

More of a pronunciation problem than a lexical one.

justme · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 1944 Location: Istanbul

All of the above mentioned mistakes I've made at one time or another.

I'm still forever confusing those short words beginning with 'u': uzun, uzak, ucuz, u�ak...

Once I took my friend to the waxing salon and confidently inquired as to the price of wheat (başak/bacak).

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Just remembered, I once went into a lokanta and asked for the corap(should have been corba)

justme · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 1944 Location: Istanbul

I've known a few people who've called out 'İnek var!' to the dolmuş/minibus driver...

Frizzie Lizzie · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 11:47 am Post subject:

A friend of mine went into the local baker's and, wanting to buy bread (ekmek), he asked "yemek var mi?"

Golightly · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 12:35 pm Post subject:

crumpy · Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 79 Location: Istanbul

About three or four times I've seen Turks write 'yanlız'. They mean 'yalnız' ('only' in English), but seem to confuse it with 'yanlış' (which means 'wrong')

molly farquharson · Joined: 16 Jun 2004 Posts: 839 Location: istanbul

In a meeting with the head teachers and managers I confused yilbasi with aybasi. Embarassed

Oops.

justme · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 1944 Location: Istanbul

Bi�ak and bıyık. I just realized a few weeks ago it was 2 different words...

Baba Alex · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 2411

About a couple a years of ago during Ramadan I went into a clothes shop.

'�orba nerede?' Said I
'Afendim'
'�orba var, değil mi'
'NE Istersiniz?'
'Corba Istiyorum'
'Abi, 15 Dk bekliyorsan, iftar geliyor'

I wanted socks, corba and corap.

crumpy · Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 79 Location: Istanbul

A foreigner, who'd only been in Turkey a couple of months, went into a hardware shop in the hope of buying some rope. Foolisly he hadn't looked up the word for rope in the dictionary. So, he said "Şey istiyorum" trying to imitate someone pulling a rope.

The shop assistant somehow understood him and said "İp".

At this point the foreigner realized he had his pocket dictionary with him.
So, while turning the pages he muttered to himself "İp ne?"

The shop assistant thumped him!

justme · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 1944 Location: Istanbul

crumpy · Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 79 Location: Istanbul

That's interesting ... we mix up '�orba' and '�orap' ... and Turks (my wife at least anyway) mix up 'soup' and 'soap' :-))

On the subject of confusing things, did you know that 'to flirt' and 'fl�rt etmek' mean different things altogether. 'Fl�rt etmek' means 'to go out with/to go steady with someone'.

But, even more interesting is that 'daha beter' means 'worse' :-))