Lesson Transcript

Hi, I'm Seda.Welcome to TurkishClass101.com.
Today we'll learn about nationalities.
Why nationalities? Because it's one of the first things to be asked or, you know, you ask a person when you are visiting a foreign country and Turkish people are you know specifically I think curious about other people's nationality.
So let's start, okay.
Actually before we start let's learn about how to ask another person's nationality and before we do that I need to remind you something about Turkish grammar.
In Turkish, the pronouns are a little bit different than in English.
I mean the you, the second you, the plural you, has two meanings actually.
What is you in like more than one person when you call you to two people, you may say you, Or you may say you to one person in the plural form, but you are more formal.
If that person is older than you are or if that person is someone that you don't know very well, or you are in a job, work, environment, you may use the second you.
So the first you is "sen", it's informal, singular, "sen" and the second you is "siz", "siz".
It's either formal, singular you or informal, plural you.
So keep that in mind and remember that we have two forms of asking where are you from.
The first one is nerelisin.
nerelisin.
Where are you from?
nerelisin.
This is the informal way of asking your person.
nerelisiniz.
And the second one is: Nerelisiniz?
Nerelisiniz?
Again, where are you from?
Nerelisiniz?
This is either asking more than one person, like where are you all from?
Or asking one person but that you don't know very well, you know, or you want to be formal, for some reason, then you would say "Nerelisiniz?” and if someone in Turkey or someone who is speaking Turkish asks only you "Nerelisiniz?" you would understand that that person is being very polite to you since you don't have anybody with you, you are just one person; it means that the speaker is being polite. So keep that in mind.
Now we know that we can say "nerelisin" or "nerelisiniz" to ask about nationality and now let's see how we answer.
For example in English if someone asks "where are you from?" I would say "I am from Turkey" which means that I answer with my country.
My answer is my country.
Where are you from?
Because the question is that and I would say I am from Turkey.
But in Turkish when someone asks you where you are from you would say I am Turk.
That's how we answer.
So let's see Turkish examples.
Türküm.
Nerelisin?
Türküm.
I am a Turk.
Türküm.
Or ben Türküm.
Türküm.
Again we'll have to talk about grammar a little bit here.
In Turkish, there is no no separate verb for "to be."
In English, it's "to be" verb is "am," "is," "are," and you can easily spot it in a sentence.
"I am from Turkey." "He is from Turkey." "They are from Turkey."
You can spot "am," "is," "are" there.
But in Turkish, we add the "to be" verb to the noun, to the nationality. In this case, to "Turk".
So I say "Turk" "üm" that "üm" is the "to be" verb here.
I know it can be a little confusing but you'll get it when we talk more about other examples.
"To be" verb in Turkish takes the form of a suffix which is added to the noun.
So instead of "I am" we say [ım] [im] [um] [üm] [yım] [yim] [yum] [yüm]
So I know and this is only for “I am” not for “he is” or “you are, they are we are” etc.
It's just for I am How do we decide which one to use.
Am I going to use the "ım" or "um" or "yim" or "yüm"?
For that, you need to know about vowel harmony rules.
I'm not going to go into it right now because it's a complicated subject.
But note this.
In Turkish, we categorize our consonants and vowels.
and our vowels are harmonious with specific vowels.
For example, "a" is harmonious with "a" or "ı" or "o" or "u".
Again, "e" is harmonious with "e", "i", "ö" and "ü".
So we add, if we are gonna add a suffix to a noun, we look at the vowels and we choose the harmonious vowel suffix to add.
It may be confusing at first as I said it before, but it will get easier.
And I already mentioned about yım, yim, yum, yüm suffixes as well.
But what about that "why" at the beginning?
In Turkish there is another rule.
Normally two vowels can't come together.
It has to be one vowel, one constant.
One vowel, one constant.
One vowel, one constant.
Of course there are exceptions and when you look at those exceptional words, those words are coming from another language, either French or Arabic or another language, but they are not Turkish-based language words.
So that's why it's out of rule.
Every Turkish word has to follow that order.
"vowel" consonant or "consonant vowel", "consonant vowel".
If your word ends with a vowel and you have to add a suffix, then it doesn't work because they are both vowels.
So you put Y, the letter Y, yeah, in between to make it work.
So that's why the different suffixes.
So enough with the grammar, right?
I know it may be confusing but relax you'll get it in a minute.
Anyway, let's look at our examples.
so we get used to the suffixes.
For example, if I want to say "I am an American" "I'm American" I would say "Amerikalıyım" "Amerikalıyım", "Amerikalıyım"
Don't forget, this is an answer to "Where are you from?" Like, normally you would say "I'm from America" in English but in Turkish you say"Amerikalıyım" or İranlıyım, İranlıyım I'm from Iran, İranlıyım or Güney Amerikalıyım, Güney Amerikalıyım.
I am from South Africa or I am South African in English.
Another example, "Koreliyim " I am from Korea or I am Korean Another example, "Çinliyim" I am from China or I am Chinese "Çinliyim" Another example İtalyanım.
I am Italian or I am from Italy.
İtalyanım.
So these are examples. Please check out our other videos about nationalities and we have a vocabulary list inside so you can learn about your nationality as well and before I go I want to talk about some aspects of these nationalities and Turkish people's mindset.
Some Turkish people are curious about which city you are from.
If you're a Turkish person they need to know that you are from Istanbul, you are from Ankara, you are from Adana.
So I don't know why?
I've never seen something like that for example in United States, nobody you know you may mention it you can say you know I I was born in California or something like that or I used to live in California you can say it but I I didn't see people asking you know no no where are you from like which city you are from like it's not something they are really curious about but in Turkey if you're in taxi for example and you are going somewhere and you are chatting with the driver and always almost all the time they ask you "where are you from?" and you say you know I'm from Istanbul and I'm from Istanbul actually and they don't believe it if you say I'm from Istanbul they ask you again the reason is there are a lot of people living in Istanbul like 20 million people living in Istanbul and most of those people came from other cities they're native their birthplace, some place else.
But some people like me, I'm born in Istanbul but it's not enough.
Even if you're born in Istanbul, it's not enough because if your parents are from another city, for example, if my mom, you know, was if my mom is from Izmir, then it means that I'm from Izmir or if my father is from Ankara that means I'm from Ankara not from Istanbul where are my roots coming here you know and my parents are also from Istanbul they were born in Istanbul and my grandparents are from Istanbul as well so they this fact confuses very many people so they keep asking they keep asking like no no no Where are you actually from?
And I said no, I'm from Istanbul.
And at some point I decided to answer that one of my parents are from relatives are from Izmir.
So I only now answer.
Yeah, I'm from Istanbul, my parents are from Izmir and they feel relaxed because they know where I am from.
I don't know why the obsession, but you may get asked a lot of your nationality, which city, which country, why you are here.
Turkish people are very curious, don't be offended by it, it's just the way we are, I think.
Okay guys, I hope you liked the lesson. If you have any questions, please leave them below. And if you want to comment about your nationality or if you have funny stories about nationalities, if you were in Turkey and you had a funny experience with the taxi drivers, please leave the comments below. And I will see you next time.Bye!
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