Learn what a copula is and how it is used in Turkish
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Intro |
|---|
| Michael: What is a copula? |
| Dilek: And how do you use it? |
| Michael: At TurkishClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Karen and Meryem are meeting each other for the first time. They talk about their jobs. Karen says, |
| "I'm a blogger." |
| Karen Lee: Bloggerım. |
| Dialogue |
| Karen Lee: Bloggerım. |
| Meryem Atlı: Ben dijital pazarlama uzmanıyım. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Karen Lee: Bloggerım. |
| Michael: "I'm a blogger." |
| Meryem Atlı: Ben dijital pazarlama uzmanıyım. |
| Michael: "I'm a digital marketer. " |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In linguistic terms, the copula is a word that is used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate. In the case of English, the copula is the verb "to be" and its different forms, for example "I am," or "you are." In Turkish, the "copula" or |
| Dilek: ek-eylem |
| Michael: is a very important feature and always appears in the form of suffixes. The verb "to be" as a regular verb is |
| Dilek: olmak |
| Michael: while the verb "to be" as a copula is |
| Dilek: imek |
| Michael: This one changes according to the personal pronoun it refers to, and also varies depending on the vowel harmony rules, which you'll find summarized in the lesson notes. In this lesson, we'll see the suffixes only when applied to the present tense. The suffix for first person singular or "I" is |
| Dilek: -im, |
| Michael: the second person singular or "you" is |
| Dilek: -sin, |
| Michael: the third person singular or "he or she" is |
| Dilek: -dir, |
| Michael: the first person plural or "we" is |
| Dilek: -iz, |
| Michael: the second person plural or "you" is |
| Dilek:-siniz, |
| Michael: and the third person plural or "they" is |
| Dilek: -dirler. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue and try to find the copulas in the sentences. |
| Do you remember how Karen says "I'm a blogger?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Dilek as Karen Lee: Bloggerım. |
| Michael: Here, the copula is the suffix |
| Dilek: -ım |
| Michael: which corresponds to the English "am" as in "I am." Since the word |
| Dilek: blogger |
| Michael: ends in a consonant, the suffix |
| Dilek: -im |
| Michael: changed to |
| Dilek: -ım |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Meryem says "I'm a digital marketer?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Dilek as Meryem Atli: Ben dijital pazarlama uzmanıyım. |
| Michael: Here, the copula is the suffix |
| Dilek: -yım |
| Michael: which corresponds to the English "am" as in "I am." But there is an extra letter |
| Dilek: y |
| Michael: This is a buffer letter. In Turkish, two vowels can't come together so you need to add one of the buffer letters to connect the copula to the word. And, because of the harmony rules, you must choose |
| Dilek: -ım |
| Michael: So, together, the suffix becomes |
| Dilek: -yım |
| Michael: It's possible also to see the copula suffixes separated from the noun or adjective they refer to. Let's consider the sentence "I'm a doctor." In Turkish, it can be either |
| Dilek: Ben doktorum. |
| Michael: or |
| Dilek: Ben doktor idim. |
| Michael: This is because you can write the copula either separately or attached to the previous word. When it's attached, the initial letter of the suffix |
| Dilek: -imek |
| Michael: drops and changes according to Turkish vowel harmony rules. |
| Now, let's see the negative form. To negate the copula, you just have to precede it with |
| Dilek: değil |
| Michael: so "I'm not a doctor" is |
| Dilek: Ben doktor değilim. |
| Michael: Similarly, you create the past forms by adding the past form interfixes. But, for this lesson, you don't need to know those. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned what a copula is and how it's used in Turkish. You also learned its negative form. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Note: it's not unusual to drop the copula for the third person. That's when you have the so-called "copula zero" meaning that, even if in English you need to add a copula to translate the sentence, in Turkish, the copula is omitted. Let's see an example |
| Dilek: Karen blogger. |
| Michael: This means "Karen is a blogger." And, as you can see, there isn't any word or suffix that corresponds to the English "is." This is true also for the third person plural, for example, "They are American" is simply |
| Dilek: Onlar Amerikalı. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say "I'm a blogger?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Dilek as Karen Lee: Bloggerım. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Dilek as Karen Lee: Bloggerım. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Dilek as Karen Lee: Bloggerım. |
| Michael: And do you remember how to say "I'm a digital marketer?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Dilek as Meryem Atli: Ben dijital pazarlama uzmanıyım. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Dilek as Meryem Atli: Ben dijital pazarlama uzmanıyım. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Dilek as Meryem Atli: Ben dijital pazarlama uzmanıyım. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Sometimes, the copula can create confusion, and it would be impossible to translate the sentence without the context. Some of the Turkish possessive adjective determiners are the same as the copula. For example, both "I am" and "my" can translate to |
| Dilek: -im |
| Michael: For example, if you want to say "my teacher", you would say |
| Dilek: öğretmenim |
| Michael: "teacher" is |
| Dilek: öğretmen |
| Michael: "my" is |
| Dilek: -im |
| Michael: Now, what if you want to say "I am a teacher?" It's exactly the same, |
| Dilek: Öğretmenim. |
| Michael: Here, "I am" corresponds to |
| Dilek: -im |
| Michael: and "teacher" is |
| Dilek: öğretmen |
| Michael: This may sound confusing, unless you take a look at the context. For example, "I am a teacher" is a full sentence, so there shouldn't be any other verb in the same sentence. In the case of "my teacher," you need to add a verb to complete the sentence, such as "comes" |
| Dilek: gelir |
| Michael: "My teacher comes" in Turkish is |
| Dilek: Öğretmenim gelir. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Dilek: Hoşçakalın! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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