Basic Turkish Conversations For Beginners: Examples, Audio Pronunciation, & English Translation

In these basic Turkish dialogues for beginners, I tried to cover words and phrases that will allow you to learn Turkish quickly and have natural-sounding conversations. The line-by-line Turkish to English translation, along with audio pronunciation, should give you more confidence in speaking. Before reading the text, I recommend playing the audio file first as a type of Turkish listening practice to test your skills! If you realize that these dialogues seem too advanced for your level, you should probably start with these more basic Turkish conversation phrases and grammar rules and bookmark this page for a later time.

How To Speak Turkish For Beginners

As a native Turkish speaker who learned English as a teenager, I found practicing dialogues to be the most useful way to learn a new language naturally. While grammar and vocabulary are crucial elements, dialogues mimic real-life situations and allow you to simulate being involved in a conversation. For me, that kind of simulation helped words and phrases stick in my memory better. With repetition, the basic conversation elements will become like a reflex!

However, jumping into dialogues only works after you learn some basic elements. So, for absolute beginners who have no experience speaking Turkish, I recommend starting with the alphabet pronunciation, followed by this overview of Turkish language features. You may also wish to skim through this high-level guide to Turkish grammar, although you do not need to know the more advanced lessons for these dialogues. In my opinion, the most beneficial use of your time is memorizing common vocabulary. Like any language, memorizing a few hundred common words and phrases can give you a much higher fluency than you might think!

Turkish Conversation Basics: Useful Phrases and Words To Know

Over time, learning more and more vocabulary words is the best way to make your conversations more complex and interesting. Like any language, Turkish has its unique way of expressing particular situations that do not always line up with English. However, learning these nuances is a long-term process of immersion that you cannot fast-forward. Watching Turkish TV shows, movies, and YouTube channels will help you notice these subtle features, along with the proper rhythm and tempo of the language.

However, even before you fully understand the grammar, you can memorize certain words and phrases that will help keep your basic conversations flowing. Here are some of the most useful ones:

Audio	Turkish	English
	Merhaba	Hello
	Nasılsın?	How’re you? (Nasılsınız = formal version)
	Ne haber? (often pronounced Nah-bear)	What’s up?
	Teşekkürler	Thanks
	iyiyim, sen?	I’m good, you?
	Senin adın ne?	What is your name? (Sizin adınız = formal version)
	Benim adım _	My name is _
	Memnun oldum.	Nice to meet you
	Nerelisin?	Where are you from? (Nerelisiniz = formal version)
	Ne iş yapıyorsun?	What work do you do? (yapıyorsunuz = formal version)
	Öğrenciyim.	I am a student.
	Biraz Türkçe biliyorum.	I know a little Turkish.
	Pardon. Anlamadım. Tekrar eder misiniz?	Excuse me. I didn’t understand. Can you repeat it?
	İngilizce biliyor musunuz?	Do you know English?
	İyi günler!	Have a nice day!

3 Beginner Turkish Dialogues with English Translation & Audio Pronunciation

Although I purposefully left out intermediate and advanced grammar from these dialogues to keep them at the beginner level, these dialogues are likely too advanced for absolute beginners. The target audience is Turkish learners who understand the basic structure of Turkish (pronouns, suffixes, word order, verb conjugations, etc) but might not have as much experience with conversational Turkish.

Every language has its unique rhythm and intonation, along with certain word choices that fit a situation. So, here are a few Turkish dialogues for beginners with some common situations you might experience.

**Listening Practice Tip: Try playing the audio file before reading the text to see how much you can understand.**

Classmates Meeting

In this dialogue, two classmates Ahmet and Ayşe are meeting at school for the first time.

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Foreigners Studying in Turkey

This basic dialogue centers around two foreign students studying in Turkey who are meeting each other on campus.

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Grammar Notes

• Nice to Meet You: You might notice that both tanıştığıma memnun oldum and memnun oldum by themselves work for saying “nice to meet you.” Tanıştığıma is the participle form of the verb tanışmak (to meet) and is the more complete way of saying “nice to meet you” (literally: I became pleased that I met you.) However, you can use either version.
• Buffer Letters: You saw a few examples of a buffer letter y being used at the ends of words (Amerikalıyım, öğrencisiyim, buradayım.) If you haven’t encountered them yet, Turkish buffer letters prevent vowels from colliding to keep spoken Turkish sounding smooth. Depending on the situation, you use y, s, or n to buffer the two vowels.
• Location Adjectives with -deki/-daki: When talking about location, you can easily form more complex sentences by adding a -ki suffix to a locative suffix (there is no vowel harmony so it is always -ki.) For example, köşedeki masa means “the table in the corner”—köşe (corner) + de (locative) + ki. If the noun that the adjective modifies is obvious, you can just leave it out. For example, if you are at a restaurant and deciding where to sit with a friend, you can say: köşedeki daha iyi (the one in the corner is better.)

Talking Turkish at a Job Interview

This dialogue might be a bit more difficult than the previous two. However, since it centers around the vocabulary and tempo of conversational Turkish during a job interview, it is perfect for foreigners who might be looking for a job in Turkey. Do note that I wrote this using formal conjugations which is what you would use in this type of situation.

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Grammar Notes

• -Dir Suffix: Beginner learners often learn that -dir ending is the optional third-person suffix. While that is somewhat true, there are other meanings you should learn. In this conversation, the -dir suffix gives the meaning a more factual and existential meaning, as opposed to an immediate description that might quickly change. So, when Ayşe asks “güçlü yönleriniz nelerdir? “, the -dir ending implies a more general long-term question about Emre’s strong characteristics.
• The -ip Suffix: You can attach this suffix directly to a verb stem (a Turkish verb without the -mek/-mak ending) to create a sequence of verbs (use a buffer y if the stem ends in a vowel.) The verb with the -ip suffix will take on the subject and tense from the verb that follows it. For example, çıkıp yiyelim means “Let’s go out and eat.”

Tips for Successful and Natural-Sounding Conversational Turkish

Aside from general practice techniques such as listening and repetition, here are a few basic tips to keep your Turkish conversations sounding natural and flowing:

• Do not stress about understanding every word. Instead, stay in the moment and listen for the most important words.
• If you do not understand something, don’t be afraid to ask someone to repeat it. Learning some specific phrases will help, such as: anlamadım (I didn’t understand), tekrar eder misiniz (can you repeat that), türkçem çok iyi değil (my Turkish is not very good), or daha yavaş söyleyebilir misiniz (can you say that slower).
• While grammar is important, conversations are more about keeping the flow and getting the main idea across. So, try to focus less on perfect grammar and more on communicating the basic idea.
• Especially in Turkish, listen for the end of the sentence since that is almost always where the verb is (see more on Turkish word order here.) Often, the meaning of a sentence and the words that come first will “click” for your brain once you hear the verb at the end.
• If possible, try to avoid translating in your head as you listen and speak. While sometimes necessary, you will more often get stuck on words you do not know and miss even more words. Instead, try to absorb full sentences at a time and let go of the words you do not know.
• During greetings and arrivals, you will often hear Turks say hoş geldin or hoş geldiniz to welcome you. Hoş bulduk is the polite reply to saying “I am welcomed.”
• Lastly, buckle up! Turks often speak extremely fast so be ready to put your brain into a high-energy mode!

Final Thoughts

I hope you found these dialogues useful! If you felt like they were too challenging for your level, we will be adding even simpler “newbie” conversations that keep grammar and sentence structure as easy as possible in the future. However, don’t let the challenge discourage you! As someone who struggled for years to learn English, I can understand how frustrating it is to work through dialogues, vocabulary, and grammar that are at the edge of your ability. So, trust me, I understand the struggle completely!

But, try to remember that the slow struggle of learning a language as a beginner will eventually lead to the effortless conversations you will have in the future if you keep studying!

Lastly, please get in touch with me if you have any comments, questions, or tips: [email protected]