200+ Turkish Words for Everyday Conversations

Greetings are usually your first words in any language, and Turkish is no exception. Here are different ways to say hello, goodbye, and how are you in Turkish:

Word lists work best when you categorize words into groups.

Here are the most common Turkish nouns related to food, family, places, and more. You’ll most likely use these words daily, so learning these is a good way to get started with the language:

Whether you’re shopping in the supermarket or reading a recipe, it’s likely that you’ll see these common food and drink words in Turkish:

False friend alert: The word pasta in Turkish means “cake.” If you forget makarna (the Turkish word for “pasta”) and say pasta instead, you may end up with a cake!

Turkish distinguishes between paternal relatives (father’s side), maternal relatives (mother’s side), blood relatives, and relatives by marriage.

Don’t worry, the Turkish words for other family members aren’t as complicated!

Now let’s move on with the most common place names you’ll find in the city:

Words like “today,” “now,” or “tomorrow” help us talk about plans, activities, and events. Here are some important time-related Turkish words:

Let’s move on with words like “person,” “friend,” “woman,” or “man” that help us describe people:

In the list below, we chose the most common Turkish verbs you’ll encounter and use in everyday conversations:

Important: Turkish word order isn’t the same as English. In Turkish, the verb usually comes at the end of the sentence. It might feel strange at first, but you’ll get used to it!

For example, to say “I’m learning Turkish,” we’ll conjugate the verb öğrenmek and put it at the end of the sentence — so it’s Ben Türkçe öğreniyorum.

You may have also noticed that there aren’t any words for “to be” or “to have” in the list above. This isn’t a coincidence. These concepts are expressed as suffixes in Turkish. For example, “Ben öğretmenim” means “I am a teacher,” but there’s no separate word for “am.”

And instead of the verb “to have,” you would use the words var (“there is”) or yok (“there isn’t”) to express possession. For instance, Benim bir kedim var means “I have a cat.”

Want to add more color to your descriptions? Adjectives are your nouns’ best friends. Let’s explore some common Turkish adjectives and how to use them with nouns:

Turkish adjectives always come before the nouns. So now let’s combine some of the nouns we covered above with these adjectives:

• Sıcak çay: “Hot tea”
• Soğuk su: “Cold water”
• Güzel ev: “Beautiful house”
• Yeni okul: “New school”
• Uzun gün: “Long day”
• İyi insan: “Good person”
• Pahalı restoran: “Expensive restaurant”

Colors are some of the most common adjectives in any language. In Turkish, you’ll hear these colors all the time:

Pronouns help you refer to people and things without repeating names. Here are the essential Turkish subject pronouns:

• Ben: “I”
• Sen: “You” (singular, informal)
• O: “He/She/It”
• Biz: “We”
• Siz: “You” (plural or formal singular)
• Onlar: “They”

Although they won’t mean much on their own, conjunctions are key to speaking any language fluently. With words like “and,” “but,” and “or,” you can connect different sentences together.

These question words will help you ask for clarification when you don’t understand what people say:

If you’re a fan of Turkish dramas, these words will ring a bell. If not, why not watch some to practice your listening skills?

Here are some bonus words, mostly fillers and endearment words, that you’ll hear all the time:

We chose the words on this list on purpose — they’re words you’ll hear all the time. Whether you’re watching Turkish TV shows, listening to music, or chatting with native speakers, these words will pop up time and time again.