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The Turkish Language Explained for English Speakers: A Treatise on the Turkish Language and its Grammar by [John Guise]

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John Guise

The Turkish Language Explained for English Speakers: A Treatise on the Turkish Language and its Grammar Kindle Edition

by John Guise (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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"The Turkish Language Explained for English Speakers."
This Treatise on the Turkish Language and its Grammar explains and answers some of the difficulties that the learner of Turkish may encounter along their way. This book focuses on understanding Turkish grammar and logic. Those who are interested in the whys and wherefores of Turkish will find amongst these pages the key to their particular problem of Turkish grammar and syntax. It covers the basics of Turkish and further expands knowledge and understanding of Turkish by using many examples with explanations. It does not contain any practice exercises or sound files as many of these type of basic Turkish grammar lessons can be found in other text books or on the world wide web. It is a book that will be used over the whole of the learning process from basic beginner through to intermediate and advanced stages of learning.

The contents of the 43 chapters range over:
Turkish Basic Grammar: Alphabet, Vowel Harmony, Agglutination, Consonant Mutation, Lack of Gender.
Intermediate: Nouns and Pronouns, Adjectives, Verbs and Tenses, Possessive Relationship and Possession.
Advanced: Verb Moods, Participles, Clauses, Spatials and Spatial Relationships, Word Formation in Turkish
Conversational Items: Time, Seasons, Numbers, Colours, Saying "Thankyou", About "buyurun", Expressing Need, Daily Interjections, Modes of Address, Turkish Sign Language, How to say "too much, too many", Daily Talk, Common Door Signs.
Glossaries: List of Daily Locutions, Daily Word List, Irregular Tense List, Turkish Single Syllable Verb List, Intensified Adjectives List.

Print length

500 pages
Language

English
Publication date

February 24, 2012
File size

3969 KB
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

I first went to Turkey in the late seventies to work a Professional Chartered Engineer in the industrial vehicle sector. I worked in a large factory in the Mersinli area of Izmir, and later in a factory in Manisa. I could not speak Turkish at that time and most of the Turkish employees could not speak English to any great extent. So I made an effort to learn their language. Eventually my contract ended but as I had found the language so fascinating, I continued my studies back home in England. I was able eventually to pass the National Certificate Turkish Examinations and as I neared retirement I became a part-time lecturer in Turkish at my local Technical College in Coventry UK for a number of years. Eventually some years ago I emigrated from England and retired to live in New Zealand. I set up free Turkish teaching website (Manisa Turkish) as a thank you to my many Turkish friends and acquaintances who had helped me in many ways during my stay in Turkey while I was domiciled there. John Guise - Kawerau, New Zealand --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B007D92HRU
Publisher ‏ : ‎ John Guise; 2nd edition (February 24, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 24, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3969 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 500 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #747,270 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #20 in Turkish Language Instruction
- #2,836 in Foreign Language Instruction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
70 ratings

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About the author

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John Guise

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John Guise is a 79 year old Turkophile born and raised in England. In his retirement he has settled in New Zealand. He has also set up a website, Manisa Turkish, which offers an easy way to learn Turkish for everybody.

John Guise first visited Turkey for a holiday in Alanya 1979. A year later he started to work in Manisa. Living in Izmir he worked as a Professional Technical Engineering Manager in a factory producing diesel engined industrial vehicles. Besides a daily journey from Izmir to the Manisa factory for two consecutive years, he also found time to visit Istanbul, Ankara, Bursa, Balikesir, Nevsehir, Ayvalik, Isparta and Bodrum for short holiday trips. At the end of his working contract he returned to his own country.

To show his gratitude to the Turkish people for various kindnesses shown to him, he decided to teach Turkish to fellow Language learners. In 2001 he passed the SOAS University examination in the Turkish language. After this he began to teach Turkish at his local Technical College at Coventry in the UK. He has also given private lessons in his own home.

John Guise himself had studied Latin and Greek in his own grammar school days. Also he can speak and write some French and Spanish. Before he began to work in Turkey he had said to himself, "I now have a chance to learn Turkish.." He states that because he already knew some languages then it was easier to assimilate Turkish.

His treatise "The Turkish Language Explained for English Speakers" is the result of his many years learning and teaching this fascinating language. In it he explains the various difficulties the learner may encounter along their learning curve. Many of these differences between English and Turkish are often glossed over or not even mentioned in many already published Language courses.

Grammar is kept to a minimum and explanations are clear and to the point. It is a book about the Turkish language and its grammar that you will keep by your side from your first lesson through intermediate and advanced stages of your studies.

Customer reviews

5 star		74%
4 star		21%
3 star		6%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Avigdor

Well conceived, but flawed

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 26, 2016

Verified Purchase

A very good book for someone who has already acquired a fair knowledge of Turkish. This is not meant as a textbook, as the author clearly tells us. There are no exercises, nor are there unit-based vocabularies or an end-vocabulary covering the words introduced in the text. There are, however, abundant translations of the grammatical examples given. Guise covers with impressive clarity the difficult aspects of Turkish grammar (Chapter 22 could be improved, however). The book is greatly flawed by an excessive number of typos in both the English and Turkish text. I began reading from p. 147 through the remainder of the chapters concerning verbs, and the number of errors seemed to increase exponentially. They undoubtedly result from grossly inadequate proofreading, either by the author or his editors. One might say, however, that these errors at least serve the purpose of keeping you on your toes. In spite of the flaws I would recommend this book to someone who is formally studying Turkish and would enjoy reading supplementary discussions of grammar, as well as to someone who has studied Turkish in the past and is looking for a good refresher. I was pleased by the author's comment that although nearly all writers of Turkish grammars insist that Turkish is an easy language to learn because it is so "logical," that it is, however, quite difficult for speakers of English because of its extremely divergent grammatical structure. Note, too, that the author is English; therefore the phonetic discussion of the language is based on British pronunciation, and there may be a phrase or two that is not familiar to the speaker of American English. If it were not for the abundant, often misleading, typos, I would no doubt have given Guise's book five stars.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

John Ames

English to turkish "the confusion cleared" in easy to read english.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 27, 2014

Verified Purchase

This is not an English to turkish translation book.
It is a well written explanation on how turkish works, this book will not show you how to say "merhaba".
it will provide you with a lifetimes reference to constant refer to especially if you are a native English speaker, that is finding turkish hard going.
This work will explain Turkish in "English". It is highly recommended that you use this book in combination with pronunciation drills that can be found on the internet. Please ensure that the pronunciation drills are spoken by native Turkish speakers.
It is advised that you steer well clear of any websites that spell out the Turkish words and then below they attempt to write what it sounds like in Englsih.
Ne is pronounced "however turks pronounce it " çok is pronounced "however native turks pronounce it" the same is true of every other Turkish word and single letter. This make will help you to quickly understand this inescapable fact.

With this book at your side you will more quickly make the breakthrough in understanding turkish that you desperately need.
The key to knowing turkish is that it is totally different to English there is no comparison or similar or identical sounds.

Nasil = "how" learn to say Nasil how turks say it. nasilsin ="how are you" listen to turks learn how to pronounce from turks, hear how to say "nail+is+in" ditto for every other turkish word and your turkish understanding will become enjoyable and not frustrating.

Use this book as a reference and not as an English to turkish language learning parrot style exercise book, and you will get the maximum benefit from your purchase.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

R Nagell

Great Book Despite Errors

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 8, 2016

Verified Purchase

This is a very good reference book but it is riddled with unfathomably simple but significant errors, such as stating that "evlerinden" means "from their house" when it actually means "from their houses". Also it notes that "The suffix ‑ım must contain an UnDotted ‑ı‑ as it follows a vowel from the A‑dotted Group", when it should read "A-un-dotted Group". Also a formatting error exists where the y of your is separated from the our of "your":

yollarınız [yol‑lar‑ınız] y
our roads

I just started reading this book and find it overall a very good resource but these errors in the first pages are inexcusable considering the cost of this e-book and that they seem to be proofreading errors that could easily be corrected.

The repetitive fashion in which the material is presented will clarify instances where errors exist but I did not expect to find these annoying instances since this book has been out awhile. Regardless, I wholeheartedly recommend this book for beginners learning Turkish as it has material that I have not seen elsewhere.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

J. Carnie Littlefield

Gotta have it!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 10, 2014

Verified Purchase

I think that alongside Rosetta Stone Turkish and whatever else you're using to study Turkish, you'll find this book very helpful. It's written by an engineer --not a linguist nor an educator. The organization won't be what you've come to expect from other language courses, and for me that's a good thing. You can pick and choose topics; you don't have to progress logically through the book. It will give you a lot of insight into the whys and wherefores of the language. You'll have quite a few "Aha" moments. If you're looking for another book that relates Turkish grammar to its equivalents in English (not as obvious as you'd think), I recommend "Descriptive Turkish Grammar Exercises for Foreigners" ISBN 975-6008-25-3.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

B. Keilani

This book is useful 3 1/2 to 4 stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 29, 2012

Verified Purchase

I think the pros of this book is that it helps you somewhat get the patterns of the language, but if you don't know that much vocabulary, it can seem tedious. He does, however, repeat the grammar points he's making, so he can see the patterns. I found it somewhat useful. However, I'm finding it hard to complete the book, but I'll keep going at it. I'm at 12% of the book. I wonder if one should study a lot more Turkish before tackling this book and using it more as a reference. It's more of a reference text in my eyes, at least. It's worth having if you're trying to get the patterns down. I will also check out Perihan Masters book on suffixes at some point.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Mr H Nevzat

Turkish grammar in real life situations.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 14, 2019

Verified Purchase

Very clear Turkish grammar explanations in concise study units. Suitable for beginners & intermediate level learners. I must stress the value of this book is apparent when studying & learning Turkish. Not recommended for occasional browsing. Supplements my tips & notes provided by my self study Turkish language course. Some learning questions need extra learning material & this book is a lifeline. I personally struggled with my non - existent Turkish grammar knowledge 6 months ago. Evidence without context. Context without evidence. I could not explain correct or wrong answers whilst learning Turkish. This book has explained & improved my grammar significantly.

Merhaba

Ben Londra'da yaşıyorum. Kıbrıslı bir Türküm. Fazla Türkçe bilmem. "-da" (locative) case suffix.

Tanıştığımıza memnun oldum. It is nice to meet you.

jzlcdh

Very good for intermediate level. Needs proofreading.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 17, 2015

Verified Purchase

As mentioned in another review this is NOT SUITABLE FOR BEGINNERS. But it is very good for intermediate level.

Best thing is that it uses grammatical terms like "Suffix of Ownership", which are so much more memorable to a non-linguist like me than terms like "Genitive Case" (however the latter is in brackets after the former in case you like it).

I don't understand how there can still be so many typos when my copy says "Updated June 2015". I don't know whether Amazon print this on demand but if you paid me a lira for each typo I found I could very easily recoup the cost of this book even at today's exchange rate.

How about a free copy of the next edition for the first person to find another half dozen typos beyond those already found?

4 people found this helpful

DPA

Can't live (ok a little strong should say progress) without this and Manisa website.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 14, 2012

Verified Purchase

There is nothing that compares to this book and Manisa website, for those who truly want to learn Turkish. I have kindle version (wish I bought iBooks version as the app is way better) and spend any and every spare minute recapping. Could not be more grateful to John Guise for every aspect.

My target is to understand the Turk TRT channel-they speak sooooo quickly, but for now am more than happy being understood in every situation that I have required so far.

Colloquial audible Turkish conversation is my only struggle now but I will progress. Thank you so much!

8 people found this helpful

ayse

Not for the beginner

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 18, 2012

Verified Purchase

I have been learning Turkish for several years and had come to a bit of a standstill where I seemed to be having similar conversations all the time. I bought this book based on the reviews posted and I agree it is definitely not for anyone who doesn't have a good basic knowledge of the language - I wouldn't recommend it if you are a beginner. However, it is ideal if you just need to improve your skills especially in conjuction with a good dictionary for vocabulary. I must admit that I found some of the explanation such as having negative and positive verbs a bit strange, as most books would just describe agglutination to the one verb stem, but you get used to it. The book is easy to read which is great if especially like me , you learn by reading things over and over, although it did seem to me that some points were long drawn out and explained the same thing too repetitively. Great that it is on Kindle, and at a very reasonable price. Generally a good buy - does what it says on the tin.

9 people found this helpful

Mags

A gem for serious students of Turkish

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 3, 2012

Verified Purchase

This is a really useful book, written by an English person who is clearly as fascinated with the Turkish language as I am.

The author starts from the premise that if you have been educated in classical languages (as I was) then you will find some of the Turkish syntactical constructions difficult and he explains them in a way which was akin to light bulbs coming on in my brain!

It's not a "Teach Yourself" book really, because I think you would have to have a reasonable grounding in Turkish grammar (and, to a lesser extent, vocabulary) to get the best out of it but, for the serious student of Turkish, it seems to me to be a real gem.

7 people found this helpful

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