These fifty Turkish phrases are grouped by situation: coping when you do not understand, shops and money, food and drink, getting around, and meeting people. Start with the first ten, which keep a conversation going instead of ending it. Anlamıyorum is the most valuable of the set, and kolay gelsin the most Turkish.
Published 3 September 2026
Fifty phrases, grouped by where you will actually need them. Every one is something people say, not a textbook sentence built to demonstrate a grammar point.
Two things make these easier in Turkish than in most languages. Because the spelling is near-phonetic you can say every phrase here correctly on first reading, and because var and yok replace the verb "to have", a surprising number of useful questions need no verb at all. Stress falls on the last syllable unless marked otherwise.
Learn this group first. It is the set that keeps a conversation alive instead of ending it.
| Turkish | English |
|---|---|
| Anlamıyorum. | I don't understand. |
| Anlamadım. | I didn't catch that. |
| Türkçe bilmiyorum. | I don't speak Turkish. |
| Biraz Türkçe biliyorum. | I speak a little Turkish. |
| İngilizce biliyor musunuz? | Do you speak English? |
| Tekrar eder misiniz? | Could you say that again? |
| Yavaş konuşabilir misiniz? | Could you speak slowly? |
| Bu ne demek? | What does this mean? |
| Türkçesi ne? | What's the Turkish for it? |
| Yazabilir misiniz? | Could you write it down? |
Anlamıyorum is the single most valuable word here, and it is worth saying out loud until it comes without thinking. The last one is underrated: written Turkish is far easier for a learner than spoken Turkish, so asking someone to write a word down often solves the problem instantly.
| Turkish | English |
|---|---|
| Ne kadar? | How much is it? |
| Kaç para? | How much? (more casual) |
| Çok pahalı. | That's very expensive. |
| … var mı? | Do you have …? |
| Bunu alabilir miyim? | Can I take this one? |
| Kredi kartı geçiyor mu? | Do you take cards? |
| Fiş alabilir miyim? | Could I have a receipt? |
| Sadece bakıyorum. | I'm just looking. |
| İndirim var mı? | Is there a discount? |
| Poşet istemiyorum. | I don't need a bag. |
Sadece bakıyorum is the polite way out of a shop you have wandered into, and it is understood everywhere. Var mı? attached to any noun is the workhorse of this whole group.
| Turkish | English |
|---|---|
| Bir çay lütfen. | A tea, please. |
| Menü alabilir miyim? | Could I have the menu? |
| Ne tavsiye edersiniz? | What do you recommend? |
| Et yemiyorum. | I don't eat meat. |
| Acı mı? | Is it spicy? |
| Su alabilir miyim? | Could I have some water? |
| Bir tane daha lütfen. | One more, please. |
| Çok lezzetli. | It's delicious. |
| Hesap lütfen. | The bill, please. |
| Afiyet olsun. | Enjoy your meal. |
Afiyet olsun is said before eating, after eating, and by whoever cooked or served. If someone has fed you at home, the phrase they will most appreciate is elinize sağlık — "health to your hands" — covered in the greetings guide.
| Turkish | English |
|---|---|
| … nerede? | Where is …? |
| Tuvalet nerede? | Where's the toilet? |
| Nasıl giderim? | How do I get there? |
| Ne kadar uzak? | How far is it? |
| Sağa / sola | To the right / to the left |
| Düz gidin. | Go straight on. |
| Bir bilet lütfen. | One ticket, please. |
| Saat kaçta? | At what time? |
| İnecek var! | Someone's getting off! (on a bus or dolmuş) |
| Kayboldum. | I'm lost. |
İnecek var deserves its place. On a shared minibus you call it out so the driver stops, and no phrasebook teaches it because it only exists in that one situation — which is exactly why knowing it marks you out as someone who has been here a while.
| Turkish | English |
|---|---|
| Affedersiniz. | Excuse me. (getting attention) |
| Pardon. | Sorry. (squeezing past) |
| Özür dilerim. | I apologise. |
| Sorun değil. | No problem. |
| Memnun oldum. | Pleased to meet you. |
| Adınız ne? | What's your name? |
| Benim adım … | My name is … |
| Nerelisiniz? | Where are you from? |
| İngiltere'denim. | I'm from England. |
| Kolay gelsin. | May it come easy. (to anyone working) |
Kolay gelsin is the one to take away. Say it to a waiter, a driver, a shopkeeper, a builder, anyone at work. It has no English equivalent, it costs nothing, and it is said constantly in Turkey — which means a foreigner using it is immediately doing something right.
Almost every phrase on this page has a polite and an informal version, and choosing between them is a social skill rather than a grammatical one. The distinction is the same idea as French tu and vous.
| Informal (sen) | Polite (siz) | English |
|---|---|---|
| Nasılsın? | Nasılsınız? | How are you? |
| Adın ne? | Adınız ne? | What's your name? |
| Anlıyor musun? | Anlıyor musunuz? | Do you understand? |
| Hoşça kal. | Hoşça kalın. | Goodbye. |
The rule of thumb is simple and safe: use siz with anyone older than you, anyone serving you, anyone in an official role, and anyone you have just met. Siz is never rude. Sen sometimes is. Turkish people will usually invite you to switch once they are comfortable, and until they do, staying formal costs you nothing.
The commonest way a beginner's conversation dies is not a grammatical failure. It is the moment you do not understand, feel embarrassed, and switch to English — which ends the practice and teaches you nothing.
The phrases in the first group exist precisely to prevent that. Anlamadım, tekrar eder misiniz? keeps you in Turkish. Yavaş konuşabilir misiniz? keeps you in Turkish. Bu ne demek? turns the other person into a teacher, usually a willing one.
Two more that buy you time and are worth adding to the set: Bir saniye ("one second") while you assemble a sentence, and Nasıl denir? ("how do you say it?") when you are missing exactly one word. Neither is complicated, and both mean the exchange continues instead of collapsing.
Do not try to hold fifty phrases at once. Take one group — the first one — and use it for a week until those ten arrive without effort. The "I don't understand" group is the right place to start because it is what keeps you in a conversation rather than retreating from it.
The single biggest improvement you can make is not more vocabulary. It is putting the stress at the end of the word: af-fe-der-si-NIZ, not af-FE-der-si-niz. See the pronunciation guide for why, and for the handful of words that break the rule.
Learn the ten "I don't understand" phrases before the other forty. They are what turns a failed exchange into a lesson, and they are the ones you will use every day.
These phrases assume the greetings, which come first and include the fixed reply pairs. The first hundred words lets you swap nouns into these patterns, the numbers handle prices and times, and the roadmap sets out what to learn next.
Turkish is coming to Gora, where phrases are practised inside real exchanges with native audio rather than read off a list. See what is coming and join the launch list.