Turkish has no verb meaning to have. Var means there is and yok means there is not, and neither changes for person or number. To say you own something, put a possessive ending on the thing and follow it with var or yok: arabam var is I have a car. Any noun plus var mı is a complete, polite question.
Published 28 August 2026
Turkish has no verb meaning "to have". None. There is no equivalent of English have, French avoir or German haben sitting in the dictionary waiting to be conjugated.
Instead it has two very short words, var and yok, which between them do the work that English spreads across "there is", "there are", "there isn't", "have", "haven't got" and "none left". They are among the first words you should learn and among the last you will stop using, because they turn up in almost every practical conversation.
| Turkish | Say it | Means |
|---|---|---|
| var | var | there is, there are, it exists |
| yok | yok | there isn't, there aren't, none |
They are not verbs in the English sense. They do not conjugate for person, they carry no tense of their own in the present, and they sit at the end of the sentence where a verb would.
| Turkish | Literally | English |
|---|---|---|
| Masada kitap var. | on-table book there-is | There's a book on the table. |
| Su yok. | water there-isn't | There's no water. |
| Problem yok. | problem there-isn't | No problem. |
This is the part worth slowing down for, because it is not how English works at all. Turkish does not say "I have a car". It says, roughly, "my car exists".
The structure is: the thing you own, carrying a possessive ending, followed by var or yok.
| Turkish | Literally | English |
|---|---|---|
| Arabam var. | my-car there-is | I have a car. |
| Param yok. | my-money there-isn't | I have no money. |
| Kardeşin var mı? | your-sibling there-is ? | Do you have any brothers or sisters? |
| Vaktim yok. | my-time there-isn't | I don't have time. |
| Sorusu var. | his-question there-is | He has a question. |
The person is carried entirely by the possessive ending on the noun — araba becomes arabam, "my car". Change that ending and you change who has it: araban var (you have a car), arabası var (he or she has a car).
You can add the owner in front for emphasis — benim arabam var, "I have a car" — but it is usually left out, because the ending has already said it.
Add mı and you have a question. This is, without exaggeration, the most useful sentence pattern for anyone spending time in Turkey.
| Turkish | English |
|---|---|
| Var mı? | Is there any? / Do you have it? |
| Su var mı? | Is there water? / Do you have water? |
| Boş oda var mı? | Do you have a free room? |
| İngilizce menü var mı? | Is there an English menu? |
| Daha büyük var mı? | Do you have a bigger one? |
Notice you do not need to know the verb "to have", you do not need to conjugate anything, and you do not need to work out whether to address the person formally. Noun plus var mı is a complete, polite, perfectly natural question. It works in shops, hotels, restaurants, pharmacies and offices.
The answers come back just as short: var (yes, there is) or yok (no, there isn't). The question word harmonises with the word before it — var mı? but yok mu? — following the usual four-way pattern from vowel harmony.
In everyday speech yok is used on its own as a casual "no" or "nope", much more often than the formal hayır. If you ask someone whether there is any bread left and they say yok, that is the whole answer.
It also appears in a small set of very common expressions. Sorun yok and problem yok both mean "no problem". Bir şey yok is "it's nothing", used to wave away thanks or concern.
For the past you add the past-tense ending, and these are the two forms to memorise as words rather than derive:
| Present | Past | English |
|---|---|---|
| var | vardı | there was, there were |
| yok | yoktu | there wasn't, there weren't |
So Param yoktu is "I had no money", and Bir problem vardı is "there was a problem". The rest of the sentence does not change shape — only the little word at the end does.
It is worth appreciating what Turkish has avoided here. English "have" is irregular (have, has, had), doubles as an auxiliary verb in half the tense system, and comes with a tangle of alternatives — "have got", "there is", "there are" agreeing with number. Turkish replaced all of it with two invariable words that do not agree with anything.
Var is var whether one thing exists or a hundred. Kitap var and kitaplar var both use it unchanged. There is nothing to get wrong.
Turkish has no verb "to have". The thing takes a possessive ending and then var or yok does the rest. Noun plus var mı is the most useful question in the language.
Say these in Turkish. You have everything you need.
Answers: (1) Çay var mı? (2) Sorum var. (3) Param yok. (4) Problem yoktu. (5) Daha küçük var mı?
Five sentences, no verbs conjugated, all of them things you would genuinely say.
The possessive endings that make arabam out of araba come from the suffix system, and their vowels follow harmony. For more ready-made sentences of this kind see fifty everyday phrases, and the first hundred words gives you nouns to slot in.
Turkish is coming to Gora, where var and yok appear in the first units because they unlock so much so early. See what is coming and join the launch list.