Common Turkish words: facts and figures

The Turkish language is one of the most passionate languages in the world and its beauty lies in its words.

The Turkish language is estimated to be made out of a total of 150000 words with the largest Turkish dictionary having over 100000 words. This can seem a really big and frightening number to someone wanting to start learning Turkish, but here's the good news: you only need to know roughly 5% of the total words to be fluent in Turkish. This translates into knowing only the 5000 most common Turkish words in order to be able to have fluent conversations in Turkish.

What’s even more encouraging is that knowing as little as 100 words helps you understand half of the words in an article or book written in Turkish. Learn the most common 1000 words and you get to a 75% understanding of texts in Turkish. Also, each new word you learn helps you guess the meaning of up to 50 words you have never seen before. This means that knowing only 1000 words helps you guess up to 50000 Turkish words. Doesn't seem that frightening now, right?

Top 10 cool and common Turkish words pronounced by native Turkish speakers

1. Merhaba. = Hello.

Let's naturally start with "Merhaba" which means "Hello" in Turkish. This is one of the most known words in Turkish and a great way to start a conversation with someone from Turkey.

2. aşk = love

Love is a universal feeling and we definitely had to talk about it here. Turkish people have a lovely way of saying they love someone or something through the word "aşk".

3. mutluluk = happiness

When there's love, there's definitely happiness. We are all chasing "mutluluk" as Turkish speaking people would say.

4. kedi = cat

Let's talk pets. There are two types of people in the world: cat people and dog people. We are going to talk about cats first or how people in Turkey would say: "kedi".

5. köpek = dog

But let's not forget our lovely and loyal companions, dogs. A dog in Turkish is "köpek", a really useful word for dog lovers worldwide.

6. gülümsemek = smile

Now it is time to smile or how someone from Turkey would say "gülümsemek". Smiling makes us happy and helps us stay healthy, so that's why we all need to smile every day.

7. Türk = Turkish

Next, let’s see how people in Turkey say “Turkish”. The correct answer is "Türk".

8. Evet. = Yes.

Yes, we have arrived at number 8 where “yes” is the subject to be discussed. Turkish speakers say “yes” by simply saying "evet".

9. Teşekkürler. = Thank you.

Thank you for reading this far or should I say "Teşekkürler" as they say in Turkish.

10. Güle güle. = Goodbye.

No polite conversation can end without a good old goodbye or "Hoşçakalın!" how Turkish people usually say.

If you want to learn more about Turkish, please come and join my lesson! I am a professional Turkish teacher for foreigners and you will feel yourself into a real Turkish course! Let's enjoy learning and discover Turkish together!