School Activities

School activities in Turkish

This topic is about the activities you do at school - lessons, sport, music, trips, homework and exams. Turkish is written in the Latin alphabet, but with extra letters: ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü. (Watch out: the dotless ı and the dotted i are different letters!) Turkish has no words for "the" or "a" - but it does have vowel harmony, coming up soon.

Words for school activities

Here are six to learn first. Each shows the Turkish and its English meaning.

What spor means in Turkish

What does spor mean?

• Sport or PE
• Music
• Homework
• A library

Match each word to its English meaning

Vowel harmony

Turkish has no "the" or "a", but it does have vowel harmony - and it decides the plural ending. To make a word plural you add -lar or -ler. If the last vowel is a back vowel (a, ı, o, u), you add -lar: sınav becomes sınavlar. If it is a front vowel (e, i, ö, ü), you add -ler: ders becomes dersler. The ending has to harmonise with the vowel before it.

More school words

Four more, including a place and two objects you will need for the next check.

Which are activities?

Select the THREE words that are school ACTIVITIES, not objects.

• spor
• müzik
• gezi
• kitap
• kalem

Make it plural

Add the right ending. One lesson is ders, two are _____. One exam is sınav, two are _____. One school is okul, two are _____. One homework task is ödev, two are _____.

Where are you?

You go to the kütüphane. What is it?

• The library
• The gym
• The music room
• The exam hall

Order the school day

Put a normal school day into a sensible order. (Each step tags its Turkish word.)

• You arrive at school (okul)
• You have your first lesson (ders)
• You do PE (spor)
• You visit the library (kütüphane)
• At home you do your homework (ödev)

Putting it together

Now you can talk about a whole school day. At school (okul) you sit in a lesson (ders), you might do sport (spor) or music (müzik), and there may be an exam (sınav). There are also school trips (gezi) and the library (kütüphane), and at home there is always the homework (ödev).

Turkish closes the sentence with the verb

The school words become sentences once you add var (there is) or a verb at the end. Turkish never puts the verb in the middle the way English does: - Okulda spor var = "there is sport at school". okul takes the -da ending, chosen by vowel harmony to match the vowels already in the word, and var closes the sentence. - Ben sporu seviyorum = "I like sport". Ben (I), then what, then the verb last. spor takes -u because it is the thing being liked.

Turkish puts the verb at the end

Turkish puts the verb at the end. Which of these says "there is sport at school"?

• Okulda spor var
• Var okulda spor
• Okul spor var
• Ben sporu seviyorum

Match each word to its plural

Pick the word

For each situation, choose the right Turkish word.

• You want to talk about sport and PE at school.
• Your class is going on a school trip.
• The teacher gives you work to finish at home.

Yaz!

Write about 30 words in Turkish about your school activities.

• Name two activities you do at school (for example spor, müzik)
• Say one thing you like, with a reason (severim ... çünkü ...)
• Mention where you go, such as the kütüphane
• Try to make one word plural with the correct -lar or -ler ending