The morning lesson for Tuesday, Sali, opens with breakfast (kahvaltı), giving standard words for common Turkish breakfast items;
ekmek : bread
tereyağı : butter
beyaz peynır : feta cheese
zeytin : olives
And, of course the standard beverages, Turkish tea (Türk çayı) and Turkish coffee (Türk kahvesi). There's also standard table vocabulary;
bıçak : knife
çatal : fork
kaşık ; spoon
bardak : glass
tuz : salt
biber : pepper
We also learn a little about imperatives, with the polite request, "Please bring me the check":
Lütfen, bana hesabı getiriniz
Lütfen is similar to 'please', bana is 'to me', and the -iniz ending is the imperative. And we get demonstratives for this (bu), that (şu), and that over there (o), which also gives us the words for here (burada), there (şurada), and over there (orada).
For evening lesson, we get shopping terms, like the all-important shopping phrase, "How much?" (Kaç lira?).
In Turkish, you don't always need an article, but bir, which can either precede or succeed its noun, can mean 'a' or 'the' depending on context.
If you want to say that you can do something, you use the aorist present tense. So görmek means 'to see'; if we say görebilmek we mean 'to be able to see', and 'I can see' is görebeilirim.
While it's not necessary unless you are being specific, you indicate the accusative with a -(y)i or -(y)ı, as is appropriate.
And that's a quick taste for Tuesday. Tune in tomorrow for travel.
*****
Tayfun and Gillian Çağa, Conversational Turkish in 7 Days, Passport Books (Chicago: 1992).
