The Turkish Language Explained for English Speakers: A Treatise on the Turkish Language and its Grammar 1st Edition

A very good book for someone who has already acquired a fair knowledge of Turkish. This is not meant as a textbook, as the author clearly tells us. There are no exercises, nor are there unit-based vocabularies or an end-vocabulary covering the words introduced in the text. There are, however, abundant translations of the grammatical examples given. Guise covers with impressive clarity the difficult aspects of Turkish grammar (Chapter 22 could be improved, however). The book is greatly flawed by an excessive number of typos in both the English and Turkish text. I began reading from p. 147 through the remainder of the chapters concerning verbs, and the number of errors seemed to increase exponentially. They undoubtedly result from grossly inadequate proofreading, either by the author or his editors. One might say, however, that these errors at least serve the purpose of keeping you on your toes. In spite of the flaws I would recommend this book to someone who is formally studying Turkish and would enjoy reading supplementary discussions of grammar, as well as to someone who has studied Turkish in the past and is looking for a good refresher. I was pleased by the author's comment that although nearly all writers of Turkish grammars insist that Turkish is an easy language to learn because it is so "logical," that it is, however, quite difficult for speakers of English because of its extremely divergent grammatical structure. Note, too, that the author is English; therefore the phonetic discussion of the language is based on British pronunciation, and there may be a phrase or two that is not familiar to the speaker of American English. If it were not for the abundant, often misleading, typos, I would no doubt have given Guise's book five stars.

This is not an English to turkish translation book.It is a well written explanation on how turkish works, this book will not show you how to say "merhaba".it will provide you with a lifetimes reference to constant refer to especially if you are a native English speaker, that is finding turkish hard going.This work will explain Turkish in "English". It is highly recommended that you use this book in combination with pronunciation drills that can be found on the internet. Please ensure that the pronunciation drills are spoken by native Turkish speakers.It is advised that you steer well clear of any websites that spell out the Turkish words and then below they attempt to write what it sounds like in Englsih.Ne is pronounced "however turks pronounce it " çok is pronounced "however native turks pronounce it" the same is true of every other Turkish word and single letter. This make will help you to quickly understand this inescapable fact.With this book at your side you will more quickly make the breakthrough in understanding turkish that you desperately need.The key to knowing turkish is that it is totally different to English there is no comparison or similar or identical sounds.Nasil = "how" learn to say Nasil how turks say it. nasilsin ="how are you" listen to turks learn how to pronounce from turks, hear how to say "nail+is+in" ditto for every other turkish word and your turkish understanding will become enjoyable and not frustrating.Use this book as a reference and not as an English to turkish language learning parrot style exercise book, and you will get the maximum benefit from your purchase.

This is a very good reference book but it is riddled with unfathomably simple but significant errors, such as stating that "evlerinden" means "from their house" when it actually means "from their houses". Also it notes that "The suffix ‑ım must contain an UnDotted ‑ı‑ as it follows a vowel from the A‑dotted Group", when it should read "A-un-dotted Group". Also a formatting error exists where the y of your is separated from the our of "your":yollarınız [yol‑lar‑ınız] your roadsI just started reading this book and find it overall a very good resource but these errors in the first pages are inexcusable considering the cost of this e-book and that they seem to be proofreading errors that could easily be corrected.The repetitive fashion in which the material is presented will clarify instances where errors exist but I did not expect to find these annoying instances since this book has been out awhile. Regardless, I wholeheartedly recommend this book for beginners learning Turkish as it has material that I have not seen elsewhere.

I think that alongside Rosetta Stone Turkish and whatever else you're using to study Turkish, you'll find this book very helpful. It's written by an engineer --not a linguist nor an educator. The organization won't be what you've come to expect from other language courses, and for me that's a good thing. You can pick and choose topics; you don't have to progress logically through the book. It will give you a lot of insight into the whys and wherefores of the language. You'll have quite a few "Aha" moments. If you're looking for another book that relates Turkish grammar to its equivalents in English (not as obvious as you'd think), I recommend "Descriptive Turkish Grammar Exercises for Foreigners" ISBN 975-6008-25-3.

I think the pros of this book is that it helps you somewhat get the patterns of the language, but if you don't know that much vocabulary, it can seem tedious. He does, however, repeat the grammar points he's making, so he can see the patterns. I found it somewhat useful. However, I'm finding it hard to complete the book, but I'll keep going at it. I'm at 12% of the book. I wonder if one should study a lot more Turkish before tackling this book and using it more as a reference. It's more of a reference text in my eyes, at least. It's worth having if you're trying to get the patterns down. I will also check out Perihan Masters book on suffixes at some point.

Very clear Turkish grammar explanations in concise study units. Suitable for beginners & intermediate level learners. I must stress the value of this book is apparent when studying & learning Turkish. Not recommended for occasional browsing. Supplements my tips & notes provided by my self study Turkish language course. Some learning questions need extra learning material & this book is a lifeline. I personally struggled with my non - existent Turkish grammar knowledge 6 months ago. Evidence without context. Context without evidence. I could not explain correct or wrong answers whilst learning Turkish. This book has explained & improved my grammar significantly.MerhabaBen Londra'da yaşıyorum. Kıbrıslı bir Türküm. Fazla Türkçe bilmem. "-da" (locative) case suffix.Tanıştığımıza memnun oldum. It is nice to meet you.

As mentioned in another review this is NOT SUITABLE FOR BEGINNERS. But it is very good for intermediate level.Best thing is that it uses grammatical terms like "Suffix of Ownership", which are so much more memorable to a non-linguist like me than terms like "Genitive Case" (however the latter is in brackets after the former in case you like it).I don't understand how there can still be so many typos when my copy says "Updated June 2015". I don't know whether Amazon print this on demand but if you paid me a lira for each typo I found I could very easily recoup the cost of this book even at today's exchange rate.How about a free copy of the next edition for the first person to find another half dozen typos beyond those already found?

There is nothing that compares to this book and Manisa website, for those who truly want to learn Turkish. I have kindle version (wish I bought iBooks version as the app is way better) and spend any and every spare minute recapping. Could not be more grateful to John Guise for every aspect.My target is to understand the Turk TRT channel-they speak sooooo quickly, but for now am more than happy being understood in every situation that I have required so far.Colloquial audible Turkish conversation is my only struggle now but I will progress. Thank you so much!

I have been learning Turkish for several years and had come to a bit of a standstill where I seemed to be having similar conversations all the time. I bought this book based on the reviews posted and I agree it is definitely not for anyone who doesn't have a good basic knowledge of the language - I wouldn't recommend it if you are a beginner. However, it is ideal if you just need to improve your skills especially in conjuction with a good dictionary for vocabulary. I must admit that I found some of the explanation such as having negative and positive verbs a bit strange, as most books would just describe agglutination to the one verb stem, but you get used to it. The book is easy to read which is great if especially like me , you learn by reading things over and over, although it did seem to me that some points were long drawn out and explained the same thing too repetitively. Great that it is on Kindle, and at a very reasonable price. Generally a good buy - does what it says on the tin.

This is a really useful book, written by an English person who is clearly as fascinated with the Turkish language as I am.The author starts from the premise that if you have been educated in classical languages (as I was) then you will find some of the Turkish syntactical constructions difficult and he explains them in a way which was akin to light bulbs coming on in my brain!It's not a "Teach Yourself" book really, because I think you would have to have a reasonable grounding in Turkish grammar (and, to a lesser extent, vocabulary) to get the best out of it but, for the serious student of Turkish, it seems to me to be a real gem.