Basic words in Kazakh

303 words Kazakh words on the topic “basic words”: Иә — yes, Жоқ — no, Жақсы — good, well, Жаман — bad, badly. 303 words can be played from recordings.

Updated September 1, 2026 · Lingofly

303 words on the topic

How it sounds in a sentence

A word list is a blank. Conversation is made of sentences, and these are the ones the words fit into most often.

What is worth knowing about these words

Иә — yes. The soft partner of zhoq, "no". In conversation the vowel is stretched — "iyaaa" — and that is not sloppiness: it signals you are being listened to.

Жоқ — no. The same word means "there is not": su zhoq is "there is no water". It is the negative partner of bar, "there is".

Жақсы — good, well. The standard answer to "how are you?". One word serves as adverb and adjective alike: zhaqsy adam is "a good person".

Жаман — bad, badly. Like zhaqsy, one word for adjective and adverb: zhaman kun is "a bad day", zhaman boldy is "it went badly".

Test yourself

First by ear — the way you will meet the word in conversation. Click the speaker and pick the translation.

What is this word?
It is Иә — yes.
What is this word?
It is Жарты — half.
What is this word?
It is Жеңіл — light.
What is this word?
It is Он бір — eleven.
What is this word?
It is Он сегіз — eighteen.

Now the other way around: recall the spelling from the meaning. That is harder, and therefore more useful.

How do you say “yes” in Kazakh?
The soft partner of zhoq, "no". In conversation the vowel is stretched — "iyaaa" — and that is not sloppiness: it signals you are being listened to.
How do you say “half” in Kazakh?
"Zharty keli" is half a kilo, and "zharty sagat" is half an hour: the word works with weight and with time alike.
How do you say “light” in Kazakh?
The very root from which "discount" grew — the thing that makes the price light.
How do you say “eleven” in Kazakh?
The second ten is built by addition: "on" is ten, "bir" is one. There is no single fused word for it.
How do you say “eighteen” in Kazakh?
"On" plus "segiz". Coming of age in Kazakhstan is called exactly that: "on segiz zhas".

How to learn the set instead of just reading it

Yes, no, good, bad, very. The small change of a language — and no sentence assembles without it.

A list is read in a minute and forgotten in a day. What works: hide the translation, try to recall, get it wrong — and come back to the same words tomorrow.

Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many times
Adesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
This holds not only in experiments but in ordinary classrooms, with real students.checked many times
Mawson & Kang, 2025, Behavioral Sciences 15(6):771 · 22 studies, d = 0.54 (confidence interval 0.31–0.77). The authors warn that individual studies disagree widely.

Frequently asked

How do you say “yes” in Kazakh?

«Иә». ä is like the e in "met", but wider: iy-E. It is one of 303 words in the set “basic words” — the rest are in the table above.

How many basic words do you need to start?

A dozen is enough. The set of 303 words on this page covers nearly every everyday case on the topic — but it is best taken a few at a time, not all at once.

Is there audio?

Yes, 303 words on this page can be played — click the speaker next to the word. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.

Basic words in Kazakh

303 words on the topic

How it sounds in a sentence

What is worth knowing about these words

Test yourself

How to learn the set instead of just reading it

Frequently asked

How do you say “yes” in Kazakh?

How many basic words do you need to start?

Is there audio?

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