The city and its places in Kazakh

83 words Kazakh words on the topic “the city and its places”: Қала — city, Көше — street, Банк — bank, Дәріхана — pharmacy. 83 words can be played from recordings.

Updated September 1, 2026 · Lingofly

83 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

Қала — city. Hence "qalalyq", "urban". The village is "auyl", and that word means far more in Kazakh than a mere address.

Көше — street. In addresses it stands after the name and takes the possessive tail: "Abai koshesi" is "Abai Street".

Банк — bank. A loanword that takes cases as its own, with devoicing at the seam: "bankke" is "to the bank", "bankten" is "from the bank".

Дәріхана — pharmacy. Again "-khana", "house": "dari", "medicine", plus house. Like "meiramkhana".

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 Қала — city.
What is this word?
It is Автобус аялдамасы — bus stop sign.
What is this word?
It is Жүргізуші куәлігі — driver's license.
What is this word?
It is Стадион — stadium.
What is this word?
It is Тоннель — tunnel.

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

How do you say “city” in Kazakh?
Hence "qalalyq", "urban". The village is "auyl", and that word means far more in Kazakh than a mere address.
How do you say “bus stop sign” in Kazakh?
The word for "stop" comes from "to linger". The sign on the pole in Almaty is labeled exactly with this phrase.
How do you say “driver's license” in Kazakh?
"A certificate", from "to witness": the certificate of the driver. With the tail the voiceless "k" voices into "g".
How do you say “stadium” in Kazakh?
An international word. The Almaty stadium is called simply "the Central one" — in Kazakh with the native word for "central".
How do you say “tunnel” in Kazakh?
a borrowing; the underpass you meet in a city more often is literally an underground crossing

How to learn the set instead of just reading it

Street, square, pharmacy, bank. An address is built out of these, and an address is something you have to both say and understand.

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 “city” in Kazakh?

«Қала». Hence "qalalyq", "urban". The village is "auyl", and that word means far more in Kazakh than a mere address. It is one of 83 words in the set “the city and its places” — the rest are in the table above.

How many street and place words do you need to start?

A dozen is enough. The set of 83 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, 83 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.

The city and its places in Kazakh

83 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 “city” in Kazakh?

How many street and place words do you need to start?

Is there audio?

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