LingoflyҚайырлы түн
- Қайырлы түнQaiyrly tüngood night
“Қайырлы түн” (Qaiyrly tün) — good night in Kazakh. Phrase, level A1, topic — greetings and goodbyes. The third of the qairly set: tan is morning, kesh is evening, tun is night. Said when parting for the night, not when meeting in the evening. In a live sentence: “Қайырлы түн, жақсы демалыңыз” (Qaiyrly tün, zhaqsy demalyñyz) — Good night, rest well. You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters Қ, а, й, ы, р, л, ы, т, ү, н.
In short
| Written in Kazakh | Қайырлы түн (Qaiyrly tün) |
| Read in Latin letters | Qaiyrly tün |
| Translation | good night |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
The third of the qairly set: tan is morning, kesh is evening, tun is night. Said when parting for the night, not when meeting in the evening.
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
Nearby words: greetings and goodbyes
Every conversation starts here, and so does every first impression: say hello in the local language and you stop being a stranger in about a second.
- Сәлеметсіз беSälemetsiz behello (formal)The full polite greeting. The "be" at the end is a question particle, so literally "are you well?"
- СәлемSälemhiFor your own people. An Arabic loan for "peace" — the same word you hear in "salaam" and "shalom".
- Сау болыңызSau bolyñyzgoodbyeLiterally "be healthy". Among your own, the short sau bol does the job.
- Қайырлы таңQaiyrly tañgood morning"Qairly" means "auspicious". Evening is qairly kesh, night is qairly tun — the same frame, a different word.
- Қалайсың?Qalaisyñ?how are you?The same word on first-name terms: the polite -syz swaps to -syñ. The pair works exactly like sau bolyñyz and sau bol, the two farewells.
- Қалайсыз?Qalaisyz?how are you (polite)?"Qalai" is "how" and -syz is the polite "you" — the pronoun lives inside the word, the way it does in Turkish.
- Қайырлы күнQaiyrly küngood afternoon"Qairly" means "auspicious", as in the morning "qairly tan" and the night "qairly tun"; only the second word changes.
- Қайырлы кешQaiyrly keshgood evening"Kesh" is both "evening" and "late". Before sleep it is "qairly tun", a different wish altogether.
- Сау болSau bolbyeLiterally "be healthy". This is "sau bolynyz" minus the polite tail "-ynyz" — that is, on informal terms.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “greetings and goodbyes”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “good night” in Kazakh?
The third of the qairly set: tan is morning, kesh is evening, tun is night. Said when parting for the night, not when meeting in the evening.
- How do you say “good afternoon” in Kazakh?
"Qairly" means "auspicious", as in the morning "qairly tan" and the night "qairly tun"; only the second word changes.
- How do you say “good morning” in Kazakh?
"Qairly" means "auspicious". Evening is qairly kesh, night is qairly tun — the same frame, a different word.
- How do you say “hello (formal)” in Kazakh?
The full polite greeting. The "be" at the end is a question particle, so literally "are you well?"
- How do you say “good evening” in Kazakh?
"Kesh" is both "evening" and "late". Before sleep it is "qairly tun", a different wish altogether.
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, 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.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “good night” in Kazakh?
«Қайырлы түн» (Qaiyrly tün), read “Qaiyrly tün”. In a live sentence: “Қайырлы түн, жақсы демалыңыз” (Qaiyrly tün, zhaqsy demalyñyz) — Good night, rest well. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level A1, from the set “greetings and goodbyes”; written with the characters Қ, а, й, ы, р, л, ы, т, ү, н.
How is “Қайырлы түн” (Qaiyrly tün) written in Latin letters?
Qaiyrly tün. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The third of the qairly set: tan is morning, kesh is evening, tun is night. Said when parting for the night, not when meeting in the evening. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how this sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.