Lütfen and rica ederim: two pleases
English already keeps these apart: please asks, and you are welcome answers thanks. Turkish keeps them apart too, and the two words will not stand in for each other. For example: “Bir çay, lütfen” — One tea, please. A rule from the Turkish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
English already keeps these apart: please asks, and you are welcome answers thanks. Turkish keeps them apart too, and the two words will not stand in for each other.
lütfen lives in a request. It sits next to the thing asked for, most often at the end: Bir çay, lütfen. It is never said in reply to thanks.
rica ederim answers thanks, and word for word it means I ask. Among friends the same thing sounds shorter: ne demek, what is there to speak of.
One caveat keeps it from being only an answer. In an official letter rica ederim is exactly how you make a request: there it means I ask you to do it. That is a different register, not a mistake. Across a counter a Turk says lütfen.
Table
| the situation | what is said | word for word |
|---|---|---|
| a request | lütfen | please |
| the answer to thanks | rica ederim | "I ask" — don’t mention it |
| the answer among your own | ne demek | "what is there to speak of" |
| a request in an official letter | rica ederim | "I ask" — the bookish register, not for talk |
By example
- Bir çay, lütfenOne tea, please
- Teşekkürler. — Rica ederim.Thank you. — Don’t mention it.
- Tekrar eder misiniz, lütfen?Could you repeat that, please?
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
Lütfen or rica ederim: which please?
English already keeps these apart: please asks, and you are welcome answers thanks. Turkish keeps them apart too, and the two words will not stand in for each other.
How to reply to teşekkürler?
lütfen lives in a request. It sits next to the thing asked for, most often at the end: Bir çay, lütfen. It is never said in reply to thanks.
How to say you are welcome in Turkish?
rica ederim answers thanks, and word for word it means I ask. Among friends the same thing sounds shorter: ne demek, what is there to speak of.
Why lütfen is not the answer to thank you?
One caveat keeps it from being only an answer. In an official letter rica ederim is exactly how you make a request: there it means I ask you to do it. That is a different register, not a mistake. Across a counter a Turk says lütfen.
What does it look like in an example sentence Turkish?
“Bir çay, lütfen” — One tea, please. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.