Measures and shares: buçuk, çeyrek, yüzde and multiples on kat
Measure is the first place where Turkish parts company with English, and a slip here is heard at once. For example: “Kasaptan yarım kilo kıyma aldım” — At the butcher’s I bought half a kilo of ground meat. A rule from the Turkish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Measure is the first place where Turkish parts company with English, and a slip here is heard at once.
After a number the noun is not pluralized: beş kilo elma, five kilos of apples, never beş kilolar. The number has already said how many.
There are two halves, and they do not swap. yarım is a half on its own: yarım saat, Kasaptan yarım kilo kıyma aldım. buçuk is a half following a whole number: iki buçuk saat. Saying iki yarım saat is as wrong as two half hours.
The trap is the percent, which goes in front of the number: Fiyatlar yüzde on arttı, literally in a hundred, ten. The sign on a price tag reads the same way.
Table
| the form | what it means | example | translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| number + measure | no plural | beş kilo elma | five kilos of apples |
| yarım | a half on its own | yarım saat | half an hour |
| buçuk | a half after a whole | iki buçuk saat | two and a half hours |
| çeyrek | a quarter | çeyrek elma | a quarter of an apple |
| yüzde + number | percent, the order reversed | yüzde yirmi | twenty percent |
| kat | that many times over | iki kat arttı | it doubled |
| kere / defa | that many times (occasions) | iki kere aradım | I called twice |
| -lik / -lık | a measure as a quality | iki metrelik ip | a two-meter rope |
By example
- Kasaptan yarım kilo kıyma aldımAt the butcher’s I bought half a kilo of ground meat
- Toplantı iki buçuk saat sürdüThe meeting lasted two and a half hours
- Fiyatlar yüzde on arttıPrices rose by ten percent
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
Measures and shares: how does it work in Turkish?
Measure is the first place where Turkish parts company with English, and a slip here is heard at once.
What does it look like in an example sentence Turkish?
“Kasaptan yarım kilo kıyma aldım” — At the butcher’s I bought half a kilo of ground meat. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.