Exactly how much: her, bütün, birkaç, bazı — and "about"
English spreads 'all' over all/every/whole and still overlaps. Turkish keeps bütün and her strictly apart. bütün — the whole, undivided: bütün gün — the whole day, bütün para — all the money at once. her — each one separately: her gün — every day. Hence a rule that saves many mistakes: after her the noun stands in the singular, even when a multitude is meant. Her öğrenci — every student; her öğrenciler is never…
How it works
English spreads 'all' over all/every/whole and still overlaps. Turkish keeps bütün and her strictly apart. bütün — the whole, undivided: bütün gün — the whole day, bütün para — all the money at once. her — each one separately: her gün — every day. Hence a rule that saves many mistakes: after her the noun stands in the singular, even when a multitude is meant. Her öğrenci — every student; her öğrenciler is never said. Here English quietly agrees: 'every day', never 'every days'.
'A few' — birkaç — also keeps the singular after it: birkaç gün, birkaç soru. This is the general Turkish counting rule: where a number or its stand-in stands, there is no plural tail. üç kitap, not üç kitaplar. bazı ('some') is the single exception — it demands the plural: bazı öğrenciler.
'Most' — çoğu — behaves like a noun: öğrencilerin çoğu — most of the students, literally 'of the students, their-majority'. For 'not a single' there is hiçbir, and the verb with it must be negative: Hiçbir soruyu anlamadım. The familiar hiç is the same word without the noun.
Approximation is assembled three ways. yaklaşık and aşağı yukarı stand before the number: yaklaşık iki bin lira — about two thousand lira. kadar and civarında stand after: iki bin lira kadar, saat üç civarında — around three o'clock. And in speech the commonest move is simply to name two neighboring numbers in a row: üç beş gün — three to five days, beş on lira — some ten lira. That is not a miscount; it is the ordinary Turkish eyeball estimate.
Table
| the word | what it means | the number of the noun | example |
|---|---|---|---|
| bütün | the whole, undivided | sing. or pl. | bütün gün — the whole day |
| her | each one separately | singular only | her hafta — every week |
| birkaç | a few | singular only | birkaç soru — a few questions |
| bazı | some (of them) | plural required | bazı günler — on some days |
| çoğu | most | like a noun, with -in | insanların çoğu — most people |
| hiçbir | not a single (negative verb) | singular only | hiçbir şey almadım |
| yaklaşık / kadar | about (before / after the number) | — | yaklaşık on kişi ≈ on kişi kadar |
By example
- Her ay kira ödüyorumEvery month I pay the rent
- Birkaç gün içinde parayı yatıracağımWithin a few days I will deposit the money
- Faturalar yaklaşık iki bin lira tuttuThe bills came to about two thousand lira
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
Exactly how much: how does it work in Turkish?
English spreads 'all' over all/every/whole and still overlaps. Turkish keeps bütün and her strictly apart. bütün — the whole, undivided: bütün gün — the whole day, bütün para — all the money at once. her — each one separately: her gün — every day. Hence a rule that saves many mistakes: after her…
What does it look like in an example sentence Turkish?
“Her ay kira ödüyorum” — Every month I pay the rent. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.