bir zamanlar
“bir zamanlar” — once upon a time in Turkish. Adverb, level B1, topic — time, days and hours. "in one time": the tale-opener. Cinemas and shops live here now, only in memory. In a live sentence: “Bir zamanlar burada bir sinema vardı” — Once upon a time there was a cinema here. You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 138 words in the set “time, days and hours” in the Turkish course.
In short
| Written in Turkish | bir zamanlar |
| Translation | once upon a time |
| Part of speech | adverb |
| Level | B1 |
- bir zamanlaronce upon a time
Why it looks that way
"in one time": the tale-opener. Cinemas and shops live here now, only in memory
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.
- Bir zamanlar burada bir sinema vardıOnce upon a time there was a cinema here
Nearby words: time, days and hours
Today, tomorrow, in the morning, at six. You cannot arrange to meet without these — let alone understand the answer.
- saathourThe same word names clocks — wrist and wall — and the time they show: Saat kaç? is "what time is it?"
- gündayBoth the 24 hours and the daylight. The days of the week all end in it or in -si: pazartesi, cumartesi. And "in the daytime" is gündüz, a separate word.
- bugüntodaybu ("this") plus gün ("day"). Two familiar words fused.
- yarıntomorrowı dotless. Stands bare in the sentence, no preposition: yarın geliyorum. The day after is öbür gün, "the other day", not "after tomorrow".
- dünyesterdayLike yarın, it stands with no preposition: dün geldim. The day before is evvelki gün. "Yesterday's" is dünkü — the tail -ki turns time into a trait.
- akşameveningThe root of iyi akşamlar, "good evening", with the plural ending on top.
- gecenightİyi geceler, "good night", is only for parting.
- Ne zaman gelirsiniz?when will you come?ne zaman is "at what time". The -ir form speaks of an arrangement and a promise, not of what is happening now.
- günde iki keztwice a daygün plus -de is "in a day". kez and defa both mean "times", with almost no difference.
- yemekten sonraafter mealssonra demands the ablative -ten: yemekten sonra, dersten sonra. After a voiceless k the ending goes voiceless: not -den but -ten.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “time, days and hours”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “once upon a time” in Turkish?
"in one time": the tale-opener. Cinemas and shops live here now, only in memory
- How do you say “night” in Turkish?
İyi geceler, "good night", is only for parting.
- How do you say “today” in Turkish?
bu ("this") plus gün ("day"). Two familiar words fused.
- How do you say “after meals” in Turkish?
sonra demands the ablative -ten: yemekten sonra, dersten sonra. After a voiceless k the ending goes voiceless: not -den but -ten.
- How do you say “evening” in Turkish?
The root of iyi akşamlar, "good evening", with the plural ending on top.
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 “once upon a time” in Turkish?
«bir zamanlar». In a live sentence: “Bir zamanlar burada bir sinema vardı” — Once upon a time there was a cinema here. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Adverb, level B1, from the set “time, days and hours”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
"in one time": the tale-opener. Cinemas and shops live here now, only in memory. 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 it 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.