çocukluk
“çocukluk” — childhood in Turkish. Noun, level A2, topic — people and family. çocukluk — cho-jook-LOOK. In a live sentence: “Çocukluğum köyde geçti” — My childhood passed in a village. You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 140 words in the set “people and family” in the Turkish course.
In short
| Written in Turkish | çocukluk |
| Translation | childhood |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
- çocuklukchildhood
How to pronounce it
çocukluk — cho-jook-LOOK
Why it looks that way
çocuk "child" + -luk: the childhood. Memories of it are told over tea, lengthening yearly
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.
- Çocukluğum köyde geçtiMy childhood passed in a village
Nearby words: people and family
Mum, friend, child, neighbour. The first thing people ask you about, and the first thing you tell about yourself.
- arkadaşfriendFrom arka, "the back": literally "the one at your back". Both a buddy and a colleague; a close friend is a dost.
- ailefamilyAn Arabic word, no harmony in the root. From it, ailece — "as a family": the tail -ce turns a noun into an adverb.
- annemomThe ordinary word for mother, not baby talk — adults say it too. An older woman outside the family is teyze, "aunt", never anne.
- babadadLike anne, it suits child and adult alike. An older man outside the family is amca, "uncle". From it, babaanne — the grandmother on the father's side.
- çocukchildboth ç like "ch" in "church": cho-DJUK
- satıcısellerboth ı dotless, c as "j" in "jam": sa-tuh-JUH
- müştericustomerAn Arabic word. One word for the buyer, the client and the café regular.
- komşuneighborş is "sh": kom-SHU
- ev sahibilandlordsahip is "owner", and the p voices before the tail: sahip becomes sahibi. Also "the host of the house" who receives guests.
- emekliretireeemek is "labor", -li "with labor behind one". Not "a restee" but "one who has earned it".
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “people and family”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “childhood” in Turkish?
çocuk "child" + -luk: the childhood. Memories of it are told over tea, lengthening yearly
- How do you say “customer” in Turkish?
An Arabic word. One word for the buyer, the client and the café regular.
- How do you say “mom” in Turkish?
The ordinary word for mother, not baby talk — adults say it too. An older woman outside the family is teyze, "aunt", never anne.
- How do you say “retiree” in Turkish?
emek is "labor", -li "with labor behind one". Not "a restee" but "one who has earned it".
- How do you say “seller” in Turkish?
satmak is "to sell", and -ıcı makes the doer. The same suffix in yazıcı — "printer".
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 “childhood” in Turkish?
«çocukluk». çocukluk — cho-jook-LOOK. In a live sentence: “Çocukluğum köyde geçti” — My childhood passed in a village. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A2, from the set “people and family”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
çocuk "child" + -luk: the childhood. Memories of it are told over tea, lengthening yearly. 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.