Nakit mi, kartla mı?
“Nakit mi, kartla mı?” — cash or card? in Turkish. Phrase, level A1, topic — shopping and money. The "or" in a question is two particles mi, not a conjunction; kartla is the instrumental on -la. In a live sentence: “Ödeme nakit mi, kartla mı?” — Payment in cash or by card? You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 85 words in the set “shopping and money” in the Turkish course.
In short
| Written in Turkish | Nakit mi, kartla mı? |
| Translation | cash or card? |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A1 |
- Nakit mi, kartla mı?cash or card?
Why it looks that way
The "or" in a question is two particles mi, not a conjunction; kartla is the instrumental on -la.
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.
- Ödeme nakit mi, kartla mı?Payment in cash or by card?
Nearby words: shopping and money
How much it costs, whether there is a smaller one, whether cards are accepted. A shop forgives mistakes: miss a word and they will show you the thing with their hands anyway.
- ne kadar?how much is it?Literally "how much". This is exactly how you ask about a price.
- liraliraWritten "TL" — Türk lirası. The ₺ sign only appeared in 2012.
- dükkânshopA small shop, a street-front store. The chain grocery is market, the mall is AVM.
- pazarstreet marketThe same word means "Sunday": the neighborhood market was set up on Sundays and the day took its name from it. To speak of the day, people say pazar günü.
- tezgâhcountersoft g, the vowel stretches: tez-GYAH
- 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.
- teraziscalesThe same root as the zodiac sign Libra — Terazi. In Turkish it is one word, not a pair.
- kilokiloThe full kilogram almost never appears in speech: at the market people say bir kilo.
- tazefreshAt the market they shout taze taze! — repeating the word boosts it, a very Turkish trick.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “shopping and money”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “cash or card?” in Turkish?
The "or" in a question is two particles mi, not a conjunction; kartla is the instrumental on -la.
- 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 “shop” in Turkish?
A small shop, a street-front store. The chain grocery is market, the mall is AVM.
- How do you say “fresh” in Turkish?
At the market they shout taze taze! — repeating the word boosts it, a very Turkish trick.
- 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 “cash or card?” in Turkish?
«Nakit mi, kartla mı?» In a live sentence: “Ödeme nakit mi, kartla mı?” — Payment in cash or by card? You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level A1, from the set “shopping and money”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The "or" in a question is two particles mi, not a conjunction; kartla is the instrumental on -la. 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.