sağ
“sağ” — right in Turkish. Adverb, level A1, topic — asking the way. ğ is not pronounced, it only stretches the vowel: SAA. In a live sentence: “Işıklardan sağa dönün” — At the traffic light turn right. You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 18 words in the set “asking the way” in the Turkish course.
In short
| Written in Turkish | sağ |
| Translation | right |
| Part of speech | adverb |
| Level | A1 |
- sağright
How to pronounce it
ğ is not pronounced, it only stretches the vowel: SAA
Why it looks that way
One word for the direction and the trait: sağa dön is "turn right", sağ el is "the right hand". sağ also means "alive, sound" — hence sağ ol, "be well", that is, thanks.
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.
- Işıklardan sağa dönünAt the traffic light turn right
Nearby words: asking the way
Right, left, straight on, how far. You ask the way rarely — and always at the moment when there is no time to work it out.
- nerede?where?nere is "place", -de is the "in/at" ending. Turkish has no prepositions; everything glues on.
- buradaherebura plus the same -da: "in this place".
- oradathereTurkish runs three steps where English has two: bu ("this, near me") — şu ("that, near you") — o ("that, over there"). orada is the locative of o: "in that place".
- solleftLike sağ, it works as both adverb and adjective: sola dön is "turn left", sol taraf is "the left side".
- düzstraightBoth "straight" of motion and "flat, even" of a surface: düz yol is "a flat road". "Go straight" is düz gidin, with no preposition at all.
- yakıncloseDemands the -a/-e case: eve yakın is "close to the house", not "ev yakın". From it, yakında means both "nearby" and "soon".
- uzakfarThe partner of yakın, but it governs the ablative: şehirden uzak is "far from the city". The voiceless k voices before a vowel: uzağa, uzakta.
- nasıl gidilirhow do I get there?The impersonal gidilir — "how is it walked": the destination stands in the directional case.
- ulaşmakto reachTakes the directional -e: otele ulaşmak, "to reach the hotel". The same verb reaches a person by phone.
- karşı taraftaon the other sideThe locative goes dull after the voiceless f too: taraf becomes tarafta. To cross over: karşıya geçmek.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “asking the way”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “right” in Turkish?
One word for the direction and the trait: sağa dön is "turn right", sağ el is "the right hand". sağ also means "alive, sound" — hence sağ ol, "be well", that is, thanks.
- How do you say “far” in Turkish?
The partner of yakın, but it governs the ablative: şehirden uzak is "far from the city". The voiceless k voices before a vowel: uzağa, uzakta.
- How do you say “there” in Turkish?
Turkish runs three steps where English has two: bu ("this, near me") — şu ("that, near you") — o ("that, over there"). orada is the locative of o: "in that place".
- How do you say “on the other side” in Turkish?
The locative goes dull after the voiceless f too: taraf becomes tarafta. To cross over: karşıya geçmek.
- How do you say “close” in Turkish?
Demands the -a/-e case: eve yakın is "close to the house", not "ev yakın". From it, yakında means both "nearby" and "soon".
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 “right” in Turkish?
«sağ». ğ is not pronounced, it only stretches the vowel: SAA. In a live sentence: “Işıklardan sağa dönün” — At the traffic light turn right. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Adverb, level A1, from the set “asking the way”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
One word for the direction and the trait: sağa dön is "turn right", sağ el is "the right hand". sağ also means "alive, sound" — hence sağ ol, "be well", that is, thanks. 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.