sayı
“sayı” — number in Turkish. Noun, level A1, topic — numbers and counting. From saymak, "to count". A phone number is numara, from Italian. In a live sentence: “Evinin numarasını söyle” — Tell me your house number. You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 51 words in the set “numbers and counting” in the Turkish course.
In short
| Written in Turkish | sayı |
| Translation | number |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
- sayınumber
Why it looks that way
From saymak, "to count". A phone number is numara, from Italian.
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.
- Evinin numarasını söyleTell me your house number
Nearby words: numbers and counting
A price, the change, a house number, the time you agreed on, the floor. Numbers are the first thing you have to catch by ear — and the first thing people say fast.
- bironeAlso does duty as the article "a": bir kahve is "a coffee, please".
- ikitwoThe root of ikinci ("second") and ikiz ("twin"). After a number the noun stays singular: iki kitap, not kitaplar.
- üçthreerounded ü plus ç like "ch" in "church": EWCH
- dörtfourThe voiceless t at the end voices before a vowel: dört becomes dördüncü ("fourth"), dörde ("to four"). Every word ending in p, ç, t, k behaves this way.
- beşfiveş is "sh". Both a number and a school grade: Turkish schools grade from one to five, and beş is the top mark.
- altısixı — dotless, a hushed sound between "uh" and "e": al-TUH
- yedisevenMatches a form of the verb yemek: yedi is "he ate". Only its place in the sentence tells them apart — one of the first listening traps in Turkish.
- sekizeightThe root of sekizinci ("eighth") — the root as-is plus -inci. Stress on the last syllable: se-KÍZ, like almost everything in Turkish.
- dokuznineThe final rounded u drags its lip-tail along: dokuzuncu ("ninth"), dokuza ("to nine"). Harmony decides the whole ending, not just one letter.
- ontenFrom here numbers simply add up: on bir is "eleven", yirmi bir is "twenty-one".
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “numbers and counting”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “number” in Turkish?
From saymak, "to count". A phone number is numara, from Italian.
- How do you say “seven” in Turkish?
Matches a form of the verb yemek: yedi is "he ate". Only its place in the sentence tells them apart — one of the first listening traps in Turkish.
- How do you say “three” in Turkish?
From it, üçüncü ("third"): the tail -üncü is chosen to match the rounded front ü — harmony runs through the whole word.
- How do you say “ten” in Turkish?
From here numbers simply add up: on bir is "eleven", yirmi bir is "twenty-one".
- How do you say “six” in Turkish?
ı is dotless and voiceless. A homonym to boot: altı also means "the bottom, beneath" — masanın altı, "under the table".
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 “number” in Turkish?
«sayı». In a live sentence: “Evinin numarasını söyle” — Tell me your house number. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A1, from the set “numbers and counting”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
From saymak, "to count". A phone number is numara, from Italian. 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.