var
“var” — there is in Turkish. Verb, level A1, topic — verbs. A whole verb "to be present" in three letters. It goes at the end: su var mı? is "is there water?". Never confused with eating: "to eat" is yemek. In a live sentence: “Sizde boş oda var mı?” — Do you have a room available? You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 23 words in the set “verbs” in the Turkish course.
In short
| Written in Turkish | var |
| Translation | there is |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
- varthere is
Why it looks that way
A whole verb "to be present" in three letters. It goes at the end: su var mı? is "is there water?". Never confused with eating: "to eat" is yemek.
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.
- Sizde boş oda var mı?Do you have a room available?
Nearby words: verbs
I want, I can, I am going, I know. Twenty verbs cover more everyday sentences than two hundred nouns.
- istiyorumI wantThe verb goes last: bir kahve istiyorum is literally "one coffee [I] want".
- seviyorumI loveCovers both food and people — one word for "like" and "love". Seni seviyorum is "I love you".
- gitmekto goThe infinitive always ends in -mek or -mak, by vowel harmony.
- yemekto eatThe same word, unchanged, works as the noun "food, dish": yemek yemek is "to eat food", and that is not a typo.
- içmekto drinkTurkish "drinks" a cigarette too: sigara içmek is to smoke. Soup is drunk as well — çorba içmek, not eaten.
- okumakto readThe same word means "to study somewhere": üniversitede okuyorum is "I study at university", literally "I read".
- konuşmakto speakThe mutual tail -ş lives inside it: konuşmak is to talk with each other, to converse. To say something is söylemek; to speak a language is Türkçe konuşmak.
- çalışmakto workAlso "to study, to prepare": sınava çalışıyorum is "I am preparing for the exam". Said of machines too — çalışmıyor, "it is not working".
- yaşamakto liveTo live in the sense of exist, and to live somewhere. But "to reside at an address" a Turk says with oturmak, literally "to sit": burada oturuyorum.
- yokthere is notThe partner of var: "not present". No separate negation needed — it is a word of its own, and it doubles as the short "no" in a reply.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “verbs”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “there is” in Turkish?
A whole verb "to be present" in three letters. It goes at the end: su var mı? is "is there water?". Never confused with eating: "to eat" is yemek.
- How do you say “to speak” in Turkish?
The mutual tail -ş lives inside it: konuşmak is to talk with each other, to converse. To say something is söylemek; to speak a language is Türkçe konuşmak.
- How do you say “to go” in Turkish?
The infinitive always ends in -mek or -mak, by vowel harmony.
- How do you say “there is not” in Turkish?
The partner of var: "not present". No separate negation needed — it is a word of its own, and it doubles as the short "no" in a reply.
- How do you say “to read” in Turkish?
The same word means "to study somewhere": üniversitede okuyorum is "I study at university", literally "I read".
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 “there is” in Turkish?
«var». In a live sentence: “Sizde boş oda var mı?” — Do you have a room available? You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Verb, level A1, from the set “verbs”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
A whole verb "to be present" in three letters. It goes at the end: su var mı? is "is there water?". Never confused with eating: "to eat" is yemek. 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.