Ordering Food
Lesson 25noobie Turkish Noobie
Ordering Food
One of the best parts of Turkey is its food. Döner, kebap, and baklava are just some of the tasty treats you'll find expanding your waist line while you're here. In today's lesson, we'll teach you how to get your hands on some delicious Turkish cuisine.
Ordering food.
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Öğrenci
What is the answer for "Ne kadar acı? (pick all the possible responses)"? I can't seem to choose the correct set of answers for that one.
Apr 14, 2013
Justin
Hi! "Ne kadar acı" means "how hot is it?" So, all the correct responses will be commenting on the degree of hotness. Things like, "it's very hot" or "it's not hot at all."

For a hint: 4 of the 6 are correct responses :) Hope that helps.
Apr 14, 2013
Öğrenci
Anybody please help with vowel harmony test
Jul 06, 2013
Öğrenci
I too need help with vowel harmony test. Please someone explain?
Thank you.
Jul 07, 2013
Justin
Hey! What exactly is the problem? I'll help however I can. This might help:

https://turkishteatime.com/r/vowel-harmony/
Jul 08, 2013
Sarkar
hi why I can't see the conversation should I pay for see the conv. it didn't let me
Jul 12, 2013
Justin
Hi Sarkar - that's right. Everything is free for one week, after which only the podcasts on the left are available. You can subscribe to get access to everything :)
Jul 12, 2013
Sean
Hi Justin, is there a general guideline for when Turks use the progressive vs. the simple tense? It seems like there is a lot more use of the continuous or progressive tense where in English we'd just use a simple present tense.
Aug 22, 2013
Frank
Hi
Could you tell me what is wrong with "Aci istiyorum" ?
Dec 10, 2013
Justin
@Sean - sorry for getting back to you so late. You are absolutely right - one of the biggest surprises for me experiencing real Turkish vs. grammar book Turkish was how much the present continuous is used where you would technically expect the simple present or future tense. Büşra and I are having trouble articulating any rule - but suffice it to say that you see simple present used much more with future reference than habitual. In general, you can use -iyor for habitual actions whenever you want and it won't sound weird to a native speaker.

@Frank, There's nothing wrong with that sentence grammatically; we just thought it was an inappropriate response to "Ne kadar acı?" How spicy? I want spicy. A little weird.
Dec 11, 2013
Miko
Hello Justin,
In the dialogue, Ceylan asks, "acılı, acısız?" meaning spicy or without spice. Then Esma responds with, "Ne kadar acı?" Why doesn't Esma respond with, "Ne kadar acılı?" ? I don't understand why the li suffix is dropped unless it is implied that when you ask how much, you don't add the li suffix. Also, it is a bit confusing that acı on its own means pain. Would it be incorrect to say, "Nasıl acılı?" or "Ne kadar baharat?
Jan 22, 2015
Justin
Very good questions!

First of all, you *can* say "ne kadar acılı." There's nothing wrong with it. It literally means "how spicy?"

"Ne kadar acı" is what you hear more often colloquially, though. Without -li, acı just means spice or chili (or pain). So this literally means "how much spice," which is the more Turkish way of asking "how spicy?" The grammatical difference is that acı is the noun and acılı is the adjective we derive from it using -li.

Re: pain. You can think of it this way: acı means pain in a similar way that you can use "heat" in English to refer to stress: "I'm feeling the heat." "I'm under a lot of heat right now." Sometimes words take on double meanings that are a bit poetic.

And for your final two questions:

1. Nasıl acılı: you can say it, but it means, "How is it spicy?" As in, "You told me it wasn't spicy and it is! Nasıl acılı?" Or, "You said it was spicy - in what way is it spicy?"

2. Ne kadar baharat: you can also say this, though it's a bit of a fragment. You'd really need to finish the sentence. Ne kadar baharat var? Ne kadar baharat kattın?

Hope that helps! :)
Jan 22, 2015
Miko
Thanks for your help Justin!
Jan 22, 2015
Jennifer
I love these lessons, thank you so much. I find them so useful and fun and so not frustrating (as some others are!) I am a very grateful subscriber. I hate to be negative, and please let me know if I am mistaken here, but I do believe I saw the word for 'drink' spelled with an 'I' without a dot and also one with a dot (sorry I can't reproduce the letters here for demonstration), I believe it is with a dot. Could you please confirm? Thank you for all your hard work.
Apr 07, 2015
Öğrenci
Hi justin
How do we use olsun ,olmasin when we order food
can you give some example and what is the meaning of olsun and olmasin ?
Dec 08, 2016
Justin
Merhaba Öğrenci!

Good question. "Olsun" is used in these cases just to say "make it that way." Ol + sun, of course, being the verbal form of "olmak" that mean literally "let it be." For example, the waiter might say:

"Soğanlı? Soğansız?" (With or without onions?)
"Soğanlı olsun." (Make it with onions.)

Another example:

"Çay alırım. Buzlu olsun." (I'll take a tea. Make it iced.)

Olmasın, then, is just the negative form.
Dec 10, 2016
Dilara
I really enjoy the *FUN* section as a mysterious reward but I feel like it could be a bit more educational while still fun. The baby was cute, don't get me wrong, but wouldn't something related to food be more helpful? i.e.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL16J2kY6nz0w5N-pvQaRcttWuArL9DwY5&v=mWGNL5Ms3Kc
May 22, 2017
Dilara
^ or a Salt Bae (Nusret Gökçe) cooking lesson
May 22, 2017
Justin
Ha! Haklısın. We actually felt the same as you did and started including Turkish videos in our later videos.

In your honor, I've changed the Fun video to your recommendation for this lesson.

Still working on booking Salt Bae for a guest lesson. . .
May 22, 2017
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