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- "Küçük müsünüz?"
33 Comments
if the meaning is 'are you young?' why not use 'genç'? I've always taken 'küçük' to mean 'small.'
238
Same in Arabic "dialects" but not necessarily the case in "MSA" because each age group has it's own term.
819
Aside from meaning "small", "küçük" is also quite commonly used to mean "young" in Turkish when referring to the age of someone. "Onun yaşı küçük" , literally means "He/She is young of age" or simply "He/She is young".
Eg. "Ankara'dakı İlk evimizi hatırlamıyorum çünkü taşındığımızda çok küçüktüm". ("I don't remember our first house in Ankara because we moved when I was very young").
Eg. "Park'taki küçük çocuklar ağaca tırmanıyorlar". ("The young/small children at the park are climbing a tree").
It is, however, equally natural to refer to someone as "genç" (young).
For example:
"Onların oğulu daha çok genç; ilk okula henüz başlamadı". ("Their son is still too young; he hasn't started grade school yet"]
"Gençken, futbol oynardım". (When I was young, I played soccer").
"Genç yaşta keman çalmayı öğrendim." ("I learned to play violin at a young age").
The question particle adheres to four-way vowel harmony (-mi, -mı, -mu, -mü). In the sentence above, as the last vowel of the preceding word is a ü, it means that the question particle uses that vowel (müsünüz).
Another example: Japonca kolay mı? (Is Japanese easy?)
As the last vowel in the word 'kolay' is an a, the question particle takes the dotless i -mı as it conforms to vowel harmony rules.
Other examples: Mutlu musun? (Are you happy?) Yeter mi? (Is it enough?) Gidiyor muyuz? (Are we ready?) Hasta mısınız? (Are you sick?)
Hope this helps!
31
It's referring to the position of your tongue when you're producing these vowels. Maybe this helps: http://www.antimoon.com/how/english-vowel-chart.htm
143
Am I the only one who hears "küçUk" in the audio instead of "küçÜk"? Is it common to pronounce the second Ü like an U?
Try this link to help: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_alphabet#Sounds
U is like the 'oo' in zoo. And ü is like the 'u' in 'cute'. You have rounded lips and your tongue is forward in your mouth when you pronounce the letter ü in Turkish (it is known as a close front rounded vowel).
...........please help if you can...Yes this helps lot..thank you so much but can you tell what is 2 way vowel harmony and what is 4 way vowel harmony i know at this stage i am asking this silly question bit since i am using Duolingo through app so i can not able to access to tips and Notes..please help me
Akash, try these links: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/9041808 https://www.duolingo.com/skill/tr/Plurals https://www.duolingo.com/comment/8075381 <-- you might find this link the most useful.
No, this is simply wrong. It does not say "Are you young?". Genç is not an alternative when asking if someone is young. However, if asking someone if they are a minor (i.e. typically under 18), then küçük is typically used.
But the main problem here is that there's no consistency. At times, the translation framework wants a literal translation, and at other times, it wants the English equivalent. This needs improving.