"They are telling you."

Translation: Sana diyorlar.

[Lillie336]

Can you explain to me a difference between - sana and seni?

[ivona2o]

It confused me too, so I googled, and find this answer in Quora helpful: https://www.quora.com/In-Turkish-when-and-why-do-you-use-beni-bana-or-seni-sana-instead-of-ben-or-sen

[khawla460816]

Why it's not seni diyorlar instead of sana diyorlar? ?

[GordonRobb]

why does this not use soylemek? Is say and tell interchangeable?

[AlexinNotTurkey]

Both are acceptable. :) There are very slight semantic difference between demek and söylemek (just like there are slight semantic difference between say and tell...they are huge, but they are there).

[GordonRobb]

I'm back at this and more confused. In english, there aren't slight difference between tell and say, they are two completely different things. You can say things, or you can say things to someone. But you only really (except for a few exceptions) tell people things. So, are you saying that dimek and solemek are closer in turkish than say and tell are in english? The only way this sentence would translate with 'say' was if it was They are saying (something) to you. There needs to be the 'something', otherwise it is Telling you. Man this course is making me think more about English than anything else :)

[AlexinNotTurkey]

Isn't crazy how much learning a non Indo-European language makes you think?

demek is normally used for direct speech and söylemek is often used for indirect speech, but there are a lot of blurred lines. The two are rather close.

And you are entirely right about the way "say" and "tell" work in English. You should come tell that to my students here! :D

[GordonRobb]

Don't you mean I should come and say it to them ;)

[AlexinNotTurkey]

I see what you did there :D

[Selcen_Ozturk]

interchangeable in some contexts.

• I said "hello" to her.: Ona "Merhaba" dedim. you cannot use söyledim here.
• I told her to come here: Ona buraya gelmesini söyledim. you cannot use dedim here. But you can say Ona dedim ki "buraya gel"
• I told this to her: Bunu ona ben dedim/söyledim. Both fine

[vinaysaini]

Why can't 'you' also translate as 'size'?

[SuhailBanister]

Alas, not so.

[AlexinNotTurkey]

It is accepted already :)

[Quolh]

And size is still not accepted in 2019. :-/

[fatimashih]

why cant we say 'sıze'
whats the dıfference between 'sıze' and 'sana'?

[Quolh]

Size not sıze but yes it should be accepted. I have reported it yet again.

[Crossmount]

what the difference between sana and seni

[Will709432]

dative and accusative. Sana is dative, "to you" . Seni is accusative, simply "you"

[Crossmount]

Teşekkürler

[morganesim3]

I don't understand why they didn't accept senin buy corrected it as size...

[Quolh]

The singular, informal form of size is not senin but sana.

[Triatoma]

Isn't "seni" the accusative form for "sana"? Isn't "you" in this sentence the D.O?
Would't be the translation: "They are telling to you."? Please, I need an explanation.

[Quolh]

I believe you're correct in everything you say and the sentence really does mean, "They are telling to you". However 'telling to you' is not a phrase an English-speaker would ever say. They would say 'telling you' with the 'to' implied.

[Triatoma]

Thank you for that answer.
Then using "seni" could be right? What do you think?

[Silly741437]

17 October 2019
So, generally, we will use 'SENİ' with accusative and 'SANA' with dative

[Silly741437]

17 October 2019
Regarding 'TELL' and 'SAY TO', accusative vs dative,
- you say something TO someone (dative); but
- you tell someone (to do/about) something (accusative)
Eg.
A said (to) B - dative
A told B - there is no 'to' therefore accusative

I hope I have helped to clarify things a little bit rather than confused things further

[sara692366]

Why size diyorlar is wrong?