# Halk



## FlyingBird

İ don't get what it mean.İ know it is something like community but also don't understand in english.
Please give me definiton


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## Reverence

It's the public, plain and simple.

- Her ülkede hükümetin halktan sakladığı pek çok sır vardır. (There are many secrets the government keeps from the public in every country.)


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## FlyingBird

Reverence said:


> It's the public, plain and simple.
> 
> - Her ülkede hükümetin halktan sakladığı pek çok sır vardır. (There are many secrets the government keeps from the public in every country.)


My english is not so good so not sure what you mean with 'public' because there is more ways to use it.

For example:

-Public toilet (halk tuvaleti)
-Public pictures (halk resimleri)
-Public restaurant (halk restoranı)
-Public fight (halk kavgası)

are sentences above correct or 'halk' is used only for 'people'?

Can you give me more examples please?


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## Reverence

"Public" is used as an adjective in your examples, which translates into "umumi" in Turkish. "Halk" is a noun. So it should be translated as "public" as long as "public" is used as a noun. "People" is a good translation, too, at least most of the time.


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## Esoppe

FlyingBird said:


> -Public toilet (halk tuvaleti)
> -Public pictures (halk resimleri)
> -Public restaurant (halk restoranı)
> -Public fight (halk kavgası)
> 
> are sentences above correct or 'halk' is used only for 'people'?



I'm not sure what you mean by public pictures, public restaurant and  public fight. I think there are no established words for those things  in Turkish. Public toilet can be translated both as "Umumi tuvalet" or  "Halk tuvaleti", first one is used more widely. Umumi is the adjective  form of public in Turkish (as in "corresponding to the public, for the  public")

As mentioned by Reverence, halk is used only as a noun.  And it's usually used to refer to a specific group of people, so  translations usually include a "the". Appropriate translations would be:

The people (of a country)
The public
[In some cases] The masses


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## ecdadihifzeylerdi

As Esoppe said halk means people (political entity) or public. It is a noun in Turkish, but it is possible to use it just like an adjective (in a noun-noun structure, Halk (noun) Kütüphanesi (noun) = Public (adjective) Library (noun) for instance). However the word Halk does not always translate the meaning of public correctly, for example in those examples you need to use different words for each of these. Halk has a political connotation and used more often by social democrats or socialists (not always of course). You might want to look at one of the principles of Kemalism, Halkçılık, often translated as populism.

Public toilet - Umumi tuvalet or halka açık tuvalet (open to public) (Halk tuvaleti is a direct translation, I don't think is appropriate)
Public fight - Halk kavgası could be okay, but lacks some meaning about the details of the fight. I don't understand the context, if it is a basic street fight or a more important politically motivated fight withing the public. So we would probably prefer a different description if we want to talk about a public fight. Halk arasında kavga, sokak kavgası (street fight), vatandaşlar arası kavga vs. 

One other example: public space - kamusal alan (something important in Turkey and frequently referred to in politics regarding the use of headscarf in public buildings). Kamu means public, and used for political or economic contexts. 

Kamu binası : Public building. Kamu sektörü : Public sector. KİT : Kamusal İktisadi Teşebbüsü (Public economic enterprise - a public/state company).

Public library : Halk Kütüphanesi or Devlet kütüphanesi (I've seen Kamu Kütüphanesi in rare occasions also). This is a classic example about the disagreement on the political connotation of the word public, if it is Halk, it belongs to the people, if it is Kamu or Devlet, it belongs to the state rather than the people. However, they are basically the same thing in Turkey, a Halk Kütüphanesi and Devlet kütüphanesi wouldn't have different structures or propriety; if it is public, it is owned by the state (not by the people) in Turkey.

Maybe some other native speakers would disagree with my description, but I just wanted to give you some extra information so that you would see why there are different ways to translate public into Turkish.


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