# Turkish practicalness in clear communication



## sufler

Herkese merhaba!
I'm back with a question. This time it will not concern a request for translation, but a more philosophical approach to Turkish language and its users.​To start with, every Turkish learner, especially at a beginner's level, struggles a lot with Turkish compound sentences, searching which noun makes for the
subject in a sentence, which one for the object; also figuring out the suffixes relation is a big problem. However, I have always been convinced it is only
leaner's view. I've believed that all this complicated constructions appear so normal to Turks that they understand them at a first glance. After all, that's
what is most important if a language is supposed to be useful in fluent and clear communication.
Yet, recently I've come to a situation which worried me a lot and spoilt my faith in Turkish communicative capabilities  Over a week ago I sent a short​message to a Turkish friend of mine:

_"XXX, dinle... az önce ben öğremdim... bu gece birden uykusunda benim ikinci dedem öldü :'( :'( şimdiden artik benim hiç dedem yok : ("_​
Of course I realize there are a few mistakes and typos, because I wrote it quickly and in emotions, but generally the message's sense and syntax seemed​to me simple, right and totally understandable. Surprisingly, after a half a minute I got this brief reply:​_"Hic bise anlamdm" _(sic!)​
It was quite shock for me! Then I tried to explain in other words, so the person finally understood what'd happened. However this situation left me​anxious. The person later excused themselves saying they were so distrait and absent-minded (_dalgın_) at the moment, that's why they didn't understand me. 
But I still don't feel convinced. I don't think being distrait is an excusion for not understanding a few simple lines in a language used by someone on a daily basis.
It's like it required a particular concentration to do it... Yet, it's no poetry to analyze nor complex technical terms!
Is that really true that Turks must focus very much on what they read, and sending even simple messages when a Turk is involved is something else​may result in complete non-understanding? Does situations like this often occur among Turkish speakers? Frankly, I cannot imagine a situation when I, 
even woken up in the middle of a night, could not understand a word of a simple message in Polish or English (which isn't my native language after all)...
It's like a native speaker's mind should automatically get the sense...
To sum up, I've never experienced a situation like this while speaking English. Sometimes it happens to be misunderstood, and there comes a need​to clarify some details of a utterance. But here we are dealing with not being understood at all! (_"hiç __bir şey anlamadım"_). Do you think it could be a matter
of a technical issue like for example only part of my message was displayed, or really reading in Turkish language requires a huge dose of concentration
even from natives? I'm awating your thoughts, because honestly my faith in Turkish communicative usefulness and practicalness has been weakened.


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## Rallino

Simply put: You seem to be generalizing the IQ of one person that you met on the Internet to be the IQ of a mass.
Your sentence is understandable, except for a small mistake in the last part, where you should have _artık_ instead of "şimdiden". I understood the sentence at the first glance. 

The reason why that guy said _"I didn't understand anything" _is probably because the way you wrote the sentence isn't very natural (although grammatically it's fine) and natives would probably choose a different syntax, and that person perhaps simply didn't expect such a sentence from a native.


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## murattug

if you write exactly "öldü" but not "oldu"
then receiving person must understand it (I mean death part)


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## sufler

You may be right, perhaps the person didn't look close enough to notice the small dots over "o" and "u".. but then I would expenct a request for details, like "what happened to your grandpa? I didn't fully understand". But not understanding anything, a word of what I said was very worrying indeed.

#edit
Actually no one has answered my main question yet, do situations of not being understood (in written text) often occur among Turkish people?


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## ikazanci

Allah rahmet eylesin.

I read your message. Although it has some small mistakes it's understandable.

I think your friend didn't expect a serious situation or maybe think something else and couldn't give attention. Otherwise the message really understandable for any Turkish person I think. So this must be an answer for you. At least you used words "dedem", "öldü", "artık benim hiç dedem yok". 

Still it could be not understandable for someone else at first look. But at least for your sentence and with the words you choose, he/she will understand in second reading. Maybe just with a little doubt.


You learned the situation from someone else and you pointing it  clearly with use of the phrase "Az önce öğrendim". So you must use  "ölmüş", instead of "öldü". If you were an eyewitness then you could use  "dedem uykusunda birden öldü" but as a third person it's enough to say  "bu gece dedem uykusunda ölmüş" I think. And without significantly changing your form of expression, I think it must be like that: 

"XXX, dinle... Az önce öğrendim. _İkinci dedem b__u gece uykusunda ölmüş. A__rtık benim bir dedem yok_." Emphasis is on that you don't have a grandpa anymore.

or "XXX... Az önce öğrendim. _İkinci dedem b__u gece uykusunda ölmüş. D__edem yok artık benim_." Emphasis is on that your grandpa is gone...

Just my thoughts.


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## murattug

"Actually  no one has answered my main question yet, do situations of not being  understood (in written text) often occur among Turkish people?"

in my opinion: there are 7 billion human on the world therefore there are 7 billion probabity in every situation.  You can not conclude that according one persons (turkish or not) behaviour.


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## sufler

ikazanci said:


> Allah rahmet eylesin.


Bu dileme için sağ ol!



ikazanci said:


> Still it could be not understandable for someone else at first look. But at least for your sentence and with the words you choose, he/she will understand in second reading. Maybe just with a little doubt.


So you suggest that the misunderstanding was caused by my clumsy writing? That's great, honestly I feel relieved with this opinion   That can only encourage me to learn the language better, whereas initial misuderstanding of a statement that seemed right to me, made me so worried. You've restored my faith in Turkish communicative usefulness. So If I had constructed the sentences like one of your examples I would have been understood at first look, wouldn't I?


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## scopus

I understood what you meant at the first glance. I think, the most of native turkish speakers understand it at the first glance, as well.


Başınız sağolsun.


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