DIFFICULT ENGLISH GRAMMAR TOPICS FOR SPEAKERS OF TURKISH
Turkish-speaking students struggle with English grammar mainly because the two languages are structurally very different: English word order, articles, auxiliaries, prepositions, and relative clauses work in ways that don't exist in Turkish, and English tense-aspect distinctions are expressed differently. Here's an overview of some of the trouble areas:
ARTICLES
Turkish has no article system comparable to English (only bir ≈ “a”), so articles are often omitted or misused.
Examples:
❌ I bought book yesterday.
✅ I bought a book yesterday.
❌ Teacher is very kind.
✅ The teacher is very kind.
VERB TENSE & ASPECT
English mixes tense and aspect heavily.
Turkish encodes aspect, evidentiality, and viewpoint very explicitly in verb suffixes.
Here are some problems caused by this:
•
Overusing present continuous
Reason: Turkish -iyor is very common and flexible.
❌ I am knowing him for years.
✅ I have known him for years.
•
Avoiding or misusing the present perfect
Reason: No direct one-to-one equivalent; Turkish past forms already encode relevance.
❌ Did you ever go to Germany?
✅ Have you ever been to Germany?
•
Confusing simple past vs. present perfect
Reason: Turkish past tense often covers both meanings.
❌ I have seen him yesterday.
✅ I saw him yesterday.
•
Using simple present for ongoing actions
Reason: Turkish present tense can imply “now”.
❌ I eat right now.
✅ I am eating right now.
•
Missing aspectual meaning in stative verbs
Reason: Turkish allows many verbs in progressive form that English treats as stative.
❌ I am believing him.
✅ I believe him.
WORD ORDER (SOV → SVO)
Turkish is subject-object-verb, which strongly affects English sentence structure.
Example:
❌ I my homework finished.
✅ I finished my homework.
SUBJECT PRONOUNS
Turkish verbs encode the subject, so pronouns are often dropped or repeated unnaturally.
Examples:
❌ Went to school early.
✅ I went to school early.
❌ My sister she works in Ankara.
✅ My sister works in Ankara.
AUXILIARY "DO" IN QUESTIONS & NEGATIVES
Turkish forms questions with particles, not auxiliary verbs.
Examples:
❌ You like coffee?
✅ Do you like coffee?
❌ I not understand the problem.
✅ I do not understand the problem.
PREPOSITIONS VS. CASE SUFFIXES
Turkish uses case endings, not prepositions, leading to missing or incorrect prepositions.
Examples:
❌ I am interested for music.
✅ I am interested in music.
❌ She arrived to home late.
✅ She arrived home late.
PLURAL MARKING (ESPECIALLY AFTER NUMBERS)
Turkish keeps nouns singular after numbers, which conflicts with English rules.
Examples:
❌ Three student came.
✅ Three students came.
❌ Five year ago
✅ Five years ago.
COUNTABLE & UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
Some nouns that are countable in Turkish are uncountable in English.
Examples:
❌ Many informations
✅ Much information
❌ Two advices
✅ Two pieces of advice
ADJECTIVE AND ADVERB CONFUSION
Turkish often uses the same form for adjectives and adverbs.
Examples:
❌ She speaks very good English.
✅ She speaks very well English.
❌ He drives slow.
✅ He drives slowly.
RELATIVE CLAUSES (LONG & COMPRESSED)
Turkish relative clauses are highly compact and come before the noun.
Example:
❌ The yesterday I met man is my teacher.
✅ The man (whom) I met yesterday is my teacher.
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