A. Suzan ÖNİZ

INFORMAL EXPRESSIONS USED IN SPEAKING¥

Tips for students on how to use the list:

Either

read through the categories; notice the English expressions,

or, if you are looking for the English equivalent of a Turkish expression,

look through the categories in order to find the category that matches your expression. Read through the expressions to see if you can find yours.

If not, ask your teacher.

CODING

... : A group of words, a suitable continuation

‘...’ : A word or expression

‘L1’ : A Turkish word or expression

‘L2’ : An English word or expression

( ) : Optional expressions

[ ] : Explanation

/ : Alternate expressions

CAPITALS : To indicate stress

CATEGORY	TURKISH EXPRESSION	ENGLISH EQUIVALENT
Agreeing with answer	Galiba haklısın. Ben Mustafaya katılıyorum. Tamam. / Peki. /Olur. Tamam, işte bunlar onlar. Tamam işte. Ben de. Bence de. Bu olabilir. Israr edersen ‘C’! Anlaşıldı. Tabi ya! Peki senin cevabın olsun. Buraya yazalım, tamam. Yazacaz zaten!	I think you’re right. I agree with _______. OK./ All right. /Right. /Exactly. Right/ OK, these are ... All right all right. I do too. / Same as me … That could be it. /Could be. Me, too. /Me, neither. If you insist, ‘C’ ! Got it! Ahh, of course! OK. Let’s use your answer. OK, let’s write it here. (OK, OK) We WILL write it!
Asking for answer	‘two’ yu mı yaptın? 3a mı? Bu mu? Ya bu? Senin … kaç? Senin ilk tercihin hangisi? ‘Unable to relax’ mi diyorsun? Levent, 3’ü söylesenize ya. Sende ne var? Ne yazdın? Hangisi? 1’a’ya ne dediniz? 2’ye ne dedik? ‘G’ neydi?	Did you do two? It’s 3a?/Is the answer 3a?/ Is it 3a? Is it this one?/ This one?/It’s this one? What about this? What number is your ...? What was your first choice? What is/was ‘G’? What do you have? Levent, tell us 3, will ya/you? What did you write? Which one? What did you say for (number) 1? What did we say for 2? Do you mean ‘…’ ?/ So is your answer ‘…’ ?
Asking for direction	Kim başlasın önce? Hangi soruyu sorsun? Ne kadar zamanımız kaldı? 2yi nasıl yapacağız? Ne yapacakmışız? Bunu nasıl söyleyeceğiz? ‘Summarize’ yapıcaz mı? Ne yazılabılır ki? Ne olcak yani? Önce burayı mı? Graphten mi (yapacaz)? Sonunu nasıl bağlayacaksın? Nerde görmüştüm bunu?	Who should start first? Which question should s/he … ask? How much time do we have? How’re we gonna do 2? So what should we do? How do we say this? / How’re we gonna say this? (So) What’re we supposed to do? Are we gonna write a summary? What can we write? First this part?/Are we doing this part first? From the graph?/Are we using the graph?/ Are we gonna use the graph? How are you gonna connect the conclusion? Where did I see this before?
Asking for explanation	Bu niye olmuyo? Kural ne? Niye öyle düşünüyorsun? ‘Justify it’! Nerde? ‘Why ‘C’, Evren?’ Peki araya object giriyor mu? Niye azaldı? Burada ne hale geldi?	Why is this one wrong? / Why can’t we use this one? What’s the rule? Why do you think that? Where’s the justification? Why is it C, Evren? OK / So does … ? /So is there a(n) … ? Why did … decrease/ go down? What happened here?
Asking for meaning	Blind optimist, kör? Bu da ne demek? ... ne demek lan? Burda ne diyor? Şu ne? ... nasıl söylenir? Türkçesi ne lan? Burda ‘…’ mı diyo? ‘limb’ neydi? ‘Basic properties’ ne be? Hocam, ‘çarpık’ ne demek?	‘…’ means ‘…’? What does THAT mean? Hey, what does ... mean? / How can I say ‘L1’ ? What does ‘…’ mean? What’s this? How do/ would you say ... (in English)? Hey (guys), what’s the Turkish (for this)? Does this say ‘...’ ? What was ‘…’ ? (For goodness sake!) What’re ‘…’s? / What (on earth) are ‘…s’ ? Teacher, what does ‘L1’ mean?
Asking for opinion	Sen ne düşünüyorsun bu konuda? Ayrı ayrı mı?	What do you think about this/What’s your opinion (about this)? Are these separate?/ (Each one) Separate(ly)?
Asking for suggestion	Başka ne yapılır ki?	What else could be done? (The answer must be ...)
Camaraderie	E, sen de! Şuna baksana! ‘Töbe töbe’ de.	Oh shut up/stop it! Will you look at that/ him/her ! I hope not!
Classifying	Teknik bilgi bu. Specific bişi bu. Onun da kötü birşey olması lazım. Şu şey introduction, body 1,..	This is technical (stuff). This is something specific. That has to/ should be a bad one/sth bad/a disadvantage, too ... This is the introduction, body 1, ...
Closing	Tamam, bitti. Çok güzel oldu. Devam etmek gerekmiyor.	Ok, it’s finished. That’s very good. We don’t have to continue.
Correcting peer	‘Broke through’, ‘break’ değil. Bi de E olcak.	(It’s) ‘correct form; not ‘wrong form’ ! There’s supposed to be an E there./ It’s supposed to have an E.
Criticising	Burası çok gıcık bir şey! Aman sen de birşey bilmiyorsun! Yanlış yapıyorsun. Çok saçma oluyor! Bu belli, canım! Çok kötü oldu! Baska yazacak konu mu bulamamışlar? Nasıl anlatırsın ki? Türkçe düşünüyorsun. Ne biçim cümle! Farzet ki tartıştık, n’olcak? … yapmadık bence.	This is really stupid! You don’t know anything! That’s not right/You’re doing it wrong! This’s turning out to be ridiculous! This’s obvious! This turned out terrible/ This stinks! What kind of topic is this?/Couldn’t they find another/ any other topic? How can anyone explain this! You’re thinking in Turkish. What kind of a sentence is that? Let’s say we discussed it, so what? I don’t think we did …
Directing to a place	Burada izle diyor. Onlarla ilgili şeyler 10cu paragrafta. Bak ne diyor bak. Aşağıda birşey var. Baksana. Burası çok önemli. ... Ondan sonra ... Abi okuyalım bari. Şurdaydı ‘worrying’. Sadece burdakileri ... Şablon var işte. Şurdan başlıyacağız.	It says “follow” here. Those things’re in paragraph 10. Hey look what it says (here)! There’s something at the bottom. Look here. This (part)’s really important!/This’s the important part! ... And then.../ After that … Well, let’s read it. ‘…’ is (right) here. ... only these here/… only the ones here. Can’t you see, there’s the framework/a layout/a skeleton. We’re supposed to start here.
Disagreeing	Öyle demedi. Ama arada fark var. Ama burada öyle demiyor. ... çok saçma! Hayır, o galiba … Bununla ilgisi yok. Hadi lan. Bence ... değil. Yok ya, bu 10 lan. Yok, mümkün değil. Yok valla, gerçekten! Yoooo. Ama bir dakika! Dur bir! Bi dakika! Yaaa ... Şu paragraftaki tam tersi! Ama böyle olmaz! … şart mı?	S/He didn’t say that. But they’re different!/ But they aren’t the same! But it doesn’t say so here! That’s ridiculous! No, s/he’s probably … It has nothing to do with this. You gotta be kidding! I don’t think it’s ... Oh come on!/ You gotta be kidding! That’s/this’s (number) 10. No, it’s not possible. No no, really! Noooo/ Nope. But wait a minute!/Just a minute! Wait a minute! Just a minute! Well, This paragraph says just the opposite! But not like this! Is this necessary?
Discarding	Bu, listede yok. Boşver. Hiç sanmıyorum. 6 ‘despite’ olmaz! ... değil... 4 ‘A’ değil. Bu da değil. ‘C’ olması imkansız. 6 ‘C’ olamaz. Çünkü bak burda ne diyor! Senin dediğin 10uncu. Ama ‘B’ de mantıklı değil. Ona gerek yok abi. Ya ‘needless to say’ var. Nasıl ‘fact’ olur ki? 3 yanlış, o ‘B’ olacak. Ne alakası var? Yok artık! 14 yaşında yarışçı olur mu? Onunla o olur mu? Bu irrelevant oldu. Boş verelim bunları. Zaten var. O zaman gerekmiyor. Ne gerek var! Başka bişi lazım. Böyle kopuk olur. Genelde oluyor ama burda olmuyor.	This isn’t on the list. Forget it!/ It doesn’t matter! I don’t think so. 6 couldn’t be ‘…’ ! It’s not ... 4 isn’t ‘A’. (It’s) not this one, either. It can’t be ‘C’!/’C’ is out of the question! 6 can’t be ‘C’ because look at what it says here. Yours is 10/You’re talking about 10/That’s 10. But ‘B’ isn’t logical either! We don’t need it/this/that. There’s ‘… here. How could it be a fact?/ How can you say it’s a fact? 3 is wrong. It is ‘B’. What does that have to do with anything? This is a bunch of garbage! You can’t have (a) …! They can’t go together, can they? / Those two don’t match/go together. This is irrelevant. Let’s not worry about these. We already have ... Oh, in that case, we don’t need it/one. We don’t need this! /What do we need this for? We need something else. It is disconnected like this. It’s OK in general but not here.
Explaining	... diyo da! Bi de ‘mostly due to man’s greed’ falan diyo işte. Aynı kapıya çıkıyor. Burda diyor ki… Hiçbir farkı yok. Oğlum, ‘majority of’ diyo; hepsi diil yani. Gerekli de. Bu farklı bir durum. Diverse’ burda ‘species’ yani ‘tür’. Bu paragraf sebeplerini özetliyor. Mesela... Hiç fark yok. Pasif yapmaya çalışıyorum. Bu da sebepleri. Azalma sebepleri bunlar. Onun için bırakılıyormuş. Daha çok arazi gerek. Hepsine aynı kalıbı kullandık. Bundan dolayı … … Bu da aile içinde değişime sebep olmuştur.	It/S/He says ... Oh and also it says here ‘...’ They mean the same thing. This says ... There’s no difference (at all). It says ‘…, so it’s not ... It’s necessary/crucial. This is an exceptional situation. ‘…’ refers to ‘…’ here. This paragraph summarizes the reasons. For example, ... There’s absolutely no difference. I’m trying to … And these are the reasons. These are the reasons for the ... That’s why they are ... [adj] (More) … is needed/They need (more) ... We used the same pattern in all of them. Because of this … … can/could be the reason for ….
Expressing confidence	Bunu hemen bildim zaten! Dur oğlum, ben kendim çizerim!	I knew this right away! (Hey!) Wait a minute, I can draw it myself!
Expressing lack of comprehension	Bilmem, ben de anlamadım. Burayı anlamadım ben. Bunu nasıl yapacağımızı anlamadım. 2 dışında hiçbirşey anlamadım.	I dunno (don’t know). I didn’t get it either. I didn’t get this part. I didn’t get this/I didn’t understand how to do this. I didn’t understand anything except (number) 2.
Expressing lack of knowledge	Emin değilim. Aklıma gelmiyor ki abi. ... bilmiyorum, onu da bilmiyorum.	I’m not sure. I can’t think of anything! I dunno (don’t know) this and I dunno that one either.
Expressing pleasure	Bu cümle çok iyi. Gerçekten çok hoş ya!	This sentence is very good. That is really nice!
Expressing surprise	Hayret bişi; ... Aaaaaaa! Hadi ya! Öyle mi?	You’re kidding! Wow/Gosh/Neat/Goodness me! Are you kidding? /You must be kidding! Really!
Expressing sympathy	Ormanlara yazık olmuş.	Too bad for the ‘…’ !
Expressing negative feelings	Boyle kuralsız lisan olmaz olsun. Niye kastım ki? Nerde bunlar ya! Bu kadar da olmaz ki! Bu çok saçma! Kıl oldum ya! Bırak yaa! Benden bu kadar! Ya abi valla cok saçma. Ben bunlarin Türkçesini bilmiyorum. Ingilizcesini nasıl yazim? Of valla cok sıkıldım, yetti yav! Hiç de yazasım yok!	There shouldn’t be … like this! Why did I beat my brains out for? Where the heck are these?/Where are these anyway? This is too much! This is ridiculous! - Oh stop it!/Oh come on!/Oh forget him/her/it! This is it! / I don’t have any more ideas! This is really stupid! I can’t even say this in Turkish! /I don’t know what these are in Turkish! How can I write it/them in English? I am bored stiff! I can’t take this any more! / This is enough! I really don’t feel like … ing.
Offering help	Anladın mı? Sonuncusunda size yardım edebilirim.	Did you get it? / Did ya understand? I can help you with the last one.
Providing meaning	‘taking’ demektir. Kaza filan; öyle birşeydi. Yarmak, o ‘break through’. ... gibi birşey. Ertelemek demekmiş oğlum! ‘shoplifting’ aşiracaklar ya.	It means ‘…’ It ‘L2’ or something (like that). ‘L1’ is ‘L2’ Something like ... See! It means ... ‘L2’ means ‘L1’, you know.
Seeking info	‘This is’ mi acaba? Meksika olabilir mi? Bu şimdi ‘concluded’ mi? Şurda –i mi olcak? … Olabilir mi? Gerek yok mu? ‘infinitive’ mi geliyordu? ‘Bakmak’ gibi bir phrasal öğrendik mi?	Could it be …? Could it be ‘…’ ? So is this finished? / So is the answer finished? Is this (supposed to be) ‘…’ here? Could it be … ? Don’t we need it? / Isn’t it necessary? Does this take an ‘infinitive’? Did we learn a phrasal that means ‘…’ ?
Seeking turn	Baksana.	Look here.
Stating own answer	Bence ‘C’. Bence … olmalı. Bence böyle olur. Onun zıttı olması lazım. ’Head and shoulders’. Herhalde bu olacak. ‘What’s wrong with ...’ dediğine göre direk opinion. ‘Horror’ diyor ya. Opinion işte direk! Bal gibi fact işte! ‘Species’ olacak. Örnekleme için ‘for example, şu şu şu’ diye yazalım. Ben ‘get at’ yaptım. Abi ‘get at’ 8. Galiba … … gibi geliyor bana. Şey desek ... ‘separate’ doğru, ya da şu. Bosna H. olmasın? 3 tane daha iyi mi? Ya, şu üstteki ... Işte buldum! 7’yi buldum. … dersin, ögrendik ya! ‘different from’ kalıbını kullansak ya, yukarda ‘unlike’ i kullandık ‘variety’ olsun. Bence en kötüsü bu “öldürmek”. Tam cevap yok abi.	I think ‘C’ is right. / I think ‘C’ is the answer. I think/guess it’s … I think it should be like this. It must be just the opposite. / It’s just the opposite. I guess … is the answer. / I guess this’s the answer. It must be an opinion! It says here ‘What’s wrong with ...’. It says ‘…’ here. So it’s definitely an opinion! Of course it’s a fact! It’s supposed to be ‘…’ /The answer is ‘…’ Let’s give examples with ‘For example, this, this, this/ blah, blah, blah.’ I wrote/chose ‘…’ . No guys, I think (number) 8 is ‘…’ . I think ... I think / I guess / I feel … How about if we said ... ‘…’ is right, or else it’s this one. I bet this one’s Bosnia. Are 3 (…s) better?/Wouldn’t 3 (…s) be better? What about the one above/at the top ... I found it!! I found (number) 7! You could say ‘…’ or ‘…’ , you know. We used ‘…’ above. You know, we could use the ‘…’ pattern here. It would add variety. I think/In my opinion ‘…’ is the worst. There’s no full/complete answer guys!
Suggesting direction	Galiba ‘…’ olur. Şu anda … söylesek. Haydi yazalım. 7’ya geçelim. Burası bence yok. … demek gerekmiyor. Atmasyon deneyelim. Şöyle yapalım o zaman. ... lazım. ‘Title’ı n’apcaz? Olmazsa ... Bence direk characteristicslerine geçelim. Karşılaştırmayı sonra yapacağız.	I think you can use ‘...’ . Let’s say … for now. OK, let’s write it. / OK, let’s start writing it. Let’s go to (number) 7. I don’t think this (part) is included. We don’t have to say … Let’s just guess. In that case, let’s do it like this. / In that case, let’s do it this way. We need ... What about the title? / What are we gonna do about the title? Let’s at least/ Can’t we at least ... I think we should directly work on the characteristics. We are going to do the comparison later.
Suggesting solution	... olması lazım. ... olsun. ... değil mi bu? ... ekleyelim. Paralel olmalı. 2 tane yeter. Bunların hepsi kafa karıştırır; geçelim bunlari. Bu kadar yeter, çok bile yaptık! Hoca ‘cut it short’ dedi; uzatmayalım bu conclusion’ı artık. Seçelim, hoca ‘be selective’ diyo.	... should / We need … Let’s ... Isn’t this ...? Let’s add ... The structures need to be/ should be parallel. 2 are enough. These are all confusing! Let’s just skip ‘em. That’s enough! We’ve done more than enough. The teacher said ‘cut it short’ so let’s not play with the conclusion any more/longer. Let’s chose some; the teacher said ‘be selective’.
Telling peer what to do	Herkes cevabini soylesin. Bir fikir versen. Açık açık söylersin. Dictionary’e baksana! Gramer doğru olsun yeter. Complex olmasına gerek yok; doğru olsun, basit olsun. Sen başla! Senin yazın daha iyi. Sen yaz. Burasını da sen yap. Hadi oğlum başla. Yaz lan şunu. Yazın işte ya! Başkası yazsın. Basit yaz. Bunlar detail hep, sadede gel! Yaz yaz sen! En sonuna koyacaksın. Okusana. Bu yok ama.	Let everybody give their answer. I wish you’d say something. / You can’t just sit there saying nothing. Tell him/her/them openly/honestly. Look in the dictionary, (will you)? Enough if the grammar is right. It doesn’t have to be complex! Correct and simple is more than enough. / Just correct and simple is enough. You start! YOUR handwriting is better; YOU write ... YOU do THIS part. Come on, start ( ... ing.) Come on, just write this. Go ahead and write it already! Someone else write it. Keep it simple! These are all details; get to the point! Just write these down! / Just worry about writing this down! You have to add it to the end. / You have to put it at the end. Read it. But we aren’t supposed to do this!
Voc: Filler	Şey … ... şeye göre... Şeyle ilgili … Işte … falan Bakalım şimdi. Bakacaz, bakalım.	... um Hmmm, (according to) um ... (It’s about/ It has to do with)... um ... Well, / You know, … and so on / and so forth Let’s see now, … We’re gonna see. / Let’s see.
Voc: Informal	Oha! Çüşş! Neyse.	Huh? [Disbelief] NO!/ NO way Jose! Oh well./ What can I say? [unwilling agreement]
Voc: Surprise	Ha!	Oh!

¥ The above list of Turkish expressions were collected by two instructors at DBE, METU, Dr. Suzan Öniz and Patricia Bilikmen from several classes at DBE, METU during pair or group work; these were then translated, categorized and listed. The results of this small-scale research were jointly presented at TESOL 2002 held in New York.