HSC Turkish Continuers cheat sheet

The recorded texts are played twice with a short pause between playings; questions are read before the first playing, so the first hearing is for gist and the second for detail confirmation.

Turkish is agglutinative: meaning-bearing suffixes attach in fixed order (root + derivational + inflectional), so a long word such as 'okullarımızdakiler' must be parsed from the root outward, not translated as a whole.

Vowel harmony governs suffix choice: two-way harmony (a/e after a, ı, o, u vs e, i, ö, ü) and four-way harmony (ı/i/u/ü) determine endings like -DA/-DE, -dan/-den, -dır/-dir.

Consonant assimilation rule: suffix-initial d becomes t after voiceless consonants (p, ç, t, k, f, h, s, ş), giving 'kitapta' but 'defterde'; hearing 't' signals a voiceless stem.

Listen for discourse markers that carry the speaker's stance: 'ama/fakat' (contrast), 'çünkü' (reason), 'yani' (reformulation), 'aslında' (correction), 'halbuki' (unexpected contrast).

Register cues: formal speech uses 'siz' address, '-ınız' verb endings and titles (Bey, Hanım); informal speech uses 'sen', '-sın' endings and vocatives, which signals the relationship between speakers.

Numbers, dates and times are frequent answer targets: Turkish dates read day-month-year ('on iki Mart bin dokuz yüz seksen'), and saat expressions use 'var' for 'to' ('üçe çeyrek var') and 'geçiyor' for 'past'.

Question types map to listening strategies: multiple-choice items test paraphrase recognition, true/false items test specific detail, and short-answer items require the exact word or number heard.

Scan for the topic sentence, usually the first sentence of a Turkish paragraph; the final sentence often restates the main idea with a concluding marker such as 'kısacası' or 'sonuç olarak'.

Recognise derivational suffixes that change word class: '-lık/-lik' (noun from adjective: 'güzel' → 'güzellik'), '-lı/-li' (having: 'tuz' → 'tuzlu'), '-sız/-siz' (without: 'ev' → 'evsiz').

Relative clauses precede the noun and end in '-dik/-dığ' plus possessive: 'dün aldığım kitap' means 'the book that I bought yesterday'; the head noun comes last.

Voice and causative: '-ıl/-in' makes passive ('yazıldı' = was written), '-dır/-t' makes causative ('yazdırdı' = had it written); identifying voice prevents subject-verb misinterpretation.

'ki' has three functions: a relative linker ('öyle bir gün ki'), a possessive linker after time words ('akşamki'), and a suffix on 'ben/sen' ('benimki' = mine); context decides.

Reported and hearsay evidentiality: '-mış/-miş' marks information not directly witnessed or a realised state discovered later, distinct from '-dı/-di' for directly observed past events.

Cohesive devices to track across sentences: 'bu/o' plus noun for anaphora, 'ise' for topic shift contrast, 'ancak/yalnız' for qualification, and 'ayrıca/bunun yanı sıra' for addition.

Inference items require evidence from the text; an option that is true in general knowledge but unsupported by the passage is not the answer.

Text types in the examination include informal letter or email, formal letter or application, diary entry, notice or announcement, opinion piece, and short narrative; each has fixed opening and closing formulas.

Formal letter frame: greeting 'Sayın ...' or 'Sayın Yetkili', opening '... hakkında yazıyorum', closing 'Saygılarımla' plus full name; informal frame: 'Sevgili ...', 'Merhaba', closing 'Sevgilerle' or 'Görüşmek üzere'.

Turkish sentence order is Subject-Object-Verb; the predicate is final, and moving an element before the verb creates emphasis ('Bu kitabı ben aldım' vs 'Ben bu kitabı aldım').

Conjunctions link clauses correctly: 've' (and), 'ama/fakat' (but), 'çünkü' (because), 'bu yüzden' (therefore), 'oysa' (whereas), 'hem ... hem' (both ... and), 'ne ... ne' (neither ... nor).

Postpositions require specific cases: 'ile' (with), 'için' (for), 'gibi' (like) take the bare or genitive form, while 'önce/sonra' take the ablative ('dersten sonra') and 'göre' takes the dative ('bana göre').

Modals for register and function: '-malı/-meli' (should), '-abil/-ebil' (can/may), 'lazım/gerek' plus infinitive (necessity), 'rica ederim' and 'mümkünse' for polite requests in formal writing.

Cohesion in written production comes from pronoun-drop consistency, consistent tense (past '-dı' narrative vs present '-yor' description), and connectors at paragraph starts rather than repeated subject nouns.

Word count and task fulfilment are marked: cover every bullet of the prompt, write the required number of words, and match the audience by keeping 'siz' throughout a formal text.

The recorded texts are played twice with a short pause between playings; questions are read before the first playing, so the first hearing is for gist and the second for detail confirmation.

Turkish is agglutinative: meaning-bearing suffixes attach in fixed order (root + derivational + inflectional), so a long word such as 'okullarımızdakiler' must be parsed from the root outward, not translated as a whole.

Vowel harmony governs suffix choice: two-way harmony (a/e after a, ı, o, u vs e, i, ö, ü) and four-way harmony (ı/i/u/ü) determine endings like -DA/-DE, -dan/-den, -dır/-dir.

Consonant assimilation rule: suffix-initial d becomes t after voiceless consonants (p, ç, t, k, f, h, s, ş), giving 'kitapta' but 'defterde'; hearing 't' signals a voiceless stem.

Listen for discourse markers that carry the speaker's stance: 'ama/fakat' (contrast), 'çünkü' (reason), 'yani' (reformulation), 'aslında' (correction), 'halbuki' (unexpected contrast).

Register cues: formal speech uses 'siz' address, '-ınız' verb endings and titles (Bey, Hanım); informal speech uses 'sen', '-sın' endings and vocatives, which signals the relationship between speakers.

Numbers, dates and times are frequent answer targets: Turkish dates read day-month-year ('on iki Mart bin dokuz yüz seksen'), and saat expressions use 'var' for 'to' ('üçe çeyrek var') and 'geçiyor' for 'past'.

Question types map to listening strategies: multiple-choice items test paraphrase recognition, true/false items test specific detail, and short-answer items require the exact word or number heard.

Scan for the topic sentence, usually the first sentence of a Turkish paragraph; the final sentence often restates the main idea with a concluding marker such as 'kısacası' or 'sonuç olarak'.

Recognise derivational suffixes that change word class: '-lık/-lik' (noun from adjective: 'güzel' → 'güzellik'), '-lı/-li' (having: 'tuz' → 'tuzlu'), '-sız/-siz' (without: 'ev' → 'evsiz').

Relative clauses precede the noun and end in '-dik/-dığ' plus possessive: 'dün aldığım kitap' means 'the book that I bought yesterday'; the head noun comes last.

Voice and causative: '-ıl/-in' makes passive ('yazıldı' = was written), '-dır/-t' makes causative ('yazdırdı' = had it written); identifying voice prevents subject-verb misinterpretation.

'ki' has three functions: a relative linker ('öyle bir gün ki'), a possessive linker after time words ('akşamki'), and a suffix on 'ben/sen' ('benimki' = mine); context decides.

Reported and hearsay evidentiality: '-mış/-miş' marks information not directly witnessed or a realised state discovered later, distinct from '-dı/-di' for directly observed past events.

Cohesive devices to track across sentences: 'bu/o' plus noun for anaphora, 'ise' for topic shift contrast, 'ancak/yalnız' for qualification, and 'ayrıca/bunun yanı sıra' for addition.

Inference items require evidence from the text; an option that is true in general knowledge but unsupported by the passage is not the answer.

Text types in the examination include informal letter or email, formal letter or application, diary entry, notice or announcement, opinion piece, and short narrative; each has fixed opening and closing formulas.

Formal letter frame: greeting 'Sayın ...' or 'Sayın Yetkili', opening '... hakkında yazıyorum', closing 'Saygılarımla' plus full name; informal frame: 'Sevgili ...', 'Merhaba', closing 'Sevgilerle' or 'Görüşmek üzere'.

Turkish sentence order is Subject-Object-Verb; the predicate is final, and moving an element before the verb creates emphasis ('Bu kitabı ben aldım' vs 'Ben bu kitabı aldım').

Conjunctions link clauses correctly: 've' (and), 'ama/fakat' (but), 'çünkü' (because), 'bu yüzden' (therefore), 'oysa' (whereas), 'hem ... hem' (both ... and), 'ne ... ne' (neither ... nor).

Postpositions require specific cases: 'ile' (with), 'için' (for), 'gibi' (like) take the bare or genitive form, while 'önce/sonra' take the ablative ('dersten sonra') and 'göre' takes the dative ('bana göre').

Modals for register and function: '-malı/-meli' (should), '-abil/-ebil' (can/may), 'lazım/gerek' plus infinitive (necessity), 'rica ederim' and 'mümkünse' for polite requests in formal writing.

Cohesion in written production comes from pronoun-drop consistency, consistent tense (past '-dı' narrative vs present '-yor' description), and connectors at paragraph starts rather than repeated subject nouns.

Word count and task fulfilment are marked: cover every bullet of the prompt, write the required number of words, and match the audience by keeping 'siz' throughout a formal text.