When studying the most commonly used words in Turkish, researchers rely on large-scale text corpora. One of the most comprehensive and academically respected of these is the Turkish National Corpus (TNC).
The TNC contains approximately 50 million words from texts written between 1990 and 2013, and has been constructed following the framework of the British National Corpus in its basic design and implementation. It covers a wide range of genres such as newspapers, magazines, academic articles, literary works, and miscellaneous texts.
100 most common words A Frequency Dictionary of Turkish provides a list of the 5,000 most frequently used words in contemporary written and spoken Turkish, based on data from the Turkish National Corpus (TNC). Below is a subset of the top 100 words from this list. The table includes the part of speech, English equivalent, frequency statistics, and etymology for each word.
Word TNC rank Part of speech English equivalent(s) Frequency Etymology bir 1 Determiner, numeral, adverb (d) a, an (num) one (ad) just 1402146Turkish ol 2 Verb to be; to become 1312151Turkish ve 3 Conjunction and 1178818Arabic bu 4 Pronoun, determiner this 989142Turkish da 5 Particle as well, too, also 881669Turkish et 6 Verb, noun (v) to do, to make (n) meat; flesh 511423Turkish o 7 Pronoun, determiner she / he / it (demonstrative) that 492063Turkish yap 8 Verb to do, to make 358192Turkish de 9 Verb to say 321612Turkish ben 10 Pronoun I, me 316570Turkish al 11 Verb to take, to buy 312199Turkish gel 12 Verb to come 285485Turkish için 13 Postposition for, as a result of 282208Turkish çok 14 Adverb, determiner (adv) very (d) much, many, a lot 261699Turkish ne 15 Pronoun what, whatever 243489Turkish ver 16 Verb to give 236298Turkish gibi 17 Postposition like 231717Turkish daha 18 Adverb more, still 227608Turkish mi 19 Particle question particle 225051Turkish kendi 20 Pronoun, adverb self, own 218435Turkish gör 21 Verb to see 216069Turkish var 22 Noun, verb (n) there is, existent (v) to reach, to arrive at 211317Turkish ile 23 Postposition, conjunction (posp) with (conj) and 202389Turkish çık 24 Verb to go out (of) 198227Turkish sonra 25 Adverb later, after 191249Turkish yer 26 Noun place, ground 182309Turkish bul 27 Verb to find 179439Turkish iç 28 Noun, verb (n) inside (v) to drink 178382Turkish ama 29 Conjunction but, yet, still 176269Arabic şey 30 Noun thing 167699Arabic her 31 Determiner each, every 160771Persian zaman 32 Noun time 160656Persian git 33 Verb to go 156933Turkish kadar 34 Postposition until; as much as 154881Arabic yıl 35 Noun year 154813Turkish ara 36 Noun, verb (n) space; time (v) to look for, to search 152895Turkish çalış 37 Verb to work 150234Turkish değil 38 Particle not 149658Turkish en 39 Adverb, noun (adv) the most (n) width 148762Turkish iste 40 Verb to want 147628Turkish bil 41 Verb to know 146004Turkish biz 42 Pronoun we, us 143327Turkish geç 43 Verb, adverb (v) to pass (adv) late 142923Turkish insan 44 Noun human, person 140522Arabic gün 45 Noun day 136776Turkish ya 46 Conjunction either 134512Persian anla 47 Verb to understand 134073Turkish bak 48 Verb to look at 127182Turkish ki 49 Relative pronoun, conjunction (p) that (conj) so that, anyways 126887Persian el 50 Noun hand 124409Turkish yok 51 Noun, interjection (n) absent, nonexistent (int) no 123810Turkish söyle 52 Verb to say, to tell 123725Turkish kal 53 Verb to stay, to remain 121834Turkish sen 54 Pronoun you (singular, informal) 120946Turkish konu 55 Noun topic, subject 117968Turkish ye 56 Verb to eat 116309Turkish başla 57 Verb to begin, to start 114750Turkish i 58 Verb to be (defective copular verb) 114616Turkish yeni 59 Adjective new 111485Turkish iş 60 Noun work, job, business 105363Turkish önce 61 Adverb before 102311Turkish son 62 Noun last, end, conclusion 102207Turkish yan 63 Noun, verb (n) side (v) to burn 100925Turkish üzeri 64 Noun on, above 98790Turkish yaşa 65 Verb to live 96717Turkish büyük 66 Adjective big, large 95501Turkish baş 67 Noun head 95481Turkish diye 68 Adverb someone or something which is called; in order to; as 93854Turkish ülke 69 Noun country 93600Turkish çocuk 70 Noun child 93583Turkish yol 71 Noun, verb (n) road, path (v) to pluck 92301Turkish neden 72 Noun, adverb (n) reason (adv) why 91434Turkish kullan 73 Verb to use 90836Turkish yüz 74 Noun, verb, numeral (n) face (v) to swim (num) hundred 90361Turkish gerek 75 Verb, noun (v) to be necessary (n) necessity 86896Turkish dünya 76 Noun world, earth 86510Arabic gir 77 Verb to enter 85569Turkish yani 78 Conjunction in other words; well 84656Arabic durum 79 Noun situation, condition 83987Turkish biri 80 Pronoun someone, one of 83813Turkish orta 81 Noun middle 83343Turkish böyle 82 Adverb such, like this 83266Turkish düşün 83 Verb to think 82875Turkish göre 84 Postposition according to 82163Turkish iyi 85 Adjective good 81848Turkish getir 86 Verb to bring 79260Turkish ev 87 Noun house, home 78019Turkish kadın 88 Noun woman 77944Turkish yaz 89 Verb, noun (v) to write (n) summer 77838Turkish göz 90 Noun eye 77751Turkish taraf 91 Noun side 77391Arabic aç 92 Verb, adjective (v) to open (adj) hungry 76768Turkish alan 93 Noun, adjective (n) area, field (adj) recipient 76651Turkish göster 94 Verb to show 75484Turkish hiç 95 Adverb never, nothing, any 74773Persian önemli 96 Adjective important 74563Turkish oluş 97 Verb, noun (v) to come into being (n) becoming, happening 73917Turkish hal 98 Noun state, condition 73630Arabic siz 99 Pronoun you (plural, formal singular) 73216Turkish konuş 100 Verb to talk, to speak 71942Turkish
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