Chapter 6

Lesson 6

How to look for bathroom in Turkish

Turkish                                           English

Tuvalet nerede?                                Where is the toilet?

Banyo nerede acaba?                        (I wonder) where is the bathroom?

Erkekler tuvaleti nerede (acaba)?     (I wonder) where is the men’s room?

Bayanlar tuvaleti nerede (acaba)?    (I wonder) where is the ladies’ room?

Vocabulary

Turkish                           English                               

Tuvalet                             toilet                                    

Acaba                               I wonder                            

Nerede                              Where is                              

Erkekler tuvaleti               men’s room                       

Bayanlar tuvaleti              ladies’ room                         

Bayan                               lady                                     

Erkek                                man                                   

Sample Sentences

Turkish                                                        English

Bu erkekler tuvaleti mi (acaba)?                   (I wonder) Is this the men’s room?

Burada bir tuvalet var mı?                             Is there a toilet here?

Bayanlar tuvaleti burada                               The ladies’ room is here

Erkekler tuvaleti orada                                 The men’s is over there

Bu bayanlar tuvaleti değil                            This is not ladies’ room

Grammar tips

In Turkish, “Where is the toilet?” is Tuvalet nerede? The first word, tuvalet is “toilet” and then nerede, which in Turkish means “where is.”

A polite way to ask “Where can I find the bathroom?” means Banyo nerede acaba? The first word, banyo is  bathroom. Second one is nerede, which  means “where.” Acaba literally means “I wonder.” If you use it in questions, it creates

an extra polite impression on people. All together, that’s Banyo nerede acaba?

In Turkish, to look for the lmen’s room, the phrase is Erkekler tuvaleti nerede acaba?

Erkekler means “men’.” Second word is tuvaleti, a form of the word for “toilet.” Then

the next word, nerede, which is  “where is.” After that, the last word is  acaba again. All together, that’s Bayanlar tuvaleti nerede acaba?

If the ladies’ room is looked for then  the question will be  Bayanlar tuvaleti

nerede acaba? Bayanlar  means “ladies”. Bayanlar (“ladies'”) can be just replaced the word  with

erkekler (“men”). Bayanlar tuvaleti nerede acaba?

The phrase Tuvalet nerede? is a little unpolite. You can make it formal by adding acaba (“I wonder”) at the end: Tuvalet nerede acaba? At some bathrooms, sometimes only Turkish words are written on the doors. As it is mentioned above that Erkekler is men, for women, it is written either kadınlar or bayanlar.