When we have a translation job from Turkish to another language, we always tell our customers why they have to pay more. In case you are wondering the same thing, there is a very simple explanation for that and you are about to find out.
As you may know well, Turkish is a language that all grammatical structures made by suffixes. So, source Turkish word count is small but the words are long, really long, dramatically long.
This is a fancy linguistic term which means that in Turkish, many words can be stuck together into one word. Or for those you who have studied grammar class, we could say that words in English are often suffixes added to the root in Turkish. So, as you can see from the following examples, one word in Turkish can equal a phrase or even an entire sentence in English.
You may find it hard to believe but here are some extreme examples of long Turkish words:
- TR: Etkisizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesineydiniz. (1 Word)
EN: As though you were from those we could not possibly be able to easily make a maker of incapacitating ones.(20 Words)
| et- : verb root | bil- : auxiliary verb |
| -ki : suffix to make verb a noun | -ecek : verbal adjective prefix |
| -siz : suffix to make noun a noun | -ler : plural suffix |
| -le- : suffix to make a noun a verb | -i- : auxiliary vowel |
| -ş- : suffix to make verb a verb | -miz : 1st person plural possessive suffix |
| -tir- : suffix to make verb a verb | -den : ablative suffix |
| -ici : suffix to make verb a noun | -miş : past indefinite tense suffix |
| -le- : suffix to make a noun a verb | -siniz : 2nd person plural suffix |
| -ş- : suffix to make verb a verb | -ce : equative suffix |
| -tir- : suffix to make verb a verb | -si : 3rd person singular possessive suffix |
| -i- : verbal adverb suffix | -n- : pronoun |
| ver- : auxiliary verb | -e : dative suffix |
| -eme- : inability suffix | -y- : fusion consonant |
| -y- : fusion consonant | -di : past definite tense suffix |
| -e : verbal adverb suffix | -niz : 2nd person plural suffix |
2. TR: muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine (1 word)
EN: As though you are from those we may not be able to easily make a maker of unsuccessful ones (19 words)
Ordinary examples regarding word count comparisons:
TR: Geminin batacağı belli olur olmaz (5 words)
EN: As soon as it was apparent that the ship was going to sink (13 words)
TR: Affedebileceğimi zannetmiyorum. (2 words)
EN: I do not think that I will be able to forgive. (11 words)
TR: Hiç unutamayacağım bir gündü. (4 words)
EN: It was a day that I will never be able to forget. (12 words)
TR: Evlerine gittiğimde beni iyi karşıladılar. (5 words)
EN: They gave me a warm welcome when I went to their house. (12 words)
That’s why we have to charge a little bit high unit prices for TR>XX pairs!
Feel free to ask us about other language pairs too. You can always write us at info@mirora.com for more information.