Learn Kazakh here

**In progress - sorry not a lot of information (yet), please check in several weeks or so...**

Back to general Kazakh language  information.

Check out abbreviation  used in this page.

Kazakh lessons

Dimash Kazakh songs lyrics - all in one page

Below is based a lot on Russian webpage: http://kaz-tili.kz/index.htm, which I recommend highly. Many sentences are the same or very similar.

Phrases

Nouns

Personal pronouns (I, you)

Personal endings

Possessive endings

Verbs

Modal verbs

Auxiliary verbs

Adjectives

Numbers and numerals

Pronouns

Adverbs

Gerunds - a verb form which functions as a noun

## Learn alphabet

Learn how to write and pronounce each letter of the alphabet. As a beginner I would recommend learning Cyrillic, as Latin alphabet is supposed to come live in 2025. However, there is no confirmed alphabet, only several proposals, which you can read about in the alphabet page. On Cyrillic script page are explanation of vowel harmony and consonant assimilation, which will be referred later.

## Basics

### Phrases - meeting new people

For further ease I am using **🌻** to indicate informal phrase and **👔** to indicate formal phrase (sometimes POL will be used). If the phrase doesn't have the indicator and it not mentioned in the English translation, it means it can be used both in formal and informal setting.
Informal language we use for:

* friends,
* siblings,
* children,
* people who are younger than we are.

Formal language we use for:

* parents,
* people who are older than we are,
* supervisors at work,
* unknown people.

Worth to note that there are also other ways to ask 'How are you?', e.g.:

- Қалайсың? (Qalaısyń?) - informal
- Қалайсыз? (Qalaisyz?) - formal

**Grammar points**

Words are build from the word stem (main part of the word, almost always constant) and multiple suffixes (parts of the word that are added at the end ot the word). Verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs are subject of declension (change of the form of the verb by using different suffixes). This is the way to express number (singular / plural), case (Kazakh has 7 cases), tense, and many other. In Kazakh words can have multiple suffixes.

Sufixes enountered in above phrases:

* **ың** (e.g. Қал**ың**, ат**ың**)
* **ыңыз** (e.g. Қал**ыңыз**, ат**ыңыз**)
* **ің** (e.g. Мен**ің**, Сен**ің**)
* **мын** (Қазақстаннан**мын**)
* **нан** (Қазақстан**нан**мын)
* **дан** (Америка**дан**мын, Франция**дан**мын)

Several different suffixes may indicate the same thing, but the difference stems from vowel and consonant harmony (i.e. vowels and consonants in the last syllable before suffix):

* -**ың (-yń)**and -**ің (-iń)**- personal possessive ending for 2nd person singular (2SG) in informal form - indicate something is 'your'
* **-ыңыз (-yńyz)**(e.g. Қал**ыңыз**, ат**ыңыз**) - personal possessive ending for 2nd person singular (2SG.POL) in formal / polite form
* -**нан (-nan)**and **-дан (-dan)**- the ablative case (ABL) (indicating origin or source, among others) - indicate origin of the person.
* **мын** **(-myn)** - 1st person present tense

Vowel harmony is based on the hard (back) and soft (front) vowels. See more about it HERE . Suffix starting or containing -**ы** (-y) is when in the last syllable of the word was hard (back) vowel, while -**і** (-i) is used after soft (front) vowels.

## Sentence structure

You know how to greet people and introduce yourself. It would be good to know hot to construct sentence. Each language has different syntax.

Basic sentence structure: SOV (Subjext - Object - Verb), which means that verb is at the end of the sentence.

Subject (e.g. I) - Object (e.g. book) - Verb (e.g. eat)

'I eat apple' in English (S-V-O) become 'I apple eat' => Мен алма жеп (Men alma jep)

* Мен (Men) - I
* алма (alma) - apple
* жеп (jep) - eat

## Personal pronouns - I / you / he / we...

There are **8 personal pronouns** in Kazakh. There are 2 for 2nd person singular (depending on the formality) and 2 for 2nd person plural (depending on the formality). There is only 1 for 3rd person, as there is no gender differences in words - i.e. he and she sounds the same, the meaning can be understood from context or by using a name instead of personal pronoun.

NOTE: the same as we have formal and informal language, we have formal and informal 'you' (for future ease I will use 'you' for informal / casual forms and 'You' with capital Y for formal version).
Those are personal pronouns in Nominative case, as it would be usually used for a subject of the sentence. Be aware that personal pronoun are also a subject of declension (depending on the case - Accusative, Dative, etc.), so if they are object of a sentence they will have different suffixes added to their stem.
It is worth to note that personal pronoun may be omitted, as possessive enging on the verb will indicate the person.

## Noun

Зат есім - noun

Subject will be usually a noun. In Kazakh the noun can be in singular or plural form. Plural form suffix is added only to countable nouns.

You do not add plural endings for:

* nouns that are preceded with number - e.g. two books - екі кітап, 14 days - он төрт күн
* uncountable nouns - e.g. oil/butter - май, bread - нан, happiness - бақыт
* after words indicating quantity - e.g. a lot - көп​​​​, a little - аз, not a lot - біраз/біршама, a large number - бірталай, a few - бірнеше, etc.  (a lot of people - көп адам)

Plural suffix is added before case suffix

### Plural ending of nouns

    Зат есімдердің көптік жалғауы - the plural form of nouns (көптік - plural)

There are 6 different plural endings that fall into 3-way variant -Лар (-LAr) - see progressive consonant assimilation: -лар (-lar), -лер (-ler), -дар (-dar), -дер (-der), -тар (-tar), -тер (-ter).

There are **three rules** for how to form the plural depending on the ending of the noun.

1. If the noun ends in **vowels** or consonants: **р (r), й (ı), у (ý)**, we have to add **-лар (-lar), -лер (-ler)** to make it plural.
2. When a noun ends with the consonants: **л (l), м (m), н (n), ң (ń), ж (j), з (z)**, we have to add **-дар (-dar), -дер (-der)** to make it plural.
3. If the singular noun ends with the **consonants in group 5**, we have to add **-тар (-tar), -тер (-ter)** to make it plural.

    Homework - Kazakh plural nouns

Also known as practise or just testing your understanding and gaining confidence ;)

## Verb

Kazakh sentence structure is SOV (Subject-Object-Verb). Subject can be a person or a thing. We can also use personal pronoun (I, you, etc.). Object can be omitted. At the end of the sentence is verb.

We can say: 'I eat apple', or just 'I eat'.

Verbs in Kazakh are subject of conjugation, i.e. they change the form (ending / suffix) to indicate a person (I, you, we, etc.), tense (past, present, future). Kazakh may express different combinations of tense, aspect and mood.

Dictionary form - infinitive of verb has ending -y (ý), e.g. жазу (jazý) - to write. When we want to say 'write' in Kazakh we omit -y, so жаз (jaz) - write.

### Basic verbs

It is worth mentioning that apart from simple verbs as above, there are compound verbs that consist of noun+verb or adjective+verb, e.g.

* дем алу (dem alý) - to breathe, lit. to take a breath

* ән айту (áń aıtý) - to sing, lit. to place / set a song

* ыза болу (yza bolý) - to be / become angry (ыза - angry)

### Copular verb ***болу*** (bolý) - to be

Болу (bolý) is one of 2 Kazakh copular verbs. The other one being бар (bar).

болу - primarily predicative in nature - the predicate provides information about the subject, such as what the subject is, what the subject is doing, or what the subject is like

In contrast бар is used for existential statements.

The copular verb болу is used for expressing agreement in multiple verbal tenses, which means it creates personal endings.

### Personal endings - affirmative ***болу*** - I am / You are...

Personal endings created from verb болу are basic endings that are added to the stem of verb, noun, adjective, and numbers. These endings are used to form most verb tenses (except from past tenses and conditionals).

I know this might look complicated, but let's look at it slowly and it will be all clearer and simpler.

Let's start with general overview. The endings have strong relationship with personal pronouns themselves

* м**е**н - м**і**н (men - min)

* **б**із - **м**із (biz - miz)

* с**ен** - с**ің** (sen - siń)

* сіз - сіз (siz - siz)

Additionally, there is always a pair of suffixes, as it depends on the vowel harmony , i.e.

* if the last syllable in the word contains back (thick / hard) vowel, then the suffix will contain back vowel as well (in above table left from the pair, containing vowel ы / a)
* if the last syllable in the word contains front (thin / soft) vowel, then the suffix will contain front vowel as well (containing і / e).

For 'you' 2nd person singular (2SG) -**с**ы**ң** / -**с**і**ң**, which is similar to personal pronoun '**с**е**н'**. THe first consonant is the same and the last consonant is very similar. The same situation is for 'You' (2SG-POL): -**с**ы**з** / -**с**і**з** for  '**с**і**з'**.

Now let's compare you in singular and plural:

* 2SG: 'сен' changes to 2PL: 'сен**дер'** (we have plural suffix -дер), so for 2SG personal ending we will also add plural suffix (in agreement with vowel harmony): from -сың / -сің it will change to -с**ы**ңд**а**р / -с**і**ңд**е**р (pay attention that in 2PL there are two back vowels: **ы**and **а**, or two front vowels: **i** and **e**).
* 2SG-POL: 'сіз' changes to 2PL-POL: 'сіздер' (again 2 front vowels), endings -сыз / -сіз change to -сыз**дар** / -сіз**дер**

Third person both in singular and plural (he, she, it, they) from do not have personal enging.

The first person follows -МІн (-MIn) 3-way variants (see progressive consonant assimilation for variants in M and vowel harmony for variants of I):

* -мын/-мін - for words ending in vowels and voiced consonants, apart from б, в, г, д, ж, з.
* -бын/-бін - we use predominantly for words ending with **ж** and **з**, and sonorants
* -пын/-пін for words ending in voiceless consonants and б, в, г, д.

Note: the rules of adding correct ending is the same as instrumental case of nouns.

Kazakh has 3 main tenses: past, present, and future.
There are 2 present tenses:

* Present Indefinite Tense (e.g. He works in factory. I study at University. You go. We play.)
* Present Continuous Tense (e.g. I am reading a book.) - this tense is formed using a main verb (e.g. read) and one of four auxiliary verbs with correct personal ending.

### Present Continuous (Нақ осы шақ) - doing something

Нақ осы шақ - literal translation: At this exact moment

This tense is used to indicate that the action is being done while speaking.

There are 2 forms of present continuous tense:

1. Simple
2. Complex

    Simple form is used only for 4 verbs:

* отыру - to sit
* жатy - to lie (\*)
* тұру - to stand
* жүру - to walk

which will function as auxiliary verbs in complex form.

To create this tense, you drop out suffix -y (indicating infinitive form of the verb) and adding personal ending (from the verb болу).

(\*) Verb жатy takes the form жатыр (instead of жат) before adding a personal ending.

**отыру - to sit**

отыр - sit

Мен отырмын - I am sitting

Cен отырсың - You are sitting

Сіз отырсыз - You are sitting

Oл отыр - He/She is sitting

**жату - to lie down**

жат - lie down

Мен жатырмын - I am laying down

Сен жатырсың - You are laying down

**тұру - to stand**

тұр - stand

Мен тұрмын - I am standing

Сен тұрсын - You are standing

Сіз тұрсыз - You are standing

Ол тұр - He / She is standing

**жүру - to walk**

Мен жүрмін - I am walking

Cен жүрсің - You are walking

Сіз жүрсіз - You are walking

Oл жүр - He / She is walking

Irregular

**келу - to be**

Мен келемін

Cен келесің

Сіз келесіз

Oл келеді

## Accent

In the Kazakh language accent falls on the last syllable of the word and last word of the sentence. The personal endings are not stressed. Thus the stress remains on the syllable preceding it.