I usually practice writing grammar-related things in my notebook (writing out verbs for each pronoun, etc.) so that I can use proper grammar when I write full sentences. Recently, I've been trying to write down what I do each day in a journal to help reinforce my writing skills in Turkish. In some of my homework assignments, there is also a lot of writing sentences, which Merve often checks. I definitely prefer to write by hand (for Turkish, but also for all of my other classes); I am not completely comfortable using the Turkish keyboard on my computer (I'm not familiar with where each key is), making it harder for me to type in Turkish. Handwriting sentences in Turkish also helps me remember the Turkish I am writing down. As I progress in my ability to read and write in Turkish, I definitely see that it is a subject-object-verb language. I was aware of Turkish being a SOV language before learning it, but this didn't mean much to me until I began working with the language and exposed myself to how sentences were constructed in Turkish. Reading definitely gives me a better sense of the boundaries of how Turkish sentences can be constructed (ex: the types of words and word arrangements that are most commonly used). I haven't read many complex sentences in Turkish, but as I learn more about conjunctions and how to use them, my writing tends to flow better.
Sentences about routines:
Her gün derste arkadaşlarımla konuşuyorum. (Everyday in class I talk with my friends)
Bazen kütüphanede çalışıyorum. (Sometimes I study at the library)
Saat 9'da derse gidiyoruz. (At 9 o' clock we go to class)
Sentences using two verbs:
Çayı içmek istemiyorum çünkü çok sıcak. (I don't want to drink the tea because it is too hot)
Yemeğemi pişirmekten nefret ediyorum. (I hate to cook my food)
All of these sentences exhibit the SOV order. In each sentence there are many different examples of Turkish's agglutinative nature, as several of the words have many suffixes. Understanding parts of speech and how sentences are arranged in Turkish make it easier for me to formulate sentences, as I just have to follow the basic sentence structure (and apply some rules, like vowel harmony, etc. when necessary).
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Hi Claire,
Korean also uses the SOV sentence order, and I didn't know Turkish was SOV as well. I did a little research and I found that 45% of languages use SOV, and 42% use SVO. I also found that certain dialects of Korean are OSV, which is interesting. I also agree that I was aware that Korean uses the SOV structure, but it also wasn't too important to me until I exposed myself to more readings in Korean. I catch myself directly translating a sentence to English in my head, then I would consciously make sense of the sentence in the Korean mindset. I know it'll take time, but I'm trying to transition to create another headspace for Korean instead of having to go through the two-step process of translating to English for comprehension.