Fix your biggest headache in Turkish: how to use getir- and götür- correctly.

The difference between how to use getir- vs. götür- in Turkish seem to be trivial at first if you are coming from a language that does not make such a distinction, e.g. Russian or English however, in Turkish there is an important difference between the two verbs.

 

Let’s take an English example, since we are writing this post using that language. Getirmek and götürmek both are the equivalent of the verbs 'to bring' or 'to take' in English.​ In English you can TAKE a bottle of wine to a party or you can BRING a bottle of wine to a party and you can say to a friend, regardless of if they are going to the party or if they are already at the party, that you are taking or bringing a bottle of wine to that party.​

 

Turkish, on the other hand, has a clear and important distinction manifested in the verbs getirmek and götürmek that centers around an interplay between the speaker and the hearer and their current locations and/or usual locations with respect to each other. Getirmek is used for bringing something towards someone/someplace (where the listener is), and götürmek is used to bring or take something away from someone/someplace.​

 

For example, if I am on way to a party and bringing/taking a bottle of wine, and I am talking to someone who is at the party over the phone, I should say: 'Şarap GETİRiyorum'​ and not 'Şarap götürüyorum'. Unless I am planning to show up to the party and take a bottle of wine from the party and leave with it!

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Scenario 1: You are talking to a friend who is at a party that you are on your way to (but you are not there yet)​:

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English: 

TAKE      wine    TO     the party         

BRING   wine    TO     the party​

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Turkish:

Partiye şarap GETİRMEK              

 

Scenario 2:  You are talking to a friend at a party (you are both at the party together) and you are planning on taking a bottle from the party back home:

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​English:                                                         

TAKE      wine    FROM    the party      

BRING   wine    FROM     the party​

​

Turkish:​​

Partiden şarap GÖTÜRMEK                

 

Similarly, if I am taking my kid to the school, and I am on the phone with the school teacher who is already in the school, I would tell them: Çocuğu GETİRiyorum, and not Çocuğu götürüyorum. Unless I want to actually say that I am taking the child away, somewhere away from the school and definitely not TO it​. The point is that the English equivalent of the verbs for the Turkish getirmek and götürmek (bring and take) do not indicate the location of the speaker and the direction from which they are moving something to or from in relation to the listener, but the Turkish verbs have that meaning built into them.