An emergency is the worst moment to be hunting for grammar, so the good news is that urgent Turkish health language reuses two patterns you already have. Pain is not "I have a pain" — it is "my X hurts": Başım ağrıyor ("my head hurts"), with the possessive on the body part and the verb ağrımak ("to ache") doing the work. And "I have an allergy / a fever / a problem" is the same possessive + var you used to book a hotel room: alerjim var ("there is an allergy of mine"). Calling for help leans on the imperative — Yardım edin! ("Help!"). Drill these three shapes and you can act under pressure instead of translating word by word.
Calling for help: the imperative
When you need someone to act now, Turkish uses the plural/polite imperative -In — the same form you'd use with siz, because you are addressing strangers or a crowd. The core cry is Yardım edin! ("Help!", literally "do help!"), from yardım etmek ("to help").
Yardım edin! Burada bir kaza oldu!
Help! There's been an accident here!
Ambulans çağırın, lütfen! Adam baygın!
Call an ambulance, please! The man is unconscious!
Çabuk olun, acil durum var!
Be quick, it's an emergency!
The verbs you most need in the imperative are çağırmak ("to call/summon" — for people: an ambulance, the police), aramak ("to call" — for phoning a number), and getirmek ("to bring"). The single emergency number in Türkiye is 112, so Yüz on ikiyi arayın! is "Call 112!" For the full set of command endings, see the imperative paradigm.
"My X hurts": the body-possessive + ağrımak
Here is the pattern English speakers most reliably get wrong. To say a body part hurts, Turkish makes that body part the subject and marks it with the possessive — "my head," "my stomach" — then uses the verb ağrımak ("to ache"). So "I have a headache" is literally "my head is aching": Başım ağrıyor. There is no "I have" and no "a pain" — the body part itself does the aching.
| Turkish | Literally | English |
|---|---|---|
| Başım ağrıyor. | my-head is-aching | I have a headache. |
| Karnım ağrıyor. | my-belly is-aching | I have a stomachache. |
| Boğazım ağrıyor. | my-throat is-aching | I have a sore throat. |
| Dişim ağrıyor. | my-tooth is-aching | I have a toothache. |
Watch the spelling of ağrıyor: the ğ (yumuşak g) lengthens the preceding a, and the vowels are all dotless — ağrıyor, not agriyor or ağriyor. The stem is ağrı- ("ache") and the present-continuous -Iyor harmonizes to -ıyor after the back vowels.
Başım çok ağrıyor, bir ağrı kesiciniz var mı?
My head hurts a lot — do you have a painkiller?
Dün akşamdan beri karnım ağrıyor.
My stomach has been hurting since last night.
To say where it hurts more vaguely — "it hurts here" — point and use acımak ("to sting/hurt") or ağrımak: Burası acıyor ("It hurts here"). And canım yanıyor ("I'm in pain," literally "my soul is burning") is the idiomatic cry of sharp, acute pain.
"I have a fever / an allergy": possessive + var
For conditions you have — a fever, an allergy, nausea, a complaint — Turkish does not use "have." It uses the existential var with the condition marked as yours: ateşim var ("I have a fever," literally "there is a fever of mine"), alerjim var ("I have an allergy"). This is exactly the possessive-plus-var you met for reservations and rooms, now carrying medical weight.
Ateşim var ve başım dönüyor.
I have a fever and I feel dizzy. (lit. 'my head is turning')
Penisiline alerjim var, lütfen dikkat edin.
I'm allergic to penicillin, please be careful.
Şeker hastasıyım, yanımda ilacım var.
I'm diabetic — I have my medicine with me.
Note penisiline alerjim var: the thing you're allergic to takes the dative -e (penisilin-e "to penicillin"). And şeker hastası ("diabetic," literally "sugar-patient") shows the izafet again. The opposite, yok, reports the absence of a condition: Hiçbir alerjim yok ("I don't have any allergies").
Doctor, pharmacy, hospital
The three places you may need, and how to find them:
| Turkish | English |
|---|---|
| doktor / hekim | doctor |
| eczane | pharmacy |
| hastane | hospital |
| acil (servis) | emergency (room) |
| ilaç | medicine |
| reçete | prescription |
Spelling note: eczane ("pharmacy") is spelled with cz and ends in -ane — a frequent learner misspelling is ezcane or eczana. The sign you look for at night is nöbetçi eczane ("the on-duty pharmacy"), the one open after hours. To ask where the nearest one is, use the ablative and dative of direction:
En yakın eczane nerede? Acilen ilaç almam lazım.
Where's the nearest pharmacy? I urgently need to get medicine.
Beni hastaneye götürür müsünüz?
Could you take me to the hospital?
At the pharmacy you describe the symptom and ask for a remedy; many medicines that need a prescription elsewhere are reçetesiz ("without prescription, over the counter") in Türkiye.
Öksürük için reçetesiz bir şey var mı?
Is there anything over the counter for a cough?
Reporting an emergency
Putting it together — a call for help that names what, where, and who needs care. Notice the imperative for the command, var for what exists, and the possessive-pain pattern for the symptom:
— Alo, 112 mi? Bir kaza oldu, acil yardım lazım! — Neredesiniz? — E-5 karayolunda, Maltepe çıkışında. Bir kişi yaralı, bilinci kapalı. — Ambulans yola çıktı, sakin olun, yanından ayrılmayın.
— Hello, is this 112? There's been an accident, we need emergency help! — Where are you? — On the E-5 highway, at the Maltepe exit. One person is injured and unconscious. — An ambulance is on the way, stay calm, don't leave their side.
Useful pieces there: yaralı ("injured"), bilinci kapalı ("unconscious," literally "their consciousness is closed"), sakin olun ("stay calm"), and yola çıkmak ("to set off / be on the way"). The opener Alo is how you answer and start a phone call.
Describing a symptom to the doctor
A second core scene — telling the doctor what's wrong. It strings the patterns together: the body-pain frame, a var condition, and -DAn beri ("since") for duration.
— Neyiniz var? — İki gündür boğazım ağrıyor ve ateşim var. Yutkunurken çok acıyor. — Alerjiniz var mı? — Evet, penisiline alerjim var.
— What's wrong? (lit. 'what is yours?') — My throat's been hurting for two days and I have a fever. It hurts a lot when I swallow. — Do you have any allergies? — Yes, I'm allergic to penicillin.
The doctor's opener Neyiniz var? ("What's wrong with you?", literally "What of yours is there?") is itself a var question — even the diagnosis starts from existence. Şikâyetiniz ne? ("What's your complaint?") is the more clinical variant. The reply kendimi iyi hissetmiyorum ("I don't feel well") is your all-purpose "I feel ill."
Common mistakes
The deepest error is importing English "have" — for both pain and conditions — instead of using the body-possessive and var.
❌ Bir baş ağrısı sahibim.
Wrong on two counts — no 'have' verb, and pain is 'my head aches', not 'I own a headache'.
✅ Başım ağrıyor.
My head hurts / I have a headache.
❌ Ben ağrıyorum.
The body part aches, not the person — 'I' isn't the subject of ağrımak.
✅ Karnım ağrıyor.
My stomach hurts.
❌ Bir alerji sahibim penisilin.
Calque — 'I have an allergy' is alerjim var, and the allergen takes the dative: penisiline.
✅ Penisiline alerjim var.
I'm allergic to penicillin.
❌ Lütfen, yardım et bana! (to strangers)
Too familiar — to strangers in a crisis use the polite/plural imperative: yardım edin.
✅ Yardım edin, lütfen!
Please help!
The fix is the same single switch as elsewhere in Turkish: stop reaching for "have." A symptom either exists (var) or your body part aches (ağrıyor). Once that reflex is automatic, you can report an emergency without stopping to translate.
Key takeaways
- Call for help with the polite/plural imperative -In: Yardım edin!, Ambulans çağırın!, Doktor çağırın! The emergency number is 112.
- Pain is "my X aches": possessive on the body part + ağrımak — Başım ağrıyor, Karnım ağrıyor. Spell ağrıyor with ğ and dotless vowels.
- Conditions are possessive + var: ateşim var, alerjim var; the allergen takes the dative (penisiline alerjim var). Absence uses yok.
- Key places: doktor, eczane (pharmacy — note the cz), hastane, acil servis; nöbetçi eczane is the on-duty pharmacy. ilaç = medicine, reçete = prescription.
- The doctor's opener Neyiniz var? ("what's wrong?") is itself a var question — start your answer from the existential frame.
Now practice Turkish
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Start learning Turkish→Related Topics
- Existential var and yokA1 — var means 'there is / exists' and yok means 'there is not'; together they form Turkish's existential and possessive predicates, replacing both 'to be' and the missing verb 'to have'.
- Dialogue: At the Doctor (B1)B1 — An annotated original doctor's-visit dialogue — showing body-part + possessive + ağrıyor for pain, the -DAn beri 'since' construction, the necessitative -mAlI for advice, and the Geçmiş olsun blessing.
- Imperative: The Full Set of FormsA2 — The complete imperative grid — bare 2sg (gel), polite/plural -(y)In and formal -(y)InIz (gelin, geliniz), and the third-person -sIn / -sInlAr (gelsin, gelsinler) that gives 'let him/them come' a dedicated form, with the matching negatives.
- Talking About YourselfA2 — How to state your nationality, profession, age, languages, and family in Turkish using zero-copula nominal sentences.