Shopping, Quantities, Prices | Turkish Grammar

A trip to the market exercises two pieces of core Turkish grammar at once: the counting system (where the noun stays singular after a number or measure) and the abilitative request (where "may I have…?" is built from the suffix -Abil). Master the handful of phrases on this page and you can buy fruit, ask a price, request a discount, and settle the bill — all while sounding like you know what you're doing.

Asking "how much?"

There are several ways to ask a price, and they're interchangeable in everyday speech:

Phrase	Literal sense	Register
Ne kadar?	"How much (quantity)?"	(neutral)
Kaç para?	"How much money?"	(informal)
Bu kaça?	"This for how much?"	(neutral)

Bu domatesler ne kadar?

How much are these tomatoes?

Affedersiniz, şu çanta kaça?

Excuse me, how much is that bag?

The form kaça is worth a pause: it's kaç ("how many / how much") in the dative case (-A), literally "to how much / for how much." So Bu kaça? is "This (sells) for how much?" The dative ending -A harmonizes to the last vowel of the word: because kaç has the back vowel a, the ending surfaces as -a (kaça); after a front vowel it would surface as -e, as in eve ("to the house").

Quantities: the singular-noun rule

This is the rule English speakers forget most often. After a number or a measure word, the counted noun stays singular — there is no plural marker, because the quantity is already specified:

Bir kilo elma ve yarım kilo çilek alabilir miyim?

Could I have a kilo of apples and half a kilo of strawberries?

İki ekmek, bir de yüz gram peynir, lütfen.

Two loaves of bread, and a hundred grams of cheese, please.

It's bir kilo elma ("a kilo of apple," not elmalar), iki ekmek (not ekmekler), yüz gram peynir. The plural -lAr would actually be wrong here — you'd only use it for unspecified plurals ("I like apples," elmaları severim). The common measures:

Turkish	Meaning
bir kilo	a kilo
yarım kilo	half a kilo
bir buçuk kilo	a kilo and a half
yüz gram	a hundred grams
bir tane	one (countable item / "one piece")
bir paket	a pack(et)
bir şişe	a bottle

bir tane is especially handy — it's the all-purpose counter for individual items: bir tane simit ("one simit"), üç tane portakal ("three oranges"). Again, the noun after it stays singular.

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After a number or a measure word, the noun is always singular: beş muz ("five bananas"), iki kilo soğan ("two kilos of onions"). Reserve the plural -lAr for generic plurals with no number ("I bought vegetables," sebze aldım). Adding -lAr after a number is a hallmark beginner error.

Requesting items: alabilir miyim?

The polite, idiomatic way to ask for something is the abilitative verb alabilmek ("to be able to take/buy") in a yes/no question — literally "am I able to take…?", i.e. "may I have…?" It's built from almak ("to take/buy") + the ability suffix -Abil + the question particle mI + the personal ending:

Bir tane simit alabilir miyim?

Could I have a simit?

Şundan bir kilo alabilir miyim?

Could I have a kilo of that one?

A blunter but perfectly normal alternative is istiyorum ("I want"): Bir kilo domates istiyorum ("I'd like a kilo of tomatoes"). The alabilir miyim version is softer and more polite — the same instinct that makes English prefer "could I have" over "I want." To point at what you mean, use şu/şundan ("that / from that one") with the vendor's goods spread out in front of you.

Prices and the lira

Prices are given in lira (and kuruş for the cents, though these are rarely used now). Crucially, lira does not take a plural or any agreement — it stays invariant after any number:

Toplam yüz elli lira tutuyor.

It comes to a hundred and fifty lira in total.

Kilosu kırk lira, çok pahalı değil.

It's forty lira a kilo, not too expensive.

Note kilosu ("its kilo / per kilo") — vendors quote the per-kilo price with the third-person possessive -(s)I: kilosu kırk lira = "forty lira per kilo." The verb tutmak ("to come to, to amount to") is the standard way to state a total.

Bargaining and discounts

In markets (less so in fixed-price shops) you can ask for a better price. The key word is indirim ("discount, reduction"):

Biraz indirim yapar mısınız?

Could you give me a bit of a discount?

Bu kıyafetlerde indirim var mı?

Is there a discount on these clothes?

indirim yapmak ("to make a discount") is the verb; indirim var mı? asks whether a sale is on. To say something is too expensive: çok pahalı ("very expensive"); cheap is ucuz.

Paying

When you're done, you ask for the bill or total:

Hesap, lütfen. Ne kadar oldu?

The bill, please. How much was it?

Kartla ödeyebilir miyim?

Can I pay by card?

Hesap lütfen ("the bill, please") is the universal closer; kartla ("by card," instrumental) versus nakit ("cash"). The verb ödemek ("to pay") again appears in the polite abilitative: ödeyebilir miyim? ("may I pay…?").

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Vendors quote per-unit prices with the third-person possessive -(s)I: kilosu kırk lira ("forty lira per kilo"), tanesi beş lira ("five lira apiece"). When you hear a bare price plus kilosu or tanesi, it's the rate, not the total — ask Hepsi ne kadar? ("how much for all of it?") to get the final figure.

A market dialogue

Here's a complete exchange weaving the quantities, the price question, and the request together:

Buyurun, ne istemiştiniz? — Bir kilo domates ve yarım kilo biber alabilir miyim? — Tabii. Başka? — Bir de üç tane limon. Hepsi ne kadar oldu? — Altmış lira. — Biraz indirim yapar mısınız? — Olsun, elli beş lira. Buyurun.

Can I help you, what did you want? — Could I have a kilo of tomatoes and half a kilo of peppers? — Of course. Anything else? — And three lemons. How much is that all? — Sixty lira. — Could you give me a bit of a discount? — All right, fifty-five lira. Here you are.

Every noun after a quantity is singular — bir kilo domates, üç tane limon — and lira never changes.

Common mistakes

The pluralizing-after-measures error is by far the most common, followed by mis-forming the price question.

❌ İki kilo elmalar alabilir miyim?

Wrong — the noun stays singular after a measure: iki kilo elma.

✅ İki kilo elma alabilir miyim?

Could I have two kilos of apples?

❌ Üç taneler portakal.

Wrong — both the counter and the noun stay singular: üç tane portakal.

✅ Üç tane portakal.

Three oranges.

❌ Bu kaç?

Off for a price — use the dative kaça: 'this for how much?'

✅ Bu kaça?

How much is this?

❌ Yüz elli liralar tutuyor.

Wrong — 'lira' is invariant and never takes a plural: yüz elli lira.

✅ Yüz elli lira tutuyor.

It comes to a hundred and fifty lira.

Key takeaways

Ask prices with Ne kadar?, Kaç para?, or Bu kaça? — where kaça is the dative of kaç ("for how much").
After a number or measure word, the noun is singular: bir kilo elma, üç tane limon, yüz gram peynir. Never add -lAr.
Request items politely with the abilitative alabilir miyim? ("may I have…?"); istiyorum is a blunter alternative.
lira is invariant — no plural, no agreement, regardless of the number.
Discounts: indirim (indirim yapar mısınız?, indirim var mı?); close with Hesap, lütfen.

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