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<strong>Gerek</strong> and <strong>lazım</strong> are frequently used words in Turkish, but they are difficult to translate into English. The most common translations
are 'to be necessary', 'to be needed', 'to require'. <strong>Gerek</strong> is both a noun and a verb (gerekmek). It's adjectival form is used frequently too: <strong>gerekli</strong>.
Let's see some examples.
<table class="ui fixed celled definition table">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>gerek</th>
            <th>Turkish</th>
            <th>English</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>As a verb</td>
			<td>Gitmem <strong>gerekiyor</strong>.</td>
            <td>I need to go. [Lit.] My going is needed.*</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>As a noun</td>
			<td>Söylemenize <strong>gerek</strong> yok.</td>
            <td>There is no need for you to say.</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>As an adjective</td>
			<td>Bütün bu eşyalar <strong>gerekli</strong> mi?</td>
            <td>Is all this stuff necessary?</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>
<p>*Notice how the translation when used as a verb is very different. From now on, we will be using the literal translation to make things easier.</p>
<p><strong>Lazım</strong> on the other hand is mostly used as a predicate noun. If you want to use it as a verb, it gets the auxiliary 'olmak'. Let's see:</p>
<table class="ui fixed celled definition table">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>lazım</th>
            <th>Turkish</th>
            <th>English</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>As a verb</td>
			<td>Araban bize <strong>lazım oldu</strong>.</td>
            <td>We needed your car. [Lit.] Your car became necessary to us.</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>As a noun</td>
			<td>Kalemi bana <strong>lazım</strong>.</td>
            <td>I need his pen. [Lit.] His pen is necessary for me.</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>As an adjective</td>
			<td><strong>Lazım</strong> materyalleri getirdik mi?</td>
            <td>Did we bring the necessary materials?</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>
<p>The subject of these sentences is the thing that is needed, not the person who needs them. For example in "Araban bize <strong>gerek</strong>ti." (Your car was needed to us.) 
	the car is the subject while in reality it is us who experienced a need, not the car. 
	Because of this aspect, these words are used to depersonalize some parts of speech, or make speech impersonal in general.</p>

Gerek - Lazım

noun

adjective

determiner

verb

adverb

postposition

interjection

conjunction

pronoun

sentence

phrase

Unknown

NOUN - vowel harmony, consonant harmony

NOUN - vowel harmony, no consonant harmony

NOUN - no vowel harmony, consonant harmony

NOUN - no vowel harmony, no consonant harmony

VERB - intransitive, passive

VERB - intransitive, non-passive

VERB - transitive, non-causative

VERB - transitive, causative

VERB - ablative

VERB - dative

VERB - locative

VERB - accusative

VERB - intransitive, reciprocal

VERB - intransitive, reflexive

VERB - auxiliary

Counting to 10

Fruits

The days of the week

The months of the year

Demonstratives

Adjectives

Vegetables

Animals extended

Hello and goodbye

Colors

First degree family

Nouns and articles

Plural nouns and minor vowel harmony

Personal pronouns

The verb "to be"

There is and there are

The infinitive and the stem

The imperative and major vowel harmony

The present continuous

The locative case suffix

The accusative case suffix

The dative case suffix

Final consonant harmony

Negative verbs

Questions in the present continuous

Questions with the verb "to be"

The imperative

The imperative forms of yemek and demek

Different uses of the present continuous

Irregular verbs

The Turkish alphabet

The indefinite article and the number one

The negative form of "to be"

Question words

Meeting people

Conjunctions

Stress inside questions

Locative location pronouns

Dative and ablative location pronouns

Accusative and locative personal pronouns

The genitive case suffix

Genitive personal pronouns

Extended family

The possession suffix

Dative and ablative personal pronouns

Expressing possession with var and yok

Clothing

The head and related parts

Compound nouns

Body parts

Combining suffixes

Water and the possession suffix

Vowel elimination on suffixation

Location postpositions

Location postpositions 2

Extra vocabulary and expressions

The ablative case suffix

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A bit much and more and less

Animals

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The instrumentative

The definite simple past

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Nuts

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Traffic and directions

The weather

With and without

Nationalities

Question	Answer
requirement, need	gerek
necessary, required, essential	gerekli
to require, to be necessary, to be needed	gerekmek This is a peculiar verb in Turkish. It takes no passive suffix, yet it conveys the meaning of one. It is mostly used with a nominalized verb. For example: Çıkmanız gerekiyor. Literally: 'Your leaving is necesary/is required.'
My going is needed.	Gitmem gerekiyor.
There is no need for you to say. [Lit.] Your saying is not needed.	Söylemenize gerek yok.
stuff, things, ware, goods^E	eşya
Is all this stuff necessary?	Bütün bu eşyalar gerekli mi?
necessity, need, requirement	lüzum
necessary, required, needed	lazım
to be required, to be needed	lazım olmak
We needed your car. [Lit.] Your car became necessary to us.	Araban bize lazım oldu.
I need his pencil. [Lit.] His pencil is necessary to me.	Kalemi bana lazım.
material	materyal The word materyal breaks the minor vowel harmony. It's plural form is materyaller.
Did we bring the necessary materials?	Lazım materyalleri getirdik mi?
My going is needed.	Gitmem lazım.
to make it in time, to catch up, to keep up	yetişmek
opera	opera
It is necessary for them to leave now in order (for them) to make it to the opera.	Operaya yetişmeleri için şimdi çıkmaları gerekiyor.
urgent, emergency, immediate	acil
immediately, urgently, hastily	acilen
Kamil needs to leave immediately. [Lit.] Kamil's immediate going outside is necessary.	Kamil'in acilen dışarı çıkması gerekiyor.
document, record	belge
They want us to bring the necessary documents later.	Gerekli belgeleri sonra getirmemizi istiyorlar.

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