[yok] adv.
no / there isn’t / it doesn’t exist / absent / not there
DT: not there
Obviously yok has a myriad of meanings, the most common one being ‘no’. Hayır also means no (amongst other things), but yok is much, much more commonly used.
The sounds of Turkish – There is a sound for “no” that is used in a very informal way. If you look carefully at someone while they say ‘yok’ there’s a good chance they might lift their chin up, they might look up, and there’s an even better chance they’ll raise their eyebrows. They could even avoid saying ‘yok” and just do some kind of combination of the three gestures, and they might even add a sound for “no” in there. The sound is just one tisk- if you hear a “tisk tisk tisk” – that is something else (someone disapproves of something that they see or hear). If you want to use it, try it around your close friends – it’s not rude but not polite. In saying that, don’t be offended if a stranger uses it with you!
*Want to learn more sounds in Turkish? We’ve got a guide for you here
