Family members' routines, roles and tasks; Present Progressive Tense (form, spelling, negatives, questions, short answers and uses); possessive pronouns mine, yours, his, hers; family hobbies and activities; social language for family teamwork and the sounds of a, b, c, d, e

A family is a team, and every member (üye) of the team has got a role (rol, görev). In many families there is a couple (bir çift) — the mother and the father — and their children. Sometimes the grandparents live with them, too. Every day family members do everyday tasks (günlük işler): cooking, shopping, tidying (toplama, ortalığı düzenleme), washing the dishes and pet care (evcil hayvan bakımı). Some members have got a specific task (belirli, özel bir görev): «My grandpa's specific task is buying fresh bread every morning.» When everybody knows his or her task, the house has got good organisation (düzen, organizasyon).

We describe routines with the Simple Present Tense, which we know from Theme 3: «My dad brushes his teeth after breakfast», «My grandma takes care of the flowers on the balcony», «My mum organises the family calendar every Sunday». Notice the new verbs: to brush (fırçalamak, taramak), to take care of (bakmak, ilgilenmek) and to organise (düzenlemek, organize etmek). After a busy day, family members need some resting (dinlenme) time, and children need focus (odak, dikkat) for their homework: «I turn off the TV, because I need focus when I study.»

In a Turkish family, Sunday breakfast is a great example of teamwork. The father makes the tea, the mother prepares menemen, the children set the table and the youngest child gives bread to everyone. After breakfast, everybody joins the tidying. Grandparents often have got a very special role: they tell stories, they take care of the little ones and they teach good manners, such as respecting elders and greeting guests. Here are some useful word partners: brush your teeth / your hair / the cat; take care of the baby / the plants / the dog; organise the cupboard / a party / a family trip; tidy (up) your room / the kitchen.

Look at your family at this moment. What is everyone doing? To talk about actions that are happening now, at the moment of speaking, we use the Present Progressive Tense (Şimdiki Zaman). The form is: subject + am / is / are + verb-ing. With I we use am (I'm), with he, she and it we use is (he's, she's, it's) and with you, we and they we use are (you're, we're, they're). For example: «I am brushing my teeth», «My mum is organising the kitchen cupboard», «My cousins are playing a board game». In Turkish we add «-yor» to the verb: fırçalıyorum, düzenliyor, oynuyorlar.

Be careful with the spelling of the -ing form. Most verbs simply take -ing: brush → brushing, play → playing, read → reading, cook → cooking. If a verb ends in a silent -e, we drop the e: make → making, dance → dancing, organise → organising, ride → riding, have → having. If a short verb ends in one vowel + one consonant, we double the last consonant: swim → swimming, sit → sitting, run → running, shop → shopping, get → getting. If a verb ends in -ie, we change it to -y: lie → lying, tie → tying. Verbs ending in w, x or y never double: play → playing, fix → fixing, relax → relaxing.

Now let's visit a family. «It's Saturday, ten o'clock in the morning, at the Demir family's flat in Ankara. Look! Mrs Demir is watering the plants on the balcony. Mr Demir is washing the car in front of the building. Grandpa is reading his newspaper, and Grandma is making gözleme in the kitchen. The twins, Ece and Efe, are tidying their room, and Pamuk, the cat, is sleeping on the sofa. It's a busy but happy morning!» Words like now, right now, at the moment, Look! and Listen! show us that the action is happening at this moment.

To make a negative sentence, we add not after am / is / are: I'm not, he / she / it isn't, you / we / they aren't. «Dad isn't watching TV. He's fixing my scooter.» «We aren't playing computer games; we're helping Mum.» To make a Yes/No question, we put am / is / are at the beginning: «Is Grandma sleeping?», «Are the children tidying their room?». The short answers use only the helper verb: «Yes, she is.» / «No, she isn't.» · «Yes, they are.» / «No, they aren't.» · «Are you studying?» — «Yes, I am.» / «No, I'm not.» We never say «Yes, I'm.» or «Yes, she's.» in short answers.

For Wh- questions, the question word comes first: question word + am / is / are + subject + verb-ing. «What are you doing?» — «I'm doing my homework.» «Where is Dad going?» — «He's going to the market.» «Why is the baby crying?» — «Because he's hungry.» When the question word is the subject, there is no other subject: «Who is cooking dinner tonight?» — «Grandma is.» These questions are very useful on the phone: «Hi, Grandma! What are you doing?» — «I'm knitting woollen socks for you, my dear!»

The Present Progressive has got three jobs. 1) Actions happening now: «Listen! Grandpa is playing the piano.» 2) Temporary actions (for a short time, around now): «My aunt is staying with us this week», «This term my sister is learning the guitar». 3) Planned future actions, usually with a future time word: «We are visiting our grandparents in Konya this weekend», «On 23 April, my brother is joining the folk dance show at school». Before a religious holiday, families make plans, too: «This Eid al-Fitr, we are visiting all our relatives, and we are kissing our elders' hands.» The time words (now, this week, this weekend, on Sunday) help us understand the meaning.

In Theme 3 we learned possessive adjectives: my, your, his, her, its, our, their. They always come before a noun: «my bicycle», «her camera». This week we learn possessive pronouns (iyelik zamirleri): mine (benimki), yours (seninki / sizinki), his (onunki — erkek için) and hers (onunki — kadın ya da kız için). A possessive pronoun stands alone; it replaces «possessive adjective + noun», so we don't repeat the noun: «This is my camera.» → «This camera is mine.» · «Is that your guitar?» → «Is that guitar yours?» · «It's her piano.» → «The piano is hers.»

To ask about the owner, we use Whose (kimin): «Whose scooter is this?» — «It's mine.» / «It's Ali's. It's his.» / «It's Elif's. It's hers.» Look at «his»: it is the same in both forms: «This is his tent.» = «This tent is his.» But «her» changes: «This is her tent.» → «This tent is hers.» Possessive pronouns never take an apostrophe and never come before a noun: «mine bike», «the mine» and «her's» are all wrong. We can also use «belongs to»: «This camera belongs to me. It's mine.»

Here is a scene after a camping weekend in the forest. The family is unpacking the car. Mum: «Whose camera is this? Is it yours, Kaan?» Kaan: «No, it isn't mine. It's Aunt Leyla's. It's hers.» Mum: «And this guitar?» Kaan: «It's Uncle Mert's. It's his. He played it by the fire every night.» Mum: «What about the big tent?» Kaan: «Oh, the tent is ours, Mum! We put it in the garage.» In Turkish families sharing is very important; children often say «Take my scooter — what's mine is yours!» to a guest. Sharing our things with family and friends shows kindness and respect.

A hobby (hobi) is an activity we do in our free time for fun. Every family member has got a favourite hobby, and families also do activities together. At home, families play a board game (masa / kutu oyunu) or a computer game, play the piano or the guitar, enjoy cooking and dancing. Outdoors, they go camping in a forest with a tent, go cycling on a bicycle, ride a scooter, go swimming at the beach, go fishing, enjoy playing football or playing golf and have a barbecue (mangal). On a holiday they visit a museum, join a festival or a party and take a photograph (a photo) with a camera. An active family (hareketli, aktif) does a lot of sports; a usual weekend (her zamanki, olağan) is a normal, ordinary weekend.

Hobby words come with verb partners. We use play with games and sports: play football, play golf, play board games, play computer games; and play the with musical instruments: play the guitar, play the piano. We use go with many -ing activities: go camping, go cycling, go fishing, go swimming, go dancing. We use have with events and meals: have a picnic (piknik yapmak), have a barbecue, have a party, have a holiday. Other partners are: take a photo, visit a museum, ride a bicycle / a scooter, join a club / a festival (katılmak) and relax at home (dinlenmek, rahatlamak).

Let's read Zehra's message: «Our usual Sunday is calm: we relax at home and play board games. But this Sunday is different! We are having a picnic in the park with our neighbours. Right now my dad is taking photos with his old camera, my mum is cooking köfte on the barbecue and my little sister is riding her scooter. We always get on well as a family!» In Türkiye families also enjoy local festivals, such as the Mesir Paste Festival in Manisa. On 19 May Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day, many active families join sports events and go cycling together, and during the Festival of Sacrifice (Eid al-Adha), families visit their relatives and share food with neighbours and people in need.

Good families help each other, and we have got useful phrases for teamwork. «We always get on well as a family!» means «Ailece her zaman iyi anlaşırız!» «Can you lend your father a hand washing the car?» means «Babana arabayı yıkarken yardım eder misin?» — here lend someone a hand means «birine yardım etmek». «Let's tidy up the house together.» means «Haydi evi birlikte toplayalım.» Polite answers are «Sure!», «Of course, Mum!» and «Good idea!» In Türkiye, before a holiday such as Eid al-Fitr, families usually clean and tidy up the house together and prepare sweets for guests. Mum: «Let's tidy up the house together. Our guests are coming tomorrow!» Can: «Of course! I'm tidying the living room now, and Elif is lending Dad a hand in the kitchen.»

This theme also practises the sounds of the letters a, b, c, d and e. The letter a has got many sounds: listen to it in cat, family, camping; in cake, table, play; in car, father, party; in ball, walk; in care, share; and a weak, short sound in about and in the last letter of camera. The letter e sounds different in bed, tent, member, in me, she, these and as a weak sound in the and garden. The letter b is clear in bicycle, beach, board game, but it is silent after m: comb, climb, thumb. The letter c sounds like k in camera, cooking, computer, but like s before e, i and y: city, cycling, dancing. The word bicycle has got both c sounds! The letter d is clear in dad, dancing, garden. We don't learn phonetic symbols; we just listen and repeat the words.

Now let's read a family photo description. Before reading, look at the photo and guess the words (picnic, tent, guitar). Then skim the text quickly, and finally read it carefully for details. «Our Family Photo — Hello, I'm Defne! In this photo we are in the forest near our village. My grandpa is fishing in the river, my mum is taking a photo with her new camera and my dad is cooking on the barbecue. My cousin Selim is staying with us this month, so he is in the photo, too: he is playing the guitar. My little brother isn't playing; he is sleeping in the tent! Next Saturday we are visiting a museum in the city.» For your own writing, choose a family photo and write five or six sentences: who is in the photo, where they are and what each person is doing. Use one negative sentence and one possessive pronoun, then read your text to a friend.