The Talking Azerbaijani Phrasebook

The Talking Phrasebook Series presents useful phrases and words in side-by-side translation and with audio files specifically geared to help students work on listening skills and pronunciation. Below, you will find several useful phrases and words. To the left is the English and to the far right is the Azerbaijani translation.

In the center column for each row is a play button. The recorded file will feature first English, then the Azerbaijani in three versions: one slow, one with each syllable broken out, and a last version that will be spoken as it might be overheard in a conversation between native speakers.

10 Facts About Azerbaijani

Status: Azerbaijani is a Turkic language that belongs to the Oghuz branch, which includes Turkish and Turkmen. It shares many similarities with these languages, particularly Turkish.

Azerbaijani and Azeri: Long used interchangeably, these terms are now subject to debate. Some Azerbaijanis see “Azeri” as too informal or even altogether incorrect – instead naming an extinct language related to Persian. Azerbaijanis refer to themselves as “Azerbaijani” in their own language while “Azeri” has been historically used by outsiders, particularly during Soviet times. Many younger Azerbaijanis in particular see claiming “Azerbaijani” over “Azeri” as a way of asserting sovereignty over their identity. While many Azerbaijanis don’t have a strong opinion on this, it is better to use “Azerbaijani” over “Azeri” as the latter will always be considered correct.

Speakers: Azerbaijani is spoken by perhaps 30-35 million people globally. Most speakers live in Azerbaijan and Iran, with significant communities in Russia, Georgia, and Turkey. Estimates of Azerbaijanis living in many areas vary widely. The Iranian census does track ethnicity and thus the number of Azerbaijanis in Iran is unknown. Scholarly estimates vary between 6-23 million. Azerbaijanis may also be undercounted in Russia and Turkey, where official counts of about a half million each might be four to six times greater due to Azerbaijanis staying as guest workers.

Dialects: Azerbaijani has several dialects. The most distinctive split occurs between those spoken in Azerbaijan and Iran. The language spoken in Azerbaijan uses the Latin alphabet and, influenced by the Soviet period, has more Russian loanwords. In Iran, a Persian-Arabic script is used and more Persian influence is seen. However, all dialects of Azerbaijani are mutually intelligible.

Gender: Azerbaijani does not have grammatical gender. There are no distinctions between masculine, feminine, or neuter forms for nouns or adjectives. The Azerbaijani pronoun “o” can mean “he,” “she,” or “it.”

Complex Cases: Like most Turkic languages, Azerbaijani has a complex system of cases. Azerbaijani has six: nominative; genitive; dative; accusative; locative; and ablative (which refers to motion away from something).

Politeness and Respect: To express respect, Azerbaijani uses honorifics like “bəy” (Mr.) for men and “xanım” (Mrs./Ms.), often with surnames or first names. There are also informal pronouns (“sən;” you, singular) and formal (“siz;” you, plural/formal/polite singular). “Sən” and “siz” each has its own conjugative forms for related verbs as well.

Writing Systems: Azerbaijani as used in Azerbaijan has been written in various scripts throughout history. Originally written in Arabic script, it switched and used Latin for much of the 1930s, followed by Cyrillic later in the Soviet era, and eventually back to Latin in 1991 after Azerbaijan’s independence.

Agglutinative Language: Azerbaijani is an agglutinative language, meaning it adds suffixes to a root word to express grammatical relationships. These suffixes indicate things like tense, possession, plurality, or case, with multiple suffixes often attached in sequence. For instance, “kitablarımda” starts with kitab (book), adds the plural suffix -lar, the possessive suffix -ım, and the locative suffix “in” to produce a compounded word meaning “in my books.”

SOV Word Order: The standard word order in Azerbaijani sentences is subject-object-verb (SOV). For example, “I eat bread” would be structured as “Mən çörək yeyirəm” (literally “I bread eat”).

Unique Characters and Sounds in Azerbaijani

C – pronounced as “j”

Ç, Ş – pronounced as “ch” and “sh,” respectively

Ə – pronounced as “a” as in “apple”

H, Ğ, X – all make an “h” sound, but pronounced progressively rougher at the back of the throat

ı – (an “i” with no dot) is pronounced like the Russian letter “ы”

I – pronounced as “ee”

J – pronounced as “zh”

Ö – pronounced as “eu” in the French “adieu”

R – is rolled slightly

Ü – hold your tongue as though saying “ee” but your lips as if saying “oo”

Survival Basics

Introductions in Azerbaijani  

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Asking Directions  

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Shopping  

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Counting

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(These are grouped for simplicity – 1-10, 11-20, 21-100, 101-1000) 

0		sıfır
1		bir
2		iki
3		üç
4		dörd
5		beş
6		altı
7		yeddi
8		səkkiz
9		doqquz
10		on
11		on bir
12		on iki
13		on üç
14		on dörd
15		on beş
16		on altı
17		on yeddi
18		on səkkiz
19		on doqquz
20		iyirmi
21		iyirmi bir
22		iyirmi iki
30		otuz
40		qırx
50		əlli
60		altmış
70		yetmiş
80		səksən
90		doxsan
100		yüz
111		yüz on bir
125		yüz iyirmi beş
200		iki yüz
300		üç yüz
400		dörd yüz
500		beş yüz
600		altı yüz
700		yeddi yüz
800		səkkiz yüz
900		doqquz yüz
1000		min

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