Ev

08:52 Jun 8, 2012 

When a Turk says "Eve gidiyorum", what s/he is saying is "I am going home" regardless of the distinction between an apartment/flat and a house. In fact, more than 80 % of the time, s/he is referring to an apartment (due to the culture in Turkey). Therefore, it is best to be on the safe side, and refer to a "ev" as a "home" like I suggested. :-)

08:26 Jun 8, 2012 

If we go with the TDK (Turkish Language Institution) Dictionary's definition, (translated) "a building constructed so that only one family may live in it" then Erkan is right. However, in my experience of living in Turkey, I have often known people say "ev satın aldım" ("I bought an ev") and I know for a fact that what they bought was a flat/apartment. I would suggest that in daily contemporary usage the word ev is used generically to refer to either a house or a flat/apartment, and I think that the asker should be aware of this possibility. As to whether a notice reading "satılık ev" ("ev for sale") would ever be construed as referring to a flat is debatable, but I think we can agree that the word 'ev' in Turkish can be used more generically to refer to any kind of residential property as opposed to the English word 'house', which always has the meaning given to 'ev' by the TDK dictionary.

My five cents' worth. Let us not turn this into a storm in a tea cup.

21:05 Jun 7, 2012 

As an example, the use of "ev satın aldım" (referring to an apartment) in our culture is a "wrong" daily use and cannot replace the correct use of "daire satın aldım" and should not be a reference here. I've never seen a "satılık ev" add where a realtor refers to an apartment. It is always "daire". If I see an add as "Satılık Ev", I always know that it is a house in the sense of (even somewhat) "müstakil ev" and not and apartment.

19:59 Jun 7, 2012 

I agree with Tim. "Ev" in Turkish is a generic term, and it is used to refer to apartments as well as houses. As a matter of fact, "ev" refers to any place one resides in. However, the most common form of residence in Turkey happens to be apartments rather than houses.

16:23 Jun 7, 2012 

I disagree, the general use version that is referred as "ev" is "home". There are exceptions, but they remain as exceptions. If someone is living in an apartment, he/she can say "I came home" or "I bought an apartment" but not "house". Likewise in Turkish.

16:04 Jun 7, 2012 

The word 'ev' in Turkish refers to any kind of residential property.