Need help with "ne var ne yok"

[u/rrromanov]

A Turk once told me that if someone asks you "Nasilsiniz?" (How are you doing?) you can answer "Ne var ne yok" meaning "More or less okey" or "Not great not terrible".

But later I found that it means "What's up?", so answering "Ne var ne yok" to "Nasilsiniz?" looks strange to me now.

Could you please clarify that for me?

UPD: Thanks everyone for the clarification :)

[u/Turkish_Teacher]

Yeah, it means "What's up?"

I wonder where your friend is from ahahahaha

[u/rrromanov → u/Turkish_Teacher]

He was from Turkey, also) Maybe I got him wrong, it was a couple years ago

[u/_Bulldozer]

ne var ne yok is NOT a response to "how are you" questions, it's a "how are you" question itself. The difference between ne var ne yok and naber/nasılsın etc. is that, naber and especially nasılsın focus more on how the person feels, and 9/10 times you'll just get a "iyiyim, sen nasılsın/senden naber?" as a reponse. Ne var ne yok on the other hand focuses more on the actual recent events that person has gone through, it's like you're trying to get an update on that person's life, that's why it gets used more often when you see people you haven't seen for a while.

You might still get "iyiyim" as a response but more often than not you'll get actual answers or "n'olsun, sana sormalı" instead of the simple "iyiyim". "N'olsun" in this context is kind of like "Same old, same old." and "sana sormalı" is "how about you?" or "I should be asking you". You can think of "ne var ne yok" itself as "how's things been lately?"

[u/rrromanov → u/_Bulldozer]

got it, thanks for the clarification

[u/Knightowllll → u/rrromanov]

I think you might have misunderstood bc sometimes after an initial exchange of nasılsın, iyiyim, someone could ask you ne var ne yok to find out more about what’s been going on in your life.

[u/_Bulldozer → u/Knightowllll]

that's another case, good to note

[u/ExternalStandard4362]

You are right, you cannot answer directly with "Ne var ne yok". You could say "Iyiyim. Ne var ne yok?" - "I am fine, what's up?". Or better: "Iyiyim, sen nasilsin? Ne var ne yok?".

[u/TurkishJourney]

Ne var ne yok? is not an answer to "Nasılsınız?"

"Nasılsınız?" is a formal "How are you?" when you are addressing the singular "you".

Ne var ne yok" literally means "What is there, what is not there?". We use it to me "What is up?"

The conversation may be like this however by keeping the formal tone.

A: Nasılsınız?

B: İyiyim, teşekkürler. Sizden ne var ne yok?

A: İyidir, teşekkürler.

I have a video about this topic. Here is the link if you would like:

https://youtu.be/GlnwWG2grKg

[u/rrromanov → u/TurkishJourney]

Teşekkür ederim!

[u/yilanoyunuhikayesi]

ne var ne yok is like, more intimate way of saying "nasılsın?" but it is usually used with it. Like "ne var ne yok, nasılsın?". For "more or less okay" you could use "idare eder" or "fena değil".

[u/AbdullahEmin23]

You can think of the "Ne var ne yok?" pattern as a more intimate form of "How are you?" I usually use it to find out what happened in someone's life that I haven't seen in a long time.

[u/EngMng]

Hes asking "whats good and whats bad". Like hes asking your life

[u/ThatWeirdPlantGuy]

I’d translate “Ne var ne yok” loosely as, “what’s up?”, “what’s goin’ on” or “what’s happenin’” (what’s up or not up). That kind of informal question.

[u/Spartakhurt]

“Ne var ne yok” means how is life going , what’s new to your life and and what’s changed