In teaching, English is increasingly used in the Civil Engineering Departments in TURKEY. Some departments use English fülly and some others use English partially. Of course, most of the departments use Turkish fülly. As far as I followed, my book named "Çözümlü Problemlerle Temel ZEMİN MEKANİĞt was liked by students and those interested, because I believe that it explains subjects clearly with plenty of figures. I spent 45 years in teaching Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering (Geotechnical Engineering) mostly in Turkish and sometimes in English. Imported Soil Mechanics books in English are usually expensive and aren't clearly understandable as much as my book. So, I decided to translate my book into English. This book is one-to-one English translation of my book. in translation, I kept my style in Turkish book and I didn't adopt the most convenient English. For example, I used "2nd Chapter" instead of "Chapter 2". Of course, I tried to use the most convenient English terms of Soil Mechanics. By the way, some corrections and improvements were done.

As I said in the preface of the Turkish edition, this book teaches basic principles of Soil Mechanics. Every civil engineer meets soil, so he should have good knowledge of Soil Mechanics, because every structure sits on soil. Civil engineering students find difficult learning Soil Mechanics. This book uses plenty of figures. To use plenty figures facilitates learning. As it is known a picture is worth of many pages of writings. On the other side, authors don't like to draw many figures, because drawing is a bit difficult affair. This book isn't convenient foı design. After learning fündamentals, it is easier to design and to learn advanced knowledge. For design, there are design manuals.

I am not assertive in English of this book. This is a trial and I believe there are many English wrongs and other wrongs in this book and these wrongs will be corrected in future editions by expecting that readers will report wrongs in this process. Human being can't effectively detect his errors by himself and I don't have a controller at this moment, in advance, I thank to those reporting wrongs.

(Önsöz'den)