The Language

The Turkish Language

Turkish is very different from European languages in both sound and structure, so apart from the odd borrowed word (televizyon, otel) there is little that is recognizable to us. This means that in the beginning, many learners find it hard to remember words, let alone get their head around the way sentences are put together! However, here is some good news…it may be different, but it is not a particularly difficult language!

One of the good things about Turkish is that it is phonetical – every letter always makes the sound. Once you learn those sounds, (there are a few new letters and some that make a different sound to English), you can read out any word you see and write down any word you hear.

It uses a lot of endings, which can be difficult to get used to, and can mean five words in English become one very long one in Turkish. But Turkish nearly always.

Below are a two lessons, one focusing on pronunciation, and one that shows how easy it is to make simple sentences in Turkish! If you enjoy these and would like to learn more, I am happy to send you other lessons. Just message me on Facebook or Instagram.

Lesson 1 - Pronunciation
Lesson 2 - Simple sentences

Lesson 1 - Pronunciation

In Turkish the same letter always makes the same sound. This means that once you’ve learned the rules you can pronounce any word. It also means there are no spelling tests in Turkish schools!

There are 29 letters in the Turkish alphabet. It doesn’t use q, x or w, but has 6 not found in our alphabet. Of the letters we share, many make the same sound, but there are a few that are different.

Here is a rough guide to their pronunciation:

Vowels Explanation
a NOT like the a in apple but like the u in up
e as in egg
i as in ill
o as in hot
u like the u in put
ö similar to the ‘ir’ in dirt, but keep it short
ü similar to the ‘ew’ in ‘dew’, but again it must be kept short
ı a sound we make a lot in English but never write down – try the ‘er’ at the end of letter when you say it fast, or the first ‘o’ of photographer
NOTE: Unlike English, Turkish does not combine vowels to make a new sound (for example, the ee in sheep or oa in boat).
Consonants Explanation
b like English
c like j in English jug
ç like ch in English as in cheese
d like English
f like English
g like g in English got
ğ called soft or silent g, this never comes at the start of a word but either at the end or between two vowels and lengthens their sound; it is probably the hardest letter for us to master and best ignored, at least for now!
h like English, but it can come at the end of a word after a vowel
j like a French j, or the sound made by the ‘si’ in the English word division
k like k at the start of kick
l like English
m like English
n like English
p like English
r like English but always pronounced, even at the end of a word after a vowel
s like s in snake – unlike English it never makes the hard sound of a z
ş like sh in English shop
t like English
v between an English v and w
y like y in yacht and always pronounced, even at the end of a word after a vowel
z like z of zoo

In Turkish EVERY letter is pronounced – including ‘e’ at the end of a word (‘kale’ means castle and is pronounced – kal-ay), ’r’ after a vowel (for example the word for lesson is ‘ders’ and you can hear the ‘r’)

Double letters are rare but when they occur there is a sort of pause to show there are two letters (the word for 50 is elli –  pronounced el-li, with a pause before the ‘i’).

Turkish has borrowed many words from other languages but almost always writes them how they should be pronounced, for example, fotokopi, futbol, televizyon.

Try saying these words:

Turkish English Turkish English
araba car ev house
bira beer oda room
su water köpek dog
süt milk balık fish
tekne boat bir one
iki two üç three
otobüs bus dolmuş minibus
büyük big küçük small
güzel nice, beautiful iyi good
hasta ill sıcak hot
güneş sun Türkiye

Lesson 2 - Simple sentences

In Turkish conversation, the equivalent of the English ‘is’ is not used. There is no equivalent of ‘the’ and for ‘a/an’ they might use ‘bir’ (one), but often don’t bother. This means that ‘the car is green’ becomes ‘car green’ and ‘Peter is a doctor’ becomes ‘Peter doctor’!

the car is green = araba yeşil
Peter is a doctor  = Peter doktor

NOTE: Notice the words come in the SAME order as English – we have just taken out some words.

Turkish English Turkish English
mavi blue yeşil green
beyaz white büyük big
iyi good küçük small
güzel nice mutlu happy
araba car ev house
oda room çanta bag
kalem pen elbise dress
otobüs bus çocuk child
benim mine senin yours
bu this
What do these sentences mean in English?
  1. ev güzel = the house is nice
  2. araba mavi.
  3. elbise güzel.
  4. oda büyük.
  5. bu otobüs iyi.
  6. yeşil kalem benim.
Now let’s speak some Turkish!  How would you say these?
  1. the child is happy = çocuk mutlu
  2. the bag is mine.
  3. the dress is small.
  4. the car is white.
  5. the child is good.
  6. this room is yours.
Not – değil The word for not is ‘değil’ – with the tricky letter soft g in the middle. Try saying it in two parts – day-il. To make the above sentences negative, you just add this to the END of the sentence: the car isn’t green = araba yeşil değil Peter isn’t a doctor = Peter doktor değil Now make all the above sentences negative!