I can read any Turkish word letter by letter, tell ı from i, say ö and ü without turning them into o and u, write İstanbul with the dot, and type a Turkish word on any keyboard.
29 letters: familiar letters, different sounds
29 letters: familiar letters, different sounds
The Turkish alphabet has 29 Latin letters, and six of them are not in the English alphabet: ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü. It has no q, w, or x: those appear only in foreign names. Letter names are for spelling a name aloud: a vowel is named by its sound, a consonant adds e (be, ce, de), and ğ is yumuşak ge, “soft g”. The English names won't do: “jay” sounds like ce, the Turkish name of c. The table with audio is below.
A word is read as it is written: one letter, one sound. There are eight vowels: they are in the table.
ı has no dot, and English has no such sound: say the oo of “good” with flat, spread lips (kız, altı), never the i of “sit”. i has a dot: the ee of “see” (iki, bir), never the “eye” of “bike”.
ö and ü are not in English either. For ö, say the e of “bet” with the lips rounded as for “o” (göz, dört). For ü, say “ee” with the lips rounded as for “oo” (üç, gün, süt). Never plain o or u, and no y sound before them: müzik, süt, and dört have no “you” or “yo” in them.
Every vowel keeps its full sound, stressed or not: o stays a pure o, never “oh-w” or “uh”, and a stays the a of “father” (otobüs, okul, masa).
Common mistakes:
• NOT i instead of ı — kız has no “ee” sound.
• NOT o and u (or “you”) for ö and ü — göz and gün have rounded lips and no y sound.
• NOT “oh-w” or “uh” for o — okul starts with a pure o.
Eight vowels
The dot on i is not decoration: ı and i are different letters.
| How it sounds | Letter | Words |
|---|---|---|
| a in “father”, short | a | baba — dad · masa — table |
| no English sound: “oo” with flat lips | ı | kız — girl · altı — six |
| o in “or”, also unstressed | o | okul — school · on — ten |
| oo in “food” | u | su — water |
| e in “bet” | e | ev — house · yeni — new |
| ee in “see” | i | iki — two · bir — one |
| e of “bet” with rounded lips | ö | göz — eye · dört — four |
| ee with rounded lips | ü | üç — three · gün — day · süt — milk |
Lesson notes
29 letters: familiar letters, different sounds
The Turkish alphabet has 29 Latin letters, and six of them are not in the English alphabet: ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü. It has no q, w, or x: those appear only in foreign names. Letter names are for spelling a name aloud: a vowel is named by its sound, a consonant adds e (be, ce, de), and ğ is yumuşak ge, “soft g”. The English names won't do: “jay” sounds like ce, the Turkish name of c. The table with audio is below.
A word is read as it is written: one letter, one sound. There are eight vowels: they are in the table.
ı has no dot, and English has no such sound: say the oo of “good” with flat, spread lips (kız, altı), never the i of “sit”. i has a dot: the ee of “see” (iki, bir), never the “eye” of “bike”.
ö and ü are not in English either. For ö, say the e of “bet” with the lips rounded as for “o” (göz, dört). For ü, say “ee” with the lips rounded as for “oo” (üç, gün, süt). Never plain o or u, and no y sound before them: müzik, süt, and dört have no “you” or “yo” in them.
Every vowel keeps its full sound, stressed or not: o stays a pure o, never “oh-w” or “uh”, and a stays the a of “father” (otobüs, okul, masa).
Common mistakes:
• NOT i instead of ı — kız has no “ee” sound.
• NOT o and u (or “you”) for ö and ü — göz and gün have rounded lips and no y sound.
• NOT “oh-w” or “uh” for o — okul starts with a pure o.
The dot, capital letters, and typing without a Turkish keyboard
The dot is not a font: it makes a different letter. So, unlike English, there are two capitals: ı → I, i → İ. İstanbul, İzmir, and the name İvan keep the dot; ışık (“light”) at the start of a sentence is Işık.
One mark changes the word: on — “ten”, ön — “front”; diş — “tooth”, dış — “outside” (see the table of pairs below). You don't need to learn all these words: what matters is seeing the mark.
How to type. Phones and computers have a Turkish keyboard: add it in your keyboard settings. On a phone, some letters appear when you long-press a similar letter.
You can also do without a Turkish keyboard: type c, g, i, o, s, u for ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü — the answer still counts, and the answer key shows the right spelling: learn that one.
That's why words that differ only by such a mark are checked by choice, not by typing. Everything else the checker sees: an extra, a missing, or a different letter is a mistake.
Common mistakes:
• NOT Istanbul — the city name is written with the dot: İstanbul.