Learning Turkish — frequently asked questions
40 questions people really ask when learning Turkish, with answers that stand on their own. Where there is more to say, the link comes underneath — not instead of the answer.
Getting started
Where to begin, how hard it is, which Turkish you learn and what the levels mean.
How do I start learning Turkish?
With vowel harmony, on day one. Almost everything else in Turkish is an ending, and every ending has two or four forms depending on the vowel before it: evde “in the house”, but okulda “at school”. Then come “to be” as an ending (yorgunum “I am tired”), var and yok for “there is” and “have”, the locative for “in”, the present in -iyor and the past in -di. With these six steps you can talk about yourself, your day and your surroundings — and that is exactly how the beginners’ route on this site is built.
Is Turkish hard for English speakers?
Different rather than hard. What is unfamiliar is vowel harmony, the long chains of endings, the verb at the end and a vocabulary in which you recognise almost nothing at first. Other things are easier than expected: there is no grammatical gender and no word for “the”, the verbs are almost entirely regular, and there are no irregular plurals or past forms like “mice” or “went”. And the spelling is read almost exactly as it is written — no “though, through, tough”.
How long does it take to speak Turkish?
That depends on what “speak” is meant to mean. For shopping, asking the way and a conversation about where you are from, your family and your work, the A1 topics and a few hundred words are enough; with regular practice that is a matter of months, not years. For a conversation in which you give reasons and tell what happened, the aorist, the past in -miş and the participles come in, and that takes considerably longer. This site gives no number of weeks, because it does not know one.
Which Turkish do I learn here?
Standard Turkish, as spoken in İstanbul and written throughout the country — at school, in newspapers, on television and in offices. Turkish sounds different from region to region, mainly in pronunciation, but the grammar and spelling are the same everywhere. With the standard you will be understood everywhere, including by people who speak differently at home.
What do A1, A2 and B1 mean?
They are the first three of six levels on a European scale, from the first sentences (A1) to effortless mastery (C2). The letters are free to use; the official wording of the descriptions is deliberately not reproduced here. What you see here is this project’s own grading, and its yardstick is not how hard a word or topic is, but from when on you cannot do without it.
Why does the Turkish course here only go up to B1?
Because B1 is the level at which you manage on your own in everyday life: at the doctor’s, at an office, when looking for a flat and in conversations about what you think and have experienced. Up to that point everything is worked out, with explanations, word lists, exercises and reading texts. What lies beyond needs above all a lot of reading and listening, and you will find that best in real Turkish texts.
Will Turkish help me with other Turkic languages?
With Azerbaijani, quite a lot, often after a short time getting used to it: the two languages are closely related and share grammar and many everyday words. Turkmen and Gagauz are close too. Uzbek, Kazakh and Kyrgyz are also Turkic languages, but so distant that you will hardly understand them without learning them — you will rather recognise single words and the way endings are built.
Spelling and pronunciation
The letters, the two i’s, the soft g, stress and typing.
How are the Turkish letters pronounced?
Almost always as written, and each letter always the same way. The ones that differ most from English are these: c sounds like the “j” in “jam” (cami, mosque), ç like “ch” (çay, tea), ş like “sh” (şehir, city), j like the “s” in “pleasure”, and y always like the “y” in “yes” (yol, road). g is always hard, as in “go”. The h is always pronounced, even in the middle of a word, and a double consonant really is held twice as long: elli, fifty.
What is the difference between i and ı?
They are two letters and two sounds. Dotted i sounds like a short “ee” in “see”. Dotless ı is a sound English does not have as a letter of its own: say “ee” and pull your tongue back without rounding your lips. It is close to the vowel in the second syllable of “taken”, only tenser. The capitals are different too: İ goes with i, I with ı. That is why İstanbul has a dot, and kır (countryside) and kir (dirt) are two different words.
How do you pronounce ğ?
Usually not as a sound of its own. After a vowel it lengthens that vowel: dağ (mountain) sounds like a long “daa”, yağmur (rain) like “yaamoor”. Between e or i and another vowel it sounds like a light y: değil (not) roughly like “de-yeel”. No word begins with ğ, and it is never pronounced like a hard English g. The “gh” in English “yoghurt” is an attempt to write it.
Where does the stress fall in Turkish?
Mostly on the last syllable, and when an ending is added the stress moves along with it: kitap, kitaplar, kitaplarda. Many place names are exceptions and are stressed further forward (Ankara on the first, İstanbul on the second syllable), and so are a few endings that are never stressed themselves — such as the question particle mi and the negative -me-, before which the stress stays. Turkish stress is also much lighter than English stress: never swallow the unstressed vowels.
Why is it kitap but kitabı?
Because four hard consonants at the end of a word go soft when a vowel follows: p becomes b, ç becomes c, t becomes d and k becomes ğ (g after n). So kitap (book) becomes kitabı, ağaç (tree) ağacı, renk (colour) rengi. Many one-syllable words do not join in: top (ball) stays topu. So it is worth learning the form with an ending along with every new noun — much as English “knife” goes with “knives”.
How do I type Turkish letters on an English keyboard?
The simplest way is to add a second keyboard layout in your device’s settings, “Turkish Q”, and switch when you need it; there ç, ğ, ı, İ, ö, ş and ü have keys of their own. On a phone it is usually enough to hold down the base key: under c is ç, under s is ş, under i is ı. Do not leave the special letters out — şişe (bottle) without its hooks is not a word, and ı instead of i sometimes changes the meaning. And watch the capital I: on an English keyboard it belongs to ı, so İstanbul needs the dotted İ.
Grammar
Endings and vowel harmony, “to be” and “to have”, the cases, the tenses and the places where English speakers most often go wrong.
What is vowel harmony?
The rule by which every ending adapts to the word it is attached to. There are two kinds. Some endings only have e and a: after e, i, ö, ü comes e, after a, ı, o, u comes a — evler, but kitaplar. Others have four forms, i, ı, ü and u: evim, kızım, gözüm, okulum. You learn which kind an ending belongs to along with the ending. After a few weeks you will hear a mistake before you can explain it.
Why does Turkish have no word for “the”?
Because it does not need one. A noun on its own is often general or definite, depending on the sentence: Ev büyük means “The house is big.” For “a” Turkish often uses bir, which also means “one”: bir ev, a house. What English shows with “the” rather than “a”, Turkish shows on an object with an ending: Bir kitap okuyorum, I am reading a book, but Kitabı okuyorum, I am reading the book.
How do you say “have” in Turkish?
With var and yok, “existing” and “not existing”, and the owner is shown by an ending on the noun: Arabam var means literally “my car exists”, that is, “I have a car”. Vaktim yok means “I have no time”. The same two words also mean “there is” and “there isn’t”: Burada bir eczane var mı? — Is there a chemist’s here?
How do I ask a yes–no question?
With the question particle mi, which goes after the word you are asking about and is written separately. There is no “do” and no swapping of words as in “Are you …?”. The particle follows vowel harmony: mi, mı, mu or mü. Ayşe evde mi? — Is Ayşe at home? Kahve ister misin? — Would you like a coffee? The person ending attaches to the particle, not to the verb: Geliyor musun? Next to a question word like nerede there is no mi.
Does the verb always come at the end in Turkish?
In an ordinary sentence, yes. The basic order is subject, object, verb: Mehmet her gün gazete okur, “Mehmet every day newspaper reads”. Whatever you want to stress goes right before the verb. In conversation something sometimes comes after the verb, as an afterthought, but you will pick that up along the way. For an English speaker this is the biggest change in word order — and once you have it, Turkish sentences start to feel logical.
How do I say “I am”?
With an ending, not with a verb. It attaches directly to the noun or adjective and follows vowel harmony: Öğretmenim, I am a teacher; Yorgunum, I am tired; Evdeyim, I am at home. “He is” and “she is” usually need no ending at all: Ayşe doktor, Ayşe is a doctor. Only in the negative does a separate word come in, değil.
How many cases does Turkish have?
Six, and all of them are endings on the noun: the nominative with no ending, the accusative in -i, the dative in -e (where to), the locative in -de (where), the ablative in -den (where from) and the genitive in -in. Then there is ile, “with”, which is often attached as an ending. That sounds a lot, but think of them as English prepositions moved to the end of the noun: eve “to the house”, evde “in the house”, evden “from the house”. There is only one set of endings for all nouns.
When does the object take the ending -i?
When it is definite — when English would put “the”, “my” or “this” in front of it. Kitap okuyorum means “I am reading a book”, any book; Kitabı okuyorum means “I am reading the book”, the one we both know. Proper names and pronouns as objects always take the ending: Ayşe'yi gördüm “I saw Ayşe”, seni seviyorum “I love you”. So the accusative is less a matter of the verb than of definiteness.
What is the difference between -di and -miş?
Both are past, but from different sources. With -di you tell what you experienced or saw yourself: Ali dün geldi, Ali came yesterday — you were there. With -miş you pass on what you have heard or worked out: Ali dün gelmiş, Ali came yesterday, apparently. English needs extra words like “apparently” or “I hear”; Turkish builds it into the tense. Fairy tales and second-hand news are often told in -miş too.
When do I use -iyor and when the aorist?
Roughly as English uses “I am doing” and “I do”. The present in -iyor describes what is going on now or planned for the near future: Şu an çay içiyorum, I am drinking tea at the moment. The aorist describes habits, general truths and spontaneous offers: Her sabah çay içerim, I drink tea every morning; Ben açarım, I’ll open it. The difference from English: -iyor is also used for states like “I know” and “I understand”.
How do I make a sentence negative?
Depending on the sentence, with one of three means. A verb takes -me- or -ma- right after the stem: gelmiyorum, I am not coming. A noun or adjective takes the word değil: Öğretmen değilim, I am not a teacher. And what does not exist is yok: Param yok, I have no money. There is no “do” as in “I do not”, and no separate word for “no” or “any” — they are all in these three.
What is the apostrophe for in Ankara'da?
It separates a proper name from its ending: Ankara'da, in Ankara; Ayşe'nin, Ayşe’s; Almanya'dan, from Germany. The same goes for numbers in figures: 3'te, at three. Unlike the English apostrophe, it is used before every ending, not just for possession. Ordinary words never take one — evde, in the house, is written as one word.
How do I make a relative clause like “the man who is coming”?
Without “who”, with a verb form before the noun. If the noun is the subject, use -en: gelen adam, “the coming man”, the man who is coming. If someone else is acting, use -dik with a possessive ending: okuduğum kitap, the book I am reading. The English relative clause becomes a long adjective in front of the noun. That is B1 material and unfamiliar at first, but very regular.
Is de written separately or joined on?
Both, with different meanings. As an ending on a word, -de means “in, at, on”: evde, in the house. Written separately, de means “too, also”: Ben de geliyorum, I’m coming too. Both follow vowel harmony (da after a back vowel), and only the ending becomes -te or -ta after hard consonants. The “too” always stays de or da.
Polite “you” and set phrases
Whom to call sen, how to address someone politely, and what to say in which situation.
Do I say sen or siz?
English has one “you”; Turkish, like French or German, has two. sen is for friends, family and children, siz for strangers, customers, offices and older people you do not know well. siz is also the plural, “you all”. The verb form shows the difference even without a pronoun: Nasılsın? asks someone you know well, Nasılsınız? asks politely or asks several people. If in doubt, start with siz.
How do I address someone politely by name?
With the first name and a word after it: Ayşe Hanım for a woman, Mehmet Bey for a man. That is roughly “Mrs Ayşe” and “Mr Mehmet”, and it is quite normal at the office, at the doctor’s and among neighbours — the surname is rarely used for this. Among acquaintances older people are often addressed with family words such as abla (older sister) or teyze (aunt), even when you are not related at all.
What do you say when someone is working, ill or has cooked?
Each of these situations has a set phrase. Someone working hears Kolay gelsin!, “may it come easy”. Someone ill hears Geçmiş olsun!, “may it be over”. Whoever cooked is told Elinize sağlık!, “health to your hands”, and before eating people wish Afiyet olsun!, “enjoy your meal”. Leaving these phrases out is more noticeable than a grammar mistake.
How do I ask for something politely?
Most naturally with a question using “can”: Bir çay alabilir miyim?, can I have a tea? Even softer is the aorist as a question: Bana yardım eder misiniz?, would you help me? You can add lütfen, please, but it is used less than in English, where “please” is almost obligatory. For thanks afterwards, Teşekkür ederim or, casually, Sağ ol is enough.
Words and numbers
Which words come first, where they come from, why some exist twice, and how numbers and the time work.
Which Turkish words should I learn first?
The ones no sentence can do without: pronouns and question words, var and yok, the numbers, the commonest verbs such as gelmek, gitmek, yapmak and istemek, and the small words like ve, ama and çok. Add the greetings and set phrases, because they turn up in every conversation. The A1 lists on this site start exactly there.
Why are there two Turkish words for some things?
Because in the 20th century many Arabic and Persian loanwords were replaced by new words built from Turkish roots — and the old words stayed anyway. So there is cevap and yanıt for “answer”, kelime and sözcük for “word”, sual and soru for “question”. Both are correct; the newer word often sounds a little more formal or written, the older one more familiar in conversation, and in some pairs one has clearly won. English has a faint echo of this in pairs like “ask” and “enquire”.
Are there Turkish words I already know?
More than you might think, just spelt the Turkish way: otobüs, taksi, müze, banka, telefon, futbol. Many came from French, some from English. And the other way round you already know yoğurt, kahve and köşk as yoghurt, coffee and kiosk. Watch out for words that look familiar and mean something else: a roman is a novel, a fabrika a factory, and pasta is cake.
Why are there two words for uncle and aunt?
Because Turkish distinguishes which side of the family someone is on. Your father’s brother is amca, your mother’s brother dayı; your father’s sister is hala, your mother’s sister teyze. Older brothers and sisters have words of their own too, abla and ağabey (usually pronounced abi). So before you can say “uncle”, you need to know whose brother is meant.
How do Turkish numbers work?
Completely regularly, tens before units, as you write them: on bir is eleven, “ten one”, yirmi beş twenty-five, yüz otuz a hundred and thirty. There are no special words like “eleven” and “twelve”. After a number the noun needs no plural: iki elma, two apples, not iki elmalar. If you know the numbers up to ten, the tens and yüz and bin, you can make any number.
How do I tell the time in Turkish?
With saat and the number: Saat üç, it is three o’clock. Half past is said with buçuk after the hour, just like British “half three”: Saat iki buçuk is 2:30. For the quarters there is çeyrek: Saat üçü çeyrek geçiyor, quarter past three, and Saat üçe çeyrek var, quarter to three. The hour takes a case ending, and that is the part to practise.
This site
What it costs, what it stores and where its content comes from.
What does this site cost?
Nothing. There is no account, no sign-up, no advertising and no paywall; every explanation, every word list and every exercise for Turkish is open to everyone.
Does this site store my data?
Your progress — which exercise you got right when, which word you already know well — is kept only in your own browser’s storage and is sent nowhere. There is no account and no server that sees any of it.
Where do the Turkish texts and exercises come from?
They are written for this site. No explanation, word list, example sentence or exercise is taken or translated from a textbook, a dictionary or another course. The grading of words and topics is this project’s own too — no outside list for a level was used.