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Turkish Alphabet & Sounds

The Turkish alphabet is a Latin-based script consisting of 29 letters, adopted in 1928. The alphabet is designed to represent the phonemes of the Turkish language accurately, making Turkish a highly phonetic language where words are typically pronounced as they are spelled.


Vowels (8 letters)

  • A: Pronounced /a/ as in "father" 

  • E: Pronounced /e/ as in "bed"

  • I: Pronounced /ɯ/ as in "ill" but unrounded and closer to "u" in "cut"

  • İ: Pronounced /i/ as in "machine"

  • O: Pronounced /o/ as in "more"

  • Ö: Pronounced /ø/ as in "her" (rounded, similar to German "ö")

  • U: Pronounced /u/ as in "moon"

  • Ü: Pronounced /y/ as in "feud" (rounded, similar to German "ü")


Consonants (21 letters)

  • B: Pronounced /b/ as in "baby"

  • C: Pronounced /dʒ/ as in "jump"

  • Ç: Pronounced /tʃ/ as in "chop"

  • D: Pronounced /d/ as in "dad"

  • F: Pronounced /f/ as in "fun"

  • G: Pronounced /ɡ/ as in "go"

  • Ğ: Pronounced as a lengthening of the preceding vowel, silent

  • H: Pronounced /h/ as in "he"

  • J: Pronounced /ʒ/ as in "measure"

  • K: Pronounced /k/ as in "king"

  • L: Pronounced /l/ as in "lamp"

  • M: Pronounced /m/ as in "man"

  • N: Pronounced /n/ as in "net"

  • P: Pronounced /p/ as in "pen"

  • R: Pronounced /r/ as in "rain"

  • S: Pronounced /s/ as in "sit"

  • Ş: Pronounced /ʃ/ as in "she"

  • T: Pronounced /t/ as in "tea"

  • V: Pronounced /v/ as in "very"

  • Y: Pronounced /j/ as in "yellow"

  • Z: Pronounced /z/ as in "zoo"


Things to remember

  • The letter "ğ" (soft g): Only appears in the middle or the end of the word.

  • The letter "e": Can have different variations depending on the consonant that follows it.

  • The letter "r": Can have a tiny "whistle" sound when it appears at the end of a word. And most Turkish native speakers are not aware of it.

  • The letter "h": Is sometimes omitted in particular words such as "Merhaba."

  • Some vowels in Turkish can be omitted in spoken language, such as:

​

"orada" > "orda"

"nerede" > "nerde"

"gazete" > "gaste"

"dakika" > "dakka"

​

  • The letter "c": Pronounced like the English "j" in "jam."

  • The letter "j": Glides unlike the letter "c". They are different.

  • The letter "ç": Pronounced like the English "ch" in "chocolate."

  • The letter "ş": Pronounced like the English "sh" in "shoe."

  • The letter "ö" and "ü": Similar to the German "ö" and "ü," requiring rounded lips.

  • ‘ü’ can be produced by preparing to make an ‘i’ sound (a shorter form of the vowel sound in the English word beat) and then rounding the lips.

  • ‘ö’ can be produced by preparing to make an ‘e’ sound (the vowel sound in the English word den) and then rounding the lips.


Here is a link that will help you see the alphabet and words for each letter in Turkish.


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