The Turkish Alphabet: Your Complete Pronunciation Guide

Great news: Turkish uses the Latin alphabet, and unlike English, it is almost perfectly phonetic. Every letter has exactly one sound, and every sound has exactly one letter. Once you learn the 29 letters, you can pronounce any Turkish word you see.

The Unique Letters

Turkish has six letters not found in English:

• Ç / ç — like "ch" in chair
• Ğ / ğ — the "soft g", lengthens the preceding vowel, never pronounced alone
• İ / i — dotted i, like "ee" in see
• I / ı — dotless i, a deep back vowel, like the "u" in until
• Ö / ö — like German ö, say "e" while rounding your lips
• Ş / ş — like "sh" in ship
• Ü / ü — like German ü, say "ee" while rounding your lips

Quick Tips

• "C" in Turkish is always pronounced like "j" in English
• "J" sounds like the "s" in measure
• "V" is softer than in English, closer to a "w"

Spend one week on the alphabet and pronunciation, and you'll have a solid foundation for everything that follows.