Select a Theme
Weather
The Alphabet And Pronunciation Of Letters
The Turkish alphabet has 29 letters and is based on the Latin alphabet; while most of these letters overlap with those in English, Q, W and X are not used and there are additional letters: Ç, Ğ, I, Ö, Ş and Ü. (You may or may not see this characters properly on your screen – see the setup of your browser) Turkish words are pronounced as they are spelt, but to pronounce them correctly you need to know how each letter is pronounced. Here is a list that shows you how:
| A,a | This is a short “ah” sound, as in smart and car |
| B,b | B, b – Read as the letter b in big and baby |
| C,c | This is a “j” sound in Turkish, as in jet and John |
| Ç,ç | This is the “ch” sound in English, as in change and chocolate |
| D,d | Read as the letter d in dear and dinner |
| E,e | Read as “eh” such as the “e” in bed and the “ea” in bread |
| F,f | Read as the letter f in fee and father |
| G,g | This is always a hard “g” as in go and glasses, NEVER soft as in giant or margin |
| Ğ,ğ | This is called a “soft g” in Turkish; it is essentially silent, sometimes lengthening the vowel preceding it and sometimes softening the connection between two vowels. It is never the first letter of a word. NEVER pronounced as “g” |
| H,h | The “h” in Turkish is NEVER silent as it is for instance in honour. Read as the letter h in happy and heaven |
| I,ı | Turkish has an undotted i that is pronounced as the “u” in radium and the “i” in cousin, an “uh” sound |
| İ,i | Read as a double “e” but a shorter sound, as in sit and see |
| J,j | Read as the “s” in pleasure and closure |
| K,k | Read as the “c” in car and cat, or the “q” in quick and question |
| L,l | Read as the letter l in little and lazy |
| M,m | Read as the letter m in mother and money |
| N,n | Read as the letter n in name and noble |
| O,o | Read as the letter o in fold and mould |
| Ö,ö | Sounds like the “u” in purse and the “i” in bird |
| P,p | Read as the letter p in paper and pencil, NEVER soft as in phone and pharmacy |
| R,r | The r is never unpronounced in Turkish as it can be in British English. Read as the letter “r” in read and the “wr” in write |
| S,s | This is always read as the letter s in stress and sing, NEVER read it as a “z” sound as in his and tease |
| Ş,ş | Like the c with a “tail”, this is the sound for “sh” in English, as in ship and posh |
| T,t | Read as the letter t in travel and trip; there is no “th” sound in Turkish so if you see these letters together in a word, each are read separately |
| U,u | This is the double o sound in boot and room, but shorter |
| Ü,ü | The English language does not have this sound, but the “e” sound in new and pew is the closest to it; German speakers: read as the “ü” in für, and French speakers: read as the “u” in tu |
| V,v | Read as the letter v in vivid and valid |
| Y,y | Read as the letter y in yes and you |
| Z,z | Read as the letter z in zoo and zany |
