Unlike Arabic, Russian, or Chinese, Turkish uses the Latin alphabet.

This means if you can read English, you can already read about 80% of Turkish. You don’t need to learn a whole new script of squiggly lines or symbols.

However, there is a catch.

While the letters look familiar, some of them sound very different from English. Plus, there are a few “extra” letters that we don’t have in English (like the famous “funny G” or the “i without a dot”).

The most important rule to remember is that Turkish is phonetic.

This means you read it exactly how it’s written. There are no silent letters (except one, which we will talk about later) and no complex letter combinations like “ough” in English. Once you learn the sound a letter makes, it makes that sound every single time.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the Turkish alphabet, the special letters you need to watch out for, and how to pronounce them perfectly.

The Turkish alphabet chart

The Turkish alphabet has 29 letters.

There are 8 vowels and 21 consonants.

Here is a simple table showing every letter, how it sounds in English, and a Turkish example word.

The letters that don’t exist in Turkish

You might have noticed that the table above only has 29 letters.

If you are looking for Q, W, or X, you won’t find them.

These letters do not exist in the standard Turkish alphabet.

So, how do Turkish people write foreign words that use these letters? They replace them with the Turkish phonetic equivalent:

• Q becomes K
• W becomes V
• X becomes KS

For example, “taxi” in Turkish is written as taksi.

The special Turkish letters explained

There are 6 letters in Turkish that usually trip up beginners because they look like English letters but have modified shapes (diacritics) or completely different sounds.

Let’s look at them closely.

1. Ç (The “ch” sound)

This looks like a C with a little tail. In English, we use two letters (C and H) to make the sound in “chip”. In Turkish, they just use one letter: Ç.

Do not confuse C and Ç.

• C = “J” sound (like Jelly).
• Ç = “Ch” sound (like Chocolate).

(Note: In Turkish, names are usually kept as is, but if you were spelling it phonetically it would be Çarls).

2. Ş (The “sh” sound)

Similar to the letter above, this is an S with a tail. It makes the “sh” sound found in Shoe or Sheep.

Just remember:

• S = Snake
• Ş = Shoe

3. Ö and Ü (The rounded vowels)

These letters come from the German alphabet.

Ö is pronounced like the “u” in “burn” or “fur”. You make your lips into an ‘O’ shape and try to say ‘E’.

Ü is pronounced like the “ew” in “few” or “phew”. You make your lips into a tight ‘U’ shape and try to say ‘E’.

The tricky “soft G” (Ğ)

This is the only silent letter in the Turkish alphabet. It is called Yumuşak Ge (Soft G).

It never starts a word.

So, what does it do?

It usually lengthens the vowel that comes before it. It acts like a bridge between two vowels or simply makes the previous vowel sound longer.

For example, the word for “Mountain” is Dağ.

You do not say “Dag”. You ignore the G and stretch the A. It sounds like: Daa.

In the word Öğretmen (Teacher), the Ğ lengthens the Ö. It sounds like Ööretmen.

The dotted and dotless I

This is the most common mistake for English speakers learning Turkish.

In English, capital “i” is “I”.

In Turkish, they are two completely different letters.

1. İ / i (Dotted I): This always has a dot, whether it is capital or lowercase. It sounds like “ee” in “see”.
2. I / ı (Dotless I): This never has a dot. It makes a sound we call the “schwa”. It sounds like the “a” in “comma” or the “u” in “radius”. It is a deep, throaty sound.

Look at the difference:

• İstanbul (Starts with dotted İ, sound like “Eestanbul”).
• Ilık (Starts with dotless I, means “warm”).

If you write “Istanbul” with a regular English capital I (which has no dot), a Turkish computer might read it as the dotless sound, which sounds wrong.

Tip: When writing lowercase, make sure you put the dot for the “ee” sound (i) and leave it out for the “uh” sound (ı).

Regional pronunciation variations

The Turkish I’ve taught you above is “Istanbul Turkish”.

This is the standard dialect used on TV, in schools, and in government.

However, Turkey is a big country. If you travel to the Black Sea region or the East, you will hear differences.

Here are two common variations you might hear:

• The “K” sound in the East: In Eastern Turkey, the letter “K” is sometimes pronounced deeper in the throat, almost like a “Q” sound in Arabic.
• Swallowing the future tense: In casual spoken Turkish everywhere, the future tense suffix -acak or -ecek often gets shortened.
  • Written: Geleceğim (I will come).
  • Spoken (Formal): Gelejeyim.
  • Spoken (Casual/Street): Gelcem.

Don’t worry about these variations for now. Stick to the standard pronunciation, and everyone will understand you perfectly.

Summary:

Learning the Turkish alphabet is actually the easiest part of learning the language.

1. It’s phonetic (read it as it is written).
2. Be careful with C (it’s a J sound).
3. Watch out for I vs İ.
4. Remember Ğ is silent.

Once you master these sounds, you will be able to read any Turkish word, even if you don’t know what it means yet.