Alphabet

The Turkish alphabet is a modified version of the Latin alphabet and consists of 29 letters. Included are 6 additional letters - ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü - while - q, w, x - are excluded.

There are 8 vowels and 21 consonants:

Pronunciation

Most Turkish letters are similar in pronunciation to their English counterparts. There are a few letters however whose pronunciation is unique to Turkish.

"Yumuşak ge" (Ğ ğ) or "soft g" for example always follows a vowel and is pronounced in one of two ways. If the vowel before it is one of a, ı, o, u then "yumuşak ge" will lengthen the sound of that vowel, eg. yağmur, ağaç. If the vowel is one of e, i, ö, ü then "yumuşak ge" will be pronounced as "y", eg. eğitim, iğne. Since "yumuşak ge" always follows a vowel there are no words that start with it.

Letter	Name	Pronounciation	Turkish Example
Aa	a	sun	kalem (pen)
Bb	be	bus	balık (fish)
Cc	ce	jar	cep (pocket)
Çç	çe	chat	çay (tea)
Dd	de	door	deve (camel)
Ee	e	egg	ev (house)
Ff	fe	face	fil (elephant)
Gg	ge	garden	gemi (ship)
Ğğ	yumuşak ge	Lengthens vowel (After a,ı,o,u) yellow (After e,i,ö,ü)	yağmur (rain) eğitim (education)
Hh	he	hat	havlu (towel)
Iı	ı	cousin	ıspanak (spinach)
İi	i	internet	İngilizce (English)
Jj	je	pleasure	jimnastik (gymnastics)
Kk	ke	kite	kitap (book)
Ll	le	lamb	limon (lemon)
Mm	me	mother	masa (desk)
Nn	ne	nest	Namaz (Prayer)
Oo	o	orange	okul (school)
Öö	ö	cure	ördek (duck)
Pp	pe	pen	parmak (finger)
Rr	re	rose	resim (picture)
Ss	se	soccer	su (water)
Şş	şe	shoe	şeker (sugar)
Tt	te	train	top (ball)
Uu	u	book	uçak (airplane)
Üü	ü	cute	ülke (country)
Vv	ve	window	vazo (vase)
Yy	ye	yellow	yemek (food)
Zz	ze	zebra	zambak (lily)