Türkçe · Turkish
Eight vowels that rhyme with each other, suffixes stacked like beads, and an alphabet written in 1928 to fit the language exactly.
Turkic (Oghuz)
Sounds
31 phonemes, 32 spelling rules. Trace any word letter by letter.
Words
610 concepts carry a Turkish form. Switch Turkish on at the top and browse any field.
Grammar
12 of 12 chapters written.
🎚️ What Turkish does with pitch, stress and rhythm — the layer that isn't spelled.
Sound snapshot
Turkish spelling is the youngest on the site after Malay and the most deliberate: in 1928 the Arabic script was replaced overnight by a Latin alphabet designed for this language, so one letter is one sound almost without exception. The new letters are the whole lesson — ç /t͡ʃ/, ş /ʃ/, c /d͡ʒ/ (cam is 'jam'), j /ʒ/, y /j/, ı /ɯ/ (an i said with the lips spread and the tongue pulled back), ö /ø/ and ü /y/ as in German. The one letter that is not a sound is ğ, the 'soft g': it lengthens the vowel before it (dağ 'mountain' is daː), turns into a y between front vowels (değil), and disappears between back ones (soğuk). The eight vowels split front/back and rounded/unrounded, and VOWEL HARMONY makes every suffix copy the vowels of the root — ev-ler 'houses' but at-lar 'horses' — so the sound system is also the grammar. k and g are said further forward next to a front vowel (kedi, göz) and further back beside a back vowel (kara, gol). Stress normally falls on the last syllable, and moves as suffixes are added; the exceptions — place names (ˈAnkara, İsˈtanbul), many adverbs (ˈşimdi, ˈyarın) and the negative -me- — are where learners are caught. The tracer does not mark stress.
Grammar chapters
Articles
the, a — definite and indefinite, and how they bend to gender and number.
Nouns & gender
Does the language sort nouns into classes, and can you guess which?
Plurals
How to make more than one.
Pronouns
I, you, he/she/it, we, they — subject, object, and the formal 'you'.
Present tense
Regular verbs now, and the handful of irregular ones you can't avoid.
Negation
Saying no: where the 'not' goes.
Questions
Yes/no questions and question words.
Word order
Where the verb goes, where adjectives go, what moves and why.
Past tenses
Finished vs ongoing, spoken vs written past.
Future & conditional
Will, going to, would.
Adjectives
Agreement, position, comparison.
Prepositions
In, on, at, to — the small words that never translate one-to-one.
Words by field
🏠Home
The house, room by room — the words you touch every day.
🌲Nature
Out of the city: landscapes, weather, creatures.
🧩Little words
Adverbs, prepositions, connectors — small words that carry the sentence.
🧱Essentials
The bedrock: numbers, yes and no — the words you need on day one.
🧰Trades & expertise
Jargon of people who do things with their hands — and their heads.
💭Concepts
Abstract words: feelings, ideas, character.
🧭Navigation
Finding your way: streets, junctions, the places you're heading for — and how to say you're lost.
🧑People
Who someone is: what they do, and what you call them.
🎬Actions
Everyday verbs, in the form that follows 'I want to…' — go, eat, buy, see, say.
🍽️Food
What's on the plate and in the cupboard — the staples first.
🫀The body
Head to ankle — the words you need at the doctor, the physio and the gym.
🥋Sport & fighting
The gym, the cage and the corner — built for fighters learning English.
🎭Register
The same idea said in the street, at the office, or in a textbook.