LingoflyKazakh
Kazakh — Turkic family, about 13–14 million speakers (estimate, Ethnologue). Script: the Cyrillic alphabet, 42 letters, nine of them exclusively Kazakh. This site has 4039 words and 42 letters with audio.
Try one word
Demo language: Kazakh
Read the card and choose an answer. No sound or sign-up needed.
Сәлеметсіз бе
Sälemetsiz be
hello (formal)
Without JavaScript: read the card, choose an answer in your head and open the explanation.
1 / 2 · Choose an answer
Сәлеметсіз бе
Sälemetsiz be
- please (making a request)
- hello (formal)
- hi
- thank you
Show the answer
Сәлеметсіз бе
hello (formal)
2 / 2 · Choose an answer
___, мұғалім!
Hello, teacher!
- Сәлем · Sälem
- Сәлеметсіз бе · Sälemetsiz be
- Өтінемін · Ötinemin
- Рақмет · Raqmet
Show the answer
Сәлеметсіз бе
hello (formal)
Two checks complete
Сәлеметсіз бе
hello (formal)
This is a choice based on text. Conversation and remembering over time still need practice and checking.
How answers are counted
Answers stay on this page. Statistics include the demo stage, overall result, interface language and saved counter consent choice, without answer text or a profile.
Where to start
A young course: the words, the lessons and the recordings are all here, but a native speaker has not read it end to end yet. Spot a rough edge? Tell us and we will fix it.
- →Kazakh alphabetAll letters with sound
- →Kazakh wordsBy topic and alphabetically
- →PhrasebookPhrases ready to use
- →GrammarRules without jargon
- →Reading textsShort texts with translation
- →How to readThe writing course from zero
- →TransliterationThe table, both ways
- →PronunciationWhat you hear and what is hard
- →From scratchWhere to start, and in what order
- →How long to studyAn honest estimate, with caveats
First words
Every conversation starts with them — and so does the first impression: one greeting in the local language and you stop being a stranger within a second.
- Сәлеметсіз беSälemetsiz behello (formal)The full polite greeting. The "be" at the end is a question particle, so literally "are you well?"
- СәлемSälemhiFor your own people. An Arabic loan for "peace" — the same word you hear in "salaam" and "shalom".
- РақметRaqmetthank youq is a deep k made in the very back of the throat: raq-MET
- ӨтінемінÖtineminplease (making a request)Literally "I beg": a form of the verb otinu, "to ask", not a particle. The answer to thanks is oqasy zhoq.
- Сау болыңызSau bolyñyzgoodbyeLiterally "be healthy". Among your own, the short sau bol does the job.
- Қайырлы таңQaiyrly tañgood morning"Qairly" means "auspicious". Evening is qairly kesh, night is qairly tun — the same frame, a different word.
- Қалайсыз?Qalaisyz?how are you (polite)?"Qalai" is "how" and -syz is the polite "you" — the pronoun lives inside the word, the way it does in Turkish.
- Қалайсың?Qalaisyñ?how are you?The same word on first-name terms: the polite -syz swaps to -syñ. The pair works exactly like sau bolyñyz and sau bol, the two farewells.
How it sounds
Five words spoken aloud: click the speaker and pick the translation. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.
- What is this word?
It is Сәлеметсіз бе (Sälemetsiz be) — hello (formal).
- What is this word?
It is Қайырлы таң (Qaiyrly tañ) — good morning.
- What is this word?
It is Сен (Sen) — you (informal).
- What is this word?
It is Танысқаныма қуаныштымын (Tanysqanyma quanyshtymyn) — nice to meet you.
- What is this word?
It is Иә (Iä) — yes.
Curiosities in Kazakh
Vowel harmony turns one ending into four: -da, -de, -ta, -te are the same case, and the form is chosen by the last vowel and the last consonant of the stem. The rule is mechanical, and within a week your hand picks it by itself.
N. Oralbayeva et al., “Qazaq tılı”, 2007
About the language
| Native name | Қазақша (Qazaqsha) · qazaqşa |
| Official in | Kazakhstan |
| Also spoken in | China, Uzbekistan, Russia and Mongolia |
| How many speakers | about 13–14 million speakers (estimate, Ethnologue) |
| Family | Turkic family, Kipchak group |
| Script | the Cyrillic alphabet, 42 letters, nine of them exclusively Kazakh |
| Writing direction | left to right |
Hard: vowel harmony and long chains of endings.
Easy: no gender, regular spelling, transparent word-building.
What people most often take it up for: work and study in Kazakhstan, public service, family.
How lessons work
A lesson is up to half an hour a day, split into three to five short sessions. A word comes back not on the course's schedule but at the moment you are about to forget it: the interval is computed by an algorithm from your own answers.
- The longer you want to keep a word, the longer the gap before reviewing it can be. To hold it for a week, review it after a day or two; to hold it for a year, after about three or four weeks.checked many timesCepeda et al., 2008, Psychological Science 19(11) · Over 1,350 participants, tested after delays of up to a year. The best gap is about 20–40% of the target interval when you need to remember for a week, and 5–10% when for a year.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- A material reward promised for doing a task lowers the wish to take it up of your own accord once the reward is gone. Praise for what was done, on the contrary, keeps that wish alive.checked many timesDeci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999, Psychological Bulletin 125(6) · 128 experiments. A material reward promised in advance and the time later spent on the task by free choice: d = −0.44 for finishing, −0.40 for taking part, −0.28 for performance; a reward unrelated to the task, −0.14, not significant. Praise: +0.33.
Frequently asked
Where to start learning Kazakh?
With the script: 42 letters are worked through in a week or two, and after that words stop being pictures.
How many people speak Kazakh?
About 13–14 million speakers — an estimate; source: Ethnologue. Nobody runs an exact census of languages, and sources disagree by noticeable amounts.
Is Kazakh hard?
Vowel harmony and long chains of endings. At the same time, no gender, regular spelling, transparent word-building.
Where is Kazakh spoken?
An official language in: Kazakhstan. Noticeable communities: China, Uzbekistan, Russia and Mongolia.
Is Kazakh in Duolingo?
No. As of September 18, 2026, Duolingo’s catalogue has no such course at all, from any language. We have Kazakh in full: 4039 words, with audio, the script explained, a phrasebook and grammar in plain words.