LingoflyҚ қ — q
«q» is a consonant of the Kazakh script, read as “a deep k from the throat”. Like k, but made further back, right at the uvula. For example, in the word “Қазақша” (Qazaqsha) — in Kazakh. The Kazakh alphabet has 42 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. Native words use it only with back vowels. It appears, for example, in the word “Рақмет” (Raqmet) — thank you.
In short
| Character | Қ қ |
| Name | q |
| Sound | a deep k from the throat |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 15th of 42, its neighbours in the course are к and л, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How to type Қ қ
- On a phone: add the Kazakh keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+049B and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 049B.
- Unicode code points: қ — U+049B, Қ — U+049A. With them, the characters can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
Like k, but made further back, right at the uvula
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- Қазақша (Qazaqsha)in Kazakh
The character in the “nine letters of its own” group
They carry the sounds the Russian alphabet has no letters for. Five are vowels (ә ө ұ ү і), and vowel harmony rests on them: a word is spoken all-back or all-front, and the ending adjusts to it.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «q» it is “a deep k from the throat”, as in the word “Қазақша” (Qazaqsha)), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 42 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Kazakh character қ read?
As “a deep k from the throat” — it is a consonant of the Kazakh script. Like k, but made further back, right at the uvula. For example, in the word “Қазақша” (Qazaqsha) — in Kazakh.
What is the letter қ called?
Q. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Kazakh script: it is called “q” and reads as “a deep k from the throat”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.