LingoflyTurkish
Turkish — Turkic family, about 85 million speakers (estimate, Ethnologue). Script: the Latin alphabet with six letters of its own: ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü. This site has 4057 words and 29 letters with audio.
Try one word
Demo language: Turkish
Read the card and choose an answer. No sound or sign-up needed.
teşekkürler
thanks
Without JavaScript: read the card, choose an answer in your head and open the explanation.
1 / 2 · Choose an answer
teşekkürler
- please (for requests)
- hello
- thanks
- hi
Show the answer
teşekkürler
thanks
2 / 2 · Choose an answer
Yardımın için ___
Thanks for your help
- selam
- merhaba
- teşekkürler
- lütfen
Show the answer
teşekkürler
thanks
Two checks complete
teşekkürler
thanks
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
- →Turkish alphabetAll letters with sound
- →Turkish wordsBy topic and alphabetically
- →PhrasebookPhrases ready to use
- →GrammarRules without jargon
- →Reading textsShort texts with translation
- →How to readThe writing course from zero
- →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.
- merhabahelloAn Arabic loanword that fits any time of day and any company — the one safe greeting everywhere, halfway between formal and friendly.
- selamhiCasual, for people on familiar terms; use merhaba with strangers and elders. Same root as "salaam" and "shalom" — literally "peace".
- teşekkürlerthanksş sounds like "sh" in "ship"; ü like German ü, say "ee" with rounded lips: teh-shek-kewr-LEHR
- lütfenplease (for requests)Only for asking for something. The answer to "thank you" is "rica ederim".
- hoşça kalgoodbyeSaid by the one who leaves: "stay well". The one staying answers güle güle — "go with smiles".
- güle gülebye (said by the one staying)The other half of the farewell pair with hoşça kal: whoever stays behind is the one who says this.
- nasılsın?how are you?"nasıl" is "how" and -sın is the "you" ending — there is no separate "you" word in the phrase, it lives inside the word.
- nasılsınız?how are you (formal)?The same word wearing the -sınız ending — polite and plural at once.
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 merhaba — hello.
- What is this word?
It is güle güle — bye (said by the one staying).
- What is this word?
It is ben — I.
- What is this word?
It is adın ne? — what is your name?
- What is this word?
It is evet — yes.
Curiosities in Turkish
One ending, “in”, comes in four shapes: -da, -de, -ta, -te. The vowel is chosen by the last vowel of the word — that is vowel harmony — and d or t by the last consonant: evde, okulda, parkta. That is why Turkish speech flows evenly, with no jolts at the seams.
Geoffrey Lewis, «Turkish Grammar», 2nd ed., 2000
About the language
| Native name | Türkçe · Türkçe |
| Official in | Türkiye and Cyprus |
| Also spoken in | Germany, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Greece (Western Thrace) |
| How many speakers | about 85 million speakers (estimate, Ethnologue) |
| Family | Turkic family, Oghuz group |
| Script | the Latin alphabet with six letters of its own: ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü |
| Writing direction | left to right |
Hard: words growing endings in long chains, with the verb sent to the end.
Easy: spelled exactly the way it sounds, no gender, rules with almost no exceptions.
What people most often take it up for: relocating, resorts, property, work.
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 Turkish?
With the sounds and the first hundred words: you know the script, but it has its own reading rules.
How many people speak Turkish?
About 85 million speakers — an estimate; source: Ethnologue. Nobody runs an exact census of languages, and sources disagree by noticeable amounts.
Is Turkish hard?
Words growing endings in long chains, with the verb sent to the end. At the same time, spelled exactly the way it sounds, no gender, rules with almost no exceptions.
Where is Turkish spoken?
An official language in: Türkiye and Cyprus. Noticeable communities: Germany, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Greece (Western Thrace).