A a — a
«a» is a vowel of Turkish, the “Turkish alphabet” script, read as “a as in “father””. A pure open a, steady as in father. For example, in the word “araba” — a car. The Turkish alphabet has 29 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. It appears, for example, in the word “merhaba” — hello.
In short
| Character | A a |
| Name | a |
| Sound | a as in “father” |
| What it is | a vowel |
In our course the character comes 1st of 29, after it comes b, appears in roughly every other word on this site.
How it sounds
A pure open a, steady as in father
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.
- arabaa car
The character in the “eight vowels instead of five” group
The whole grammar rests on them: an ending bends to the last vowel of the stem (vowel harmony). Back vowels — a, ı, o, u; front vowels — e, i, ö, ü.
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 «a» it is “a as in “father””, as in the word “araba”), 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 — 29 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 Turkish character a read?
As “a as in “father”” — it is a vowel of the “Turkish alphabet” script. A pure open a, steady as in father. For example, in the word “araba” — a car.
What is the letter a called?
A. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Turkish script: it is called “a” and reads as “a as in “father””. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.