L l — le
«le» is a consonant of Turkish, the “Turkish alphabet” script, read as “l: dark in “la”, light in “le””. A dark l next to a, o, u (like the l at the end of “full”); a light l next to e, i, ö, ü (like the l of “lit”). For example, in the word “lira” — lira. The Turkish alphabet has 29 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. It appears, for example, in the word “selam” — hi.
In short
| Character | L l |
| Name | le |
| Sound | l: dark in “la”, light in “le” |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 15th of 29, its neighbours in the course are k and m, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How it sounds
A dark l next to a, o, u (like the l at the end of “full”); a light l next to e, i, ö, ü (like the l of “lit”)
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.
- liralira
The character in the “familiar letters, foreign sounds” group
They look European and read differently — this is where reading a sign aloud trips.
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 «le» it is “l: dark in “la”, light in “le””, as in the word “lira”), 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 l read?
As “l: dark in “la”, light in “le”” — it is a consonant of the “Turkish alphabet” script. A dark l next to a, o, u (like the l at the end of “full”); a light l next to e, i, ö, ü (like the l of “lit”). For example, in the word “lira” — lira.
What is the letter l called?
Le. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Turkish script: it is called “le” and reads as “l: dark in “la”, light in “le””. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.