Turkish pronunciation guide
Turkish is almost perfectly phonetic. Every letter makes the same sound every time, with no silent letters and no exceptions. Once you learn the alphabet rules below, you can read any Turkish word out loud and be understood. The phonetic spellings in each phrase above follow these same rules.
The letters that are different from English
C / c
Always pronounced like the English J in "jump", "jar" or "jam". Never like the English C in "cat" or "city". So "cami" (mosque) is pronounced "jah-MEE", and "cadde" (street) is "jahd-DEH".
Ç / ç
Always pronounced like CH in "church", "chair" or "chip". So "çay" (tea) is "CHAI" and "çok" (very/much) is "CHOK".
G / g
Always a hard G, as in "go", "get", "got", "gun". Never the soft G sound of the English words "gem" or "giant". "Gelmek" (to come) is "GEL-mek", not "JEL-mek".
Ğ / ğ (soft g)
This letter makes no sound of its own. It simply lengthens the vowel that comes before it. So "dağ" (mountain) is pronounced "daah". The ğ just stretches the "a". You will never hear a Turkish speaker make a distinct consonant sound for ğ.
Ş / ş
Always pronounced like SH in "ship", "shop" or "show". So "şimdi" (now) is "SHEEM-dee" and "şehir" (city) is "sheh-HEER".
I / ı (dotless i)
This is one of the trickier sounds for English speakers. It is a short, flat vowel made at the back of the throat. The same sound as the unstressed vowel in the first syllable of "about", "along" or "around" (linguists call this the schwa sound). It is not the "i" in "it" and not the "ee" in "see". In our phonetic spellings above it is written as UH.
İ / i (dotted i)
The regular dotted i is pronounced like the EE in "see" or the "i" in "machine". Turkish makes a clear distinction between dotted İ (ee) and dotless I (uh). They are completely different letters and sounds.
Ö / ö
Like the German ö or the French "eu". The closest English approximation is the sound in "her", "bird" or "word" but rounder and more forward in the mouth. Round your lips as if to say "o" but try to say "e" instead.
Ü / ü
Like the German ü or the French "u" in "lune". Round your lips tightly as if to say "oo" but try to say "ee" instead. Similar to saying "ew" quickly and with rounded lips. "Lütfen" (please) starts with this sound.
Stress and rhythm
Turkish stress is generally on the last syllable of a word, but it is lighter than English stress. Turkish speech tends to be more even and rhythmic than English. In our phonetic guides above, the CAPITALISED syllable carries the stress. When in doubt, speak evenly and Turks will usually understand you. Attempting even a few words in Turkish is always warmly appreciated, people respond to the effort even when the accent is far from perfect.