Pronunciation

Vowels

Turkish pronunciation looks daunting to non-native speakers, as many of the words are very long and look like tongue-twisters. With a bit of practice, however, it becomes much easier.

Vowels

The Turkish vowels are

• A - a short sound, as in the English car
• E - a short sound, as in the English pet
• İ - the sound in the English meet and at the beginning of İstanbul (ees-tan-bul)
• I - a "neutral" sound with no real equivalent in English. The closest sound is the "uh" which replaces the "e" in the second syllable of open
• O - as in the English order
• Ö - pronounced as in German, a blend of "o" and "e", with lips rounded
• U - short as in the English put
• Ü - pronounced as in German, make a sound like "ee", but round your lips like you are going to say "oo"

Remember that, in lower case, the two letters İ and I look different as well. The lower case form of İ is i , while the lower case form of I is ı .