Turkish Cheatsheet
Unique Features
- Agglutinative language with complex noun and verb inflection
- Vowel harmony distinguishes word meaning
- Two types of verbs: transitive and intransitive
- No grammatical gender
- Pronunciation differences between regions
- Some loanwords from Arabic and Persian
Letters and Sounds
- Turkish uses the Latin alphabet with six additional letters (ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü)
- Vowel harmony distinguishes word meaning
- Turkish has several sounds that don’t exist in English, such as the “ğ” sound
Example
- The word for “house” is “ev”
- The word for “woman” is “kadın”
- The difference in vowel harmony distinguishes the two words
Vocabulary
- Turkish words are often formed by combining words or adding suffixes
- Turkish has many loanwords from Arabic and Persian
- Some words have different meanings in different regions
Example
- The word for “car” is “araba”
- The word for “bus” is “otobüs”
- Both words are used in Turkey, but “otobüs” is more common in Istanbul
Grammar
- Turkish has two types of verbs: transitive and intransitive
- Turkish verbs are inflected based on tense, mood, and person
- Adjectives come after the noun they modify
- Turkish has a subject-object-verb word order
- Turkish has a formal and informal register, with different verb conjugations and vocabulary
Example
- The sentence “I am a student” is “Ben öğrenciyim”
- The word for “student” is “öğrenci”
- The word order is subject (I), object (student), and verb (am)
Resources