Turkish alphabet and basic vocabulary

The Turkish alphabet

The Turkish alphabet is made up of 29 sounds of which 8 are vowels and the rest are
consonants. The alphabetical order of these sounds corresponds in general to the
alphabetical order of Latin languages, with the difference that each of the letters with
dots or with a cedilla takes its place immediately after the corresponding letter without
dots or without a cedilla. Thus the “ç” follows the “c”, the “ğ” follows the “g”, the “ö”
follows the “o”, the “ş” follows the “s” and the “ü” follows to the U". It should be noted
that the “i” is considered as the dotted corresponding to the “ı”, which is a letter of the
Turkish alphabet, therefore, the “i” follows the “ı”.
The names of the Turkish letters are the sound itself for the vowels and the consonant
followed by an e for the consonants: a,be,ce,çe,de, etc...
The following list contains the letters of the Turkish alphabet and their corresponding
letters in Spanish or the necessary phonetic explanations;

Spanish sound or the corresponding one in other

Letter
languages
to as in ama

b b, v (bilabial sound) as in mouth

like the dg sound of the Spanish word ll ave, of the

English word edge or the dj sound of the French word
c djinn or the g of the Italian word giro

ç ç ch as in Chinese

d d as in lady

closed e as in echo or open as the French é of the word

and étrangére

F f as in seal

g g as in gout or war

ğ softens the preceding vowel

j as in together og as in twin (but not as loud as the

h Spanish sound)

Yo like the e in the English word barber

Yo and as in anger

j like the j in the French word jour

k k as in kilo

l l as in long
m m as in hand

n as never before

either as in bear

like the diphthong eu from the French word eux or like

either the German ö from the word öse

p p as in pure

r r as in time

yes s like healthy

like the sh sound in the English word short or the ch

ş sound in the French word chose

t t as in tome

or u like a grape

like the French u in the word south or the German ü in

or the word über

labiodental sound like the v in the English word van or

v the French word ville

and and as in mare or the English word you

like the z in the English word zero or the French word

z zeste

Basic vocabulary (contributed by P)

Unlike Portuguese, English, Italian, etc... Turkish is a difficult language for Latinos and
Spaniards.

Turkish does not come from Latin and has an Ural-Altaic root. As an example we
mention the word “elegancia” which translates as “elegância” in Portuguese, “eleganza”
in Italian, “élégant” in French and “zarif” in Turkish. Words with Latin roots are similar
and are completely different from Turkish.

The Turkish language has some different characters. See the illustration to the side with
those characters: uyo with umlaut “ö-ü”, cys with cedilla “ç-ş”, i without period “ı” and
g with tilde “ğ.”

Turkish characters: To write on the computer, use ASCII characters. Press the ALT key
on your computer and the number indicated in the table (continue pressing the ALT key
 until the entire number is typed).

ASCII Table of Turkish Characters

Character Description Lower case Capital letter

çç c with zedilla ALT 135 ALT 128

öÖ or with umlaut ALT 148 ALT 153

üÜ u with umlaut ALT 129 ALT 154

ğĞ g with accent ALT 287 ALT 286

H.H s with zedilla ALT 351 ALT 350

ıI i without point ALT 305 Yo

iÝ i with dot Yo ALT 304

Turkish Character Sounds:

c with zedilla = there is no similar one in the Spanish language, it would be the “ ch” of
the word
in English “church ”
c without zedilla = there is no similar one in the Spanish language, it would be the “j”
of the word in
English “ john ”
s with zedilla = there is no similar one in the Spanish language, it would be the “ sh ”
of the word
in English “ cash” (money)
i without dot = there is no similar one in the Spanish language, it looks like a closed i
g with accent = this g is silent and prolongs the last vowel of the word
o with umlaut = the same sound as o with umlaut in German
u with umlaut = the same sound as u with umlaut in German

Greetings:
hello = merhaba
good morning = günaydın (i without period)
good afternoon = iyi günler
good night = iyi akşamlar

Some useful phrases and words: (in the sentences the informal pronome “sen” was
used)

please = lütfen
a glass of water please = bir bardak su l ü tfen)
Where is Juan? = Juan Nerede?
 What's your name? = senin ad ı ne? (second i without dot)

thank you very much = çok te ş ekk ü r ederim

let's go = gidelim
bathroom = tuvalet
man = erkek
woman = kadın (i without dot)
ship = bot
ship = I groaned.
train = train
airport = havaalanı
flight = uçak seferi
port = lime
plane = uçak
reserve = rezervasyon
billet = billet
billing = kayıt
customs = gümrük

Drinks:
beer = bira
water = your
milk = sut
coffee = kahve
tea = çay
coca-cola = cola
sparkling water = soda
juice = meyva suyu

Fruit:
melon = kavun
watermelon = karpuz
cherry = kiraz
pear = armut
apple = elma
orange = portakal (this word is interesting because the Portuguese brought the orange tree
to Türkiye. The word orange in Turkish is similar to “Portekiz” which means Portuguese
in Turkish)

lemon = lemon
peach = şeftali

Colors:
white = white
black = siyah
yellow = sarı (i without dot)
red = kirmizi
blue = mavi
green = yesil
Foods:
breakfast = kahvaltı (i without dot)
lunch = oğle yemeği
dinner = akşam yemeği
meat = et
salad = salad
vegetables = sebze
sweet = tatlı (i without dot)
Some verbs:
eat = yemek
drink = icmek (c with zedilla)
speak = konusmak (s with zedilla)
sleep = uyumak
sit = uturmak
wake up = uyanmak
wash = yikamak
call = etmek phone
write = yazmak
Juan, a very important verb is missing No?

Numbers:
1 = bir
2 =iki
3 = uç
4 = dört
5 = beş
6 = altı (i without dot)
7 = yedi
8 = sekiz
9 = dokuz
10 =on
20 = yirmi
30 = otuz
40 = kırk (i without dot)
50 = eli
60 = altmış (i without dot)
70 = yetmiş
80 = seksen
90 = doksan
100 = yuz
1000 = bin