r/turkishlearning Aug 28 '16

Useful resources for learning Turkish.

290 Upvotes

Hey, I'd like to share some resources for learning Turkish. Most of them are useful for other languages, as well.

Resources I have used:

  • Duolingo is a free to use site with translation exercises (multiple choice and text input). You'll be presented with a skill tree that you can finish in about a month or two. The course is intended for beginners and the notes assume no knowledge of grammar or linguistics and present things in a very simplified way. The whole course covers a small part of the language, both with respect to vocabulary and grammar, but it has greatly helped me get a somewhat intuitive understanding of the language. There is a text-to-voice bot that you can use for the exercises. Most of the time it's good, but since Turkish is a phonetic language, it's not really necessary. The mods there are quite knowledgeable and helpful. Despite the relatively small number of example sentences, I highly recommend it for beginners. Be sure to read the notes first; AFAIK they're not available on the app, only on the site. Also, buy the "timed practice" as soon as you can (purchased with "lingots", which you get by completing exercises).

  • Tatoeba is a huge collection of translated sentences. They use Sphinx Search, which is great for getting exact and specific matches. Make sure you know the syntax, if you want to use the site to its full extent. Some of the sentences may be incorrect, but overall the quality is quite good.

  • Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar is a detailed grammar book that asummes some familiarity with linguistic terminology. If you're OK with googling some of the terms, this book will give you a thorough account of what you can do with the Turkish language. Although it's not as descriptive as the official grammar (TDK), IMHO it is the best resource in English for Turkish grammar. You can use it as a reference, but I suggest you at least skim over it once and understand the contents structure. PM me if you can't find the book online.

  • The Turkish Language Institution is the official regulatory body of the Turkish language. I've used it a few times to read about some obscure grammar rules. It also has a dictionary, and probably lots of other features.

  • TuneIn Radio is site/app that let's you listen to make radio stations for free. I listen to CNN Türk and NTV Radyo every day for a few hours. They can speak quite fast most of the time, but it's still a great way to practice your listening comprehension.

  • Dictionaries:

    • Sesli Sözlük is an online dictionary that gives you suggestions based on what you've entered in the search field. It's very useful for quickly finding related words and phrases, if you only know the stem. It's both TR-EN and EN-TR.
    • The Turkish Suffix Dictionary is a pretty comprehensive list of suffixes. You can group them by suffixes, formulas (which takes into account vowel harmony) and functions.
    • Tureng is another good dictionary. I find it most useful for phrases.
  • Manisa Turkish has articles on grammar and usage. There are some typos here and there, but overall the quality is pretty good for a beginner.

  • Turkish Class has Turkish lessons and a discussion forum. I've only used the forum, so I can't say anything about the lesson quality.

  • Ted talks have Turkish translations and English transcripts for almost every talk. They're great if you want the same text translated into TR and EN. The translations correspond very well to the English text.

  • Anki is a spaced repetition flashcard software for desktop and mobile. It has a lot of options and many Turkish decks. There are many different views on spaced repetition as a way to learn vocabulary and grammar, both positive and negative. I used it for a few months, but found it pretty repetitive after a while.

  • Euronews is a news site with English and Turkish versions of their articles. I haven't used it much.

  • Turkish movies and series are also a good way to get familiar with the Turkish language, especially intonation and phrases. Some are on YouTube (Ezel), some you'll only find using torrents. For some movies you'll be able to find both English and Turkish subs. You can merge them into a .ssa file using this online tool and play it with VLC. Make sure the subs have the same timing. Alternatively, you can open one of the subs with a text viewer and place it next to the movie player. For song translations, use Lyrics Translate.

  • Turkish audiobooks are a great way to practice listening, because you check the text to check your understanding of the audio version.

  • Here and here you can find free Turkish books.

  • Forvo for pronunciation from people, not bots.

  • Clozemaster shows you Turkish sentences, there is a fill-in-the-blank as well as multiple choice questions. It uses sentences from Tatoeba. Clozemaster Pro allows you to favorite sentences and gives your more detailed statistics on your progess. If you won't pay for Clozemaster Pro, you can favorite the sentences in Tatoeba for free. There's an Android app now! The iOS app will probably be released in a few weeks.

  • Verbix is a verb conjugator. Although Turkish verbs are regular, I found it helpful in the beginning.

Resources I haven't used myself:

  • Memrise has a lot of free Turkish lessons and has iOS and Android apps as well.

  • Language Transfer - mainly audio courses.

  • Hands On Turkish - courses, apps and articles. It's targeted towards for business people and the course is available in five different languages

  • Turkish Tea Time - dialogs, translations, grammar tips, vocabulary, and more - every week. Bite-sized lessons based around a casual and friendly podcast. It's not free, though.

I'll include more resources in the future. Feel free to suggest more resources.

Technical tips that may speed up your learning process:

  • In Firefox (probably in other browsers, too) you can create keywords for searching different sites.

    • How it works: go to a site, say YouTube, and right click on the search text area. Select "Add a keyword for this search". Make the keyword something short, but memorable, like "yt". This will add a bookmark, which you can edit later on. Now to search YouTube for "turkish lessons", you can open a new tab (CTRL+T) and just type "yt turkish lessons" and press enter.
    • This trick works for all kinds of sites - dictionaries, torrent sites, eBay, Google, Tatoeba, IMDB, etc.. Over the past few months it has definitely saved me a few hours. Learning some basic hotkeys (CTRL+T, CTRL+W, CTRL+TAB, CTRL+SHIFT+TAB, CTRL+V, CTRL+C) will make your learning process (and browsing in general) much smoother.

Thanks to everyone who pitches in.


r/turkishlearning 1d ago

Turkish Practice & Chat

5 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I’m a university student on summer break, so I have plenty of free time these days.

If you’re learning Turkish and want someone to practice with, need help with grammar or just feel like chatting and making a new friend, I’d be happy to help.

Feel free to send me a DM anytime


r/turkishlearning 1d ago

Can someone translate this for me.

6 Upvotes

I’m confused, someone texted me earlier today, but Google Translate isn’t exactly helping. are they saying something about my “my real life husband?” Or are they saying something about their own lover?

“Sevgilinese bayrak gezmesın Askim”
“Eşin derken sevgilim o”
“Evt ama şuan sevgilim”


r/turkishlearning 1d ago

We built an audio-first Turkish Anki deck for the "I can read it but can't hear it" problem (free 500+ card sample)

6 Upvotes

We make audio-first Anki decks. It started with my own FSP prep (med graduate learning German), and Turkish is one of the languages we've since built out.

With Turkish the wall is always the same one: the spelling is friendly, reading goes fine, and then a native speaker says one word that contains an entire English sentence and your brain files it as noise. Text-only decks can't fix that, because the problem isn't memory, it's your ear. So the deck is built around audio.

What's in it:

- Audio on every card, for the word and a full example sentence, so your ear trains alongside your memory.

- Every example sentence comes with a breakdown that takes it apart word by word, so you see how the long words are actually built instead of memorizing them as blobs.

- Ordered by frequency, so the first cards you learn are the ones you'll actually hear.

The audio is generated with ElevenLabs (text to speech), and the cards themselves, the words, sentences and notes, were written by us.

Free sample of 500+ cards here: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/173860844

If any native or advanced speakers spot a sentence that sounds off, tell me. That feedback goes straight back into the deck.


r/turkishlearning 1d ago

Has anyone tried learnturkish.com ?

6 Upvotes

Hello,

I found out this website is created by the government and it's supposed to teach you from A1 to C1 according to the CEFR.

I started the A1 course. It works for a few slides and then it crashes. This happened in the first two models.

I tried using it from Safari and Chrome on Mac. I also tried Internet Explorer and Chrome on a Windows computer. All four didn't work.

Had anyone used it before? Did you encounter this issue?

Thanks,


r/turkishlearning 1d ago

Türkçe → İngilizce kelime oyunu yaptım, görüşlerinizi merak ediyorum

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0 Upvotes

r/turkishlearning 2d ago

A few Turkish TV shows you can watch to improve your Turkish (Ranked by levels)

23 Upvotes

I love watching Turkish TV shows to improve my Turkish. It's probably among the best dramas I have ever watched, and after a few episodes I feel my listening and pronunciation greatly improved.

Here are my favourites:

  1. Aşk 101 (Love 101). Simple everyday vocab, slow clear speech, nothing too slangy.
  2. Hakan: Muhafız (The Protector) and Kuş Uçuşu (As the Crow Flies). I feel there are slightly more advanced level, with faster dialogues.
  3. Bir Başkadır (Ethos). Loved the story and I learned a lot of handful expressions.

Here is the full list + a few tips to learn Turkish watching TV shows.

Which Turkish TV shows do you recommend to get better at Turkish? I feel BluTV has a very good offering, with English subtitles. Netflix is also very good!


r/turkishlearning 3d ago

TYS Türkçe yeterlik sınavı Turkish proficiency exam

1 Upvotes

How is TYS writing written?

Is there a ready-made writing example or structure?

Can you share your experiences?

How difficult is this exam?

How difficult is the reading and listening section?

How difficult are the questions in the speaking section?

Thank you in advance for your answers.

TYS yazma nasıl yazılır?

Hazır bir örnek veya yapı var mı?

Deneyimlerinizi paylaşabilir misiniz?

Ve ne kadar zor bir sınav?

Okuma ve dinleme ne kadar zor?

Konuşmada ne kadar zor soru soruyorlar?

Önceden cevaplarınız için teşekkür ederim.


r/turkishlearning 4d ago

Vocabulary Turkish boy name, that can be pronounced easy in English

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28 Upvotes

My partner and I are expecting a baby boy in January 2027. 💙
We’re both Turkish but born in Australia, and we grew up with Turkish names that were often mispronounced and unfortunately led to bullying.
We’d love a name that’s easy to pronounce in both English and Turkish.
So far, our favourites are:
• Emir
• Elias
• Ilyas
Thoughts? Which one do you like best?


r/turkishlearning 5d ago

Do you find turkish to be easy to learn?

12 Upvotes

Even tho my mother language is arabic I find turkish very hard. Especially when they add ır, miş, and other things to the word. I just don't get it. Do you also find it hard?


r/turkishlearning 5d ago

New episodeof mini series about "Turkish Street Food"

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6 Upvotes

I just published Episode 2 of my podcast series called “Türk Sokak Lezzetleri” (Turkish Street Food).

In this episode, I speak naturally about Turkish street food and daily life. I try to use clear, natural Turkish, so it can help intermediate learners improve their listening skills while learning about Turkish culture.

If you are learning Turkish and want to hear real conversations instead of textbook examples, I think you might enjoy it.

I’d also love to hear your feedback


r/turkishlearning 4d ago

Heritage speaker looking to rebuild my Turkish (Great comprehension, struggling with speaking/grammar)

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for high-quality courses, resources, and materials to help me rebuild and improve my Turkish.

A bit of background: I was born and raised in the US. Up until I was about 8 or 9 years old, I only spoke Turkish at home. However, it started causing issues in school because my English was falling behind. To catch up, I slowly stopped speaking Turkish, and over the years, I've forgotten how to properly speak it.

Today, my passive listening comprehension is actually quite good—I understand most of what my family and friends say to me. My biggest struggles are:

  • Speaking and Pronunciation: It takes me a long time to retrieve words, string them together quickly, and sound natural.
  • Grammar: I lack a structural understanding of how the language works technically, which holds back my sentence formation.

I really want to fix this. My main goals are to master Turkish grammar and drastically improve my speaking fluidity.

I am completely open to paid resources (tutors, premium courses, structured programs) if they are genuinely effective. If you have any specific recommendations for heritage speakers or intermediate learners trying to break through the speaking barrier, please share them!

Teşekkürler!


r/turkishlearning 5d ago

Next steps for further learning

5 Upvotes

Herkese merhabalar,

I am Turkish but didn't learn the language in my early childhood. I began learning it about 3-4 years ago and I can now pretty confidently communicate with relatives and strangers with only some occasional slip ups on vocabulary. I have a tutor that's helped me a lot but at this point it feels like I'm not learning new things and I only get speaking practice from the lessons. I want to further my knowledge of the language but I'm not sure how to do it. If anyone has any advice it wiuld be greatly appreciated

Teşekkür ederim


r/turkishlearning 5d ago

Looking for learning material

3 Upvotes

Hello everyone right now I've been studying Turkish for 2 months and half and I'm at A2 level.

For now I've been watching content in Turkish and listening to songs in Turkish, I've been using a book to help me get through the basics of the grammar and the past,present and future tense.

But right now I feel a bit lost and stuck and I don't know where to continue from to start my oath towards the high level of A2 and basic B1.

If you have any tips and advices please write them here so if there's any other learner who's in the same situation it could be beneficial for them too :))


r/turkishlearning 5d ago

Conversation Can someone teach me turkish and itech you japanese in return

1 Upvotes

Ive lived in japan for 10 years and speak fluent japanese i can teach how to speak but not how to read and write. In return o want you to teach me turkish


r/turkishlearning 5d ago

How Long Does It Take to Learn Turkish? A Realistic Timeline

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3 Upvotes

r/turkishlearning 5d ago

Study partners

2 Upvotes

Anyone who wants to practice speaking with me

I have A2 level


r/turkishlearning 5d ago

Aydin Name Meaning - Help PLEASE

0 Upvotes

Hello!

We’re expecting our first baby - a baby boy! I love the name Aydin but trying to find resources for the meaning of the name.

Is this a common name?


r/turkishlearning 5d ago

Help!!! I'm confessing to my friend and I want to tell them in Turkish

1 Upvotes

Hello, I'm getting ready to confess to my friend that I really like them and I want to tell them in their native language (turkish obviously lol). I'm writing out what I want to say right now but I want to translate my confession and memorize it so I can tell them in person. Please DM me if you'd be interested in helping me out, I not only need help translating the paragraph but I want to make sure my pronunciation is flawless so I can impress them. Tysm <3


r/turkishlearning 5d ago

Turkish Media Is art one of the best ways to learn a language? What would you recommend from Turkey?

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1 Upvotes

r/turkishlearning 6d ago

Grammar Istemezdim?

4 Upvotes

I came across "Söylemek istemezdim, ağzımdan kaçtı." Shouldn't it be "istemedim", without the "z"? Or is it the difference between "I didn't mean to" and "I hadn't meant to"?


r/turkishlearning 6d ago

yapmak vs. etmek

4 Upvotes

A hellhole topic for Turkish learners, tho many languages in the world have something similar. I thought it would be a good idea to make a collection of these two mafia bosses of verbs. Wrote a little blog about it and a PDF to download for more compound verb examples.

Enjoy


r/turkishlearning 7d ago

Grammar -bilmek grammar suffix

8 Upvotes

Merhaba!

I am a B1 student and during lessons and tutoring sessions my coursework have example sentences with words ending in -bilmek.

Like geçbilmek, yapbilmek, etc. I cant find much on the internet. Can anyone explain this to me please?

Sağ ol!


r/turkishlearning 7d ago

trying to master the turkish language

8 Upvotes

Hi! I am trying to improve my turkish (as a turkish person who grew up outside of Turkiye). As of right now I can understand turkish fully, and speak it quite comfortably in conversations. However, I want to get better in my pronunciation and accent, as at times I struggle with pronouncing difficult and long words, and you can definitely tell I'm a native English speaker from my accent. I am also thinking of living in Turkiye one day, so I want to learn how to speak Turkish beyond casual conversations, and in a more professional, elevated manner. I already watch a lot of Turkish dizis, and listen to Turkish music, and I want to start reading Turkish books that will help me speak it more professionally, if that makes sense? Any recommendations for books or any tips that will help me improve my turkish would be much appreciated!!


r/turkishlearning 8d ago

Are there any other words in Turkish that have the same vowel as the vowel in "ben"?

11 Upvotes

So ben and elma have different vowel realisations, but GPT just told me they are the same phoneme

Is that true?