Yes, you can learn Turkish for free, and you start with an advantage many languages don't give you: Turkish uses the Latin alphabet and is spelled the way it sounds. The work is in the grammar, which builds words from chains of suffixes, makes vowels match each other and puts the verb at the end. This guide explains those three ideas with examples, then shows you how to start in Qlango, the best free resources and a 12-week plan for 20 to 30 minutes a day.
Is Turkish hard for English speakers?
Moderately. The US Foreign Service Institute puts Turkish in Category III, the same group as Russian: about 44 weeks, or 1,012 class hours, for English speakers to reach professional working proficiency (FSI). That is about one and a half times its estimate of 690 hours for Spanish or French.
What helps:
- Latin letters, phonetic spelling. Turkish switched from the Arabic script to a Latin alphabet in 1928, and words are pronounced as they are written.
- No gender, no articles. O means he, she or it, and there is no word for "the".
- Regular grammar. The same suffixes work on almost every word, with few exceptions.
- French loanwords. Otobüs (bus), istasyon (station), asansör (elevator), şoför (driver) and bisiklet (bicycle) are easy wins.
What takes work:
- Long words. Turkish adds suffixes where English uses separate words.
- Vowel harmony. Suffixes change their vowels to match the word they attach to.
- Verb at the end. You often wait until the last word to find out what happened.
- New vocabulary. Beyond the loanwords, most everyday words have no English relatives: ev (house), su (water), göz (eye), yol (road).
How do you pronounce Turkish letters?
The alphabet has 29 letters, with no q, w or x. Most sound the way an English speaker expects; these are the ones to learn first:
| Letter |
Sounds like |
Example |
| c |
j in "jam" |
cami (mosque) |
| ç |
ch in "chair" |
çay (tea) |
| ş |
sh in "ship" |
şehir (city) |
| ğ |
usually silent; it lengthens the vowel before it |
dağ (mountain), said "daa" |
| ı |
a short, dull vowel, close to the second vowel in "taken" |
kız (girl) |
| ö |
e said with rounded lips |
göz (eye) |
| ü |
ee said with rounded lips |
gül (rose) |
Keep the dotted and dotless i apart from the start: they are two different letters, and capital İ keeps its dot.
What is vowel harmony?
Most Turkish suffixes have two or four versions, and the last vowel of the word decides which one you use.
The two-way pattern: after e, i, ö or ü, the plural ending is -ler; after a, ı, o or u, it is -lar. So ev (house) becomes evler and göz (eye) gözler, but kitap (book) becomes kitaplar and okul (school) okullar.
The four-way pattern also follows lip rounding. The question particle mi shows it well: Kahve mi? (Coffee?), Çay mı? (Tea?), Doğru mu? (Is that right?), Bugün mü? (Today?).
It sounds like a lot of rules, but harmony follows the way your mouth moves, and after a few weeks the wrong version starts to sound wrong.
How do Turkish suffixes work?
Turkish glues suffixes onto a root in a fixed order, where English would use separate words. Watch one word grow:
| Turkish |
Meaning |
| ev |
house |
| evler |
houses |
| evlerimiz |
our houses |
| evlerimizde |
in our houses |
| evlerimizden |
from our houses |
Verbs work the same way. Gel- means come: geliyorum (I'm coming), gelmiyorum (I'm not coming), gelemiyorum (I can't come). Learn the suffixes as building blocks and you can understand words you have never seen before.
Why does the verb come at the end?
The basic order is subject, object, verb. Ben her sabah çay içerim means "I drink tea every morning", literally "I every morning tea drink". The pronoun often disappears because the verb ending already says who: Çay içiyorum is "I'm drinking tea". Descriptions come before the noun, even long ones: dün okuduğum kitap is "the book I read yesterday", literally "yesterday my-reading book". And words like "for" and "with" come after the noun: senin için (for you), arkadaşımla (with my friend).
How to learn Turkish for free with Qlango
Qlango is free to download on Android and iOS, works in the browser too, and you can start learning for free. Choose English as the language you learn through, add Turkish, and your first A1 lesson takes about five minutes. The Turkish course runs from A1 to B2; our post on Turkish B2 describes the top of that range.
Spaced repetition brings each word back right before you would forget it. Exercises go from picking one of four answers to building sentences, which is good practice for verb-last word order, and then to writing, where suffixes and harmony become automatic. Flashcards and games such as Word Duel, Wordle and MinuteRush add variety, and streaks, a weekly plan and statistics keep you on track. In the chat you can write to other learners, with message translation and AI help to write a reply. Premium adds an AI teacher and offline learning. Every course and level is on the languages page.
The best free Turkish resources for English speakers
If you want to learn Turkish for free beyond the app, these resources are solid, and all of them are free today:
- Yunus Emre Institute video lessons: Türkiye's state institute for Turkish language and culture abroad publishes free video lessons by level, from A1 to B2, based on its Yedi İklim textbooks, and its Turkish learning site links to them (Yunus Emre Institute). Watch one lesson a week to hear the grammar explained by teachers.
- Her Şey Bir Merhaba ile Başlar ("everything starts with a hello"): a free, openly licensed textbook from the University of Texas at Austin for intermediate learners, with a PDF, self-check exercises and videos of people from Türkiye talking about their lives (COERLL). Use it once you reach A2.
- TRT Haber and BBC News Türkçe: free news from Türkiye's public broadcaster and from the BBC's Turkish service. From about B1, read or watch one short report a day.
- TDK Güncel Türkçe Sözlük: the Turkish Language Association's free online dictionary at sozluk.gov.tr. It is Turkish only, so it becomes useful around B1.
- GLOSS: free Turkish reading and listening lessons from the US Defense Language Institute, aimed at intermediate learners.
A free 12-week plan for Turkish
Plan 20 to 30 minutes a day, six days a week:
| Weeks |
Focus |
Try saying |
| 1 |
Alphabet and pronunciation, especially c, ç, ş, ğ and ı; greetings |
Merhaba. Nasılsın? (Hello. How are you?) |
| 2 and 3 |
Introductions, numbers 1 to 20, the "to be" endings |
Ben öğrenciyim. (I'm a student.) |
| 4 and 5 |
Plurals and two-way harmony; var and yok (there is, there isn't) |
Çay var mı? (Is there any tea?) |
| 6 and 7 |
The present tense with -iyor; questions with mi |
Ne yapıyorsun? (What are you doing?) |
| 8 and 9 |
Possessive endings; places with -de and -da |
Evdeyim. (I'm at home.) |
| 10 and 11 |
The past tense with -di; "to" with -e and -a, "from" with -den and -dan |
Dün Ankara'ya gittim. (I went to Ankara yesterday.) |
| 12 |
Review, the Yunus Emre A1 videos, short messages to other learners |
Türkçe öğreniyorum. (I'm learning Turkish.) |
By week 12 you can introduce yourself, ask for things, say where you are and talk about yesterday. That is a solid start on A1.
How long does it take to learn Turkish?
The FSI's 1,012 class hours assume full-time study, 23 hours of class a week plus 17 of self-study, so treat them as a ratio rather than a timetable. Cambridge English estimates about 180 to 200 guided hours to reach A2 in English, 350 to 400 for B1 and 500 to 600 for B2. Those figures are for learners of English, and Turkish will take an English speaker more.
A rough estimate: at 30 minutes a day you study about 180 hours a year, which puts A2 about a year and a half away; at an hour a day, less than a year. Our article on how long it takes to learn a language explains how to turn hours into months.
FAQ
Can I learn Turkish for free?
Yes. Qlango is free to download and you can start for free, and the Yunus Emre video lessons, the University of Texas textbook, TRT Haber and the TDK dictionary cost nothing.
Is Turkish hard to learn?
The FSI lists it among its "hard languages", one step below the hardest group. Pronunciation and spelling are easy; suffixes, vowel harmony and verb-last sentences take practice, but they follow rules with few exceptions.
Does Turkish help with Azerbaijani?
A lot. The two are close relatives, and many words differ only slightly: thank you is teşekkür ederim in Turkish and təşəkkür edirəm in Azerbaijani. See our guide on how to learn Azerbaijani.
Should I use sen or siz?
Both mean "you". Sen is for friends, family and children; siz is polite and also plural. Use siz with strangers and in shops, and switch to sen when people offer it.
Learn the seven letters in the table this week. Add Turkish in Qlango, choose English as the language you learn through, and the next time you see çay on a menu, you will know to say "chai".
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