Turkish B2 level means you can follow most of what you hear on Turkish television and in meetings, argue a point in detail and build long sentences out of participles and suffixes without losing the thread. The Yunus Emre Institute's Turkish Proficiency Exam (TYS) certifies it, and university language centres known as TÖMER issue their own certificates. From B1, plan on roughly 225 to 400 more hours of study.
What can you do at Turkish B2?
B2 is the higher of the two independent levels on the CEFR scale: you understand the main ideas of complex texts and talk with enough fluency that conversation with native speakers works without strain on either side. The general picture is in our explainer on what B2 level means. In Turkish, B2 is really about subordinate clauses.
Turkish doesn't build "that" and "which" clauses with separate words the way English does. It turns verbs into nouns and adjectives with suffixes: okuduğum kitap (the book I read), geleceğini biliyordum (I knew he would come), gelen adam (the man who came). At B2 you produce these on the fly, together with converbs like -ken (while), -arak (by doing) and -madan (without doing). You stack suffixes confidently, as in yaptırdım (I had it done), and you use evidential and reported forms to show how you know something.
Typical B2 sentences:
- Keşke daha önce söyleseydin, yardım ederdim. (I wish you'd told me earlier; I would have helped.)
- Toplantıya katılamayacağımı söylemiştim. (I had said I wouldn't be able to attend the meeting.)
- Yeni yasanın gelecek ay yürürlüğe gireceği açıklandı. (It has been announced that the new law will come into force next month.)
- Ne kadar çalışırsan çalış, dinlenmeye de zaman ayırmalısın. (However hard you work, you also have to make time to rest.)
- Bu konuda sizinle aynı fikirde değilim. (I don't agree with you on this.)
Which exam proves Turkish B2?
Turkish has a proficiency exam from the Yunus Emre Institute, the state body that promotes Turkish abroad, and a network of university centres, TÖMER, that teach and certify Turkish.
| Exam or certificate | Who runs it | Levels | CEFR link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turkish Proficiency Exam (TYS, Türkçe Yeterlik Sınavı) | Yunus Emre Institute | Certificate at B2 and C1 | Built on the CEFR; holds the ALTE Q-mark |
| Ankara University TÖMER courses and exam | Ankara University TÖMER | Course certificates at A1, A2, B1 and B2; diploma at C1 | Course levels follow the CEFR |
| Other university TÖMER certificates, for example İTÜ TÖMER | Individual universities | Varies by university | Each university's own CEFR alignment |
The TYS runs three times a year in Ankara and at Yunus Emre centres abroad; its 2026 sessions were on 1 February, 17 May and 27 September. Since the exam of 15 January 2022, the certificate has been issued only at B2 and C1, so B2 is the lowest level the TYS certifies (Türkçe Yeterlik Belgesi). If you need Turkish for a university, check which certificates it accepts before you book.
Turkish B1 vs B2: what changes?
At B1 you talk about your life in clear main clauses. At B2 your sentences get longer and more Turkish. The milestones:
- Participles instead of "that". -dik and -ecek (bildiğim, what I know; yapacağımız, what we'll do) and -en (çalışan, working), for relative clauses and reported speech.
- Unreal conditions. -seydi with -rdi: gelseydin görürdün (if you'd come, you'd have seen).
- Evidential and reported past. -mış for things you heard or inferred, and -dığını söyledi for reported speech: geleceğini söyledi (he said he would come).
- Causative and passive together. Yaptırıldı (someone had it done), common in news and official letters.
- Register. The polite siz, formulas like rica ederim (you're welcome) and kolay gelsin (said to someone at work), and the formal vocabulary of news, much of it of Arabic and Persian origin.
