Türk alfabesi and basic greetings
Turkish uses a 29-letter Latin alphabet that was adopted in 1928 — almost everything is spelled exactly the way it sounds, so once you know the letters you can read any Turkish word aloud. There are six letters English doesn't have: ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü. There's no q, w, or x. The trickiest distinction is the dotted i vs. the dotless ı — they're two different letters with two different sounds. Today you'll meet the alphabet through real greetings: Merhaba, Selam, Günaydın, İyi günler.
The 29 letters in order
A B C Ç D E F G Ğ H I İ J K L M N O Ö P R S Ş T U Ü V Y Z. Notice the order: ç comes after c, ğ after g, ı before i, ö after o, ş after s, ü after u. Capital dotted-i is İ (with the dot kept on top); capital dotless-i is I (no dot — looks like English capital I but isn't). Your phone needs to know this when typing names like İstanbul.
The six special letters
ç = English 'ch' as in 'church': çay (tea) sounds like 'chai'. ş = English 'sh': şeker (sugar) = 'sheker'. ö = like German ö or French eu: round your lips and say 'eh'. ü = like German ü or French u: round your lips and say 'ee'. ğ (yumuşak ge, 'soft g') is almost silent — it lengthens the vowel before it: dağ (mountain) sounds like 'daa'. ı is a sound English doesn't have — the back, unrounded vowel in the middle of 'roses' or the 'uh' in 'sofa'.
Dotted i vs. dotless ı
These are two separate letters. i (dotted) is the 'ee' in 'see': iki (two) = 'ee-kee'. ı (dotless) is the dull 'uh' in 'sofa': kız (girl) = 'kuhz'. Capital forms keep the difference: İ vs I. The city is İstanbul with a dotted capital — autocorrect on a non-Turkish keyboard will often get this wrong.
Stress and pronunciation
Stress in Turkish is usually light and falls on the last syllable: mer-ha-BA, gü-nay-DIN. There are no silent letters and no surprise spellings — what you see is what you say. Double consonants like the ll in güzel are pronounced clearly. The letter c without a cedilla is the English 'j' in 'jam': cam (glass) = 'jam'.
Greetings by time and tone
Merhaba is the universal hello — anyone, anytime. Selam is casual 'hi' — friends only. Günaydın = 'good morning' (literally 'day-bright'). İyi günler = 'good day' / 'have a nice day' (literally 'good days'). İyi akşamlar = 'good evening'. İyi geceler = 'good night'. To say goodbye, the speaker leaving says Hoşça kal ('stay well') and the one staying says Güle güle ('go smiling').
