Turkish Vowel Harmony: Two-Way and Four-Way Rules Explained

Turkish vowel harmony is the rule that makes an ending change its vowel to match the last vowel of the word it joins. That is why “houses” is evler but “books” is kitaplar, and why the question word can be mi, mı, mu or mü. To choose the right ending, you only need to ask two questions about the last vowel: is it front or back, and is it rounded or not?

This guide covers the vowel chart, both rules, stacked endings, the consonant changes that come with them, the real exceptions, common mistakes and a ten-question self-check. Press the play buttons to hear the examples.

The 8 Turkish vowels in two simple groups

Turkish has eight vowels, and harmony depends on two things about each one. Front vowels (e, i, ö, ü) are made with the tongue forward, and back vowels (a, ı, o, u) with the tongue pulled back. Rounded vowels (o, ö, u, ü) are said with round lips, and unrounded vowels (a, e, ı, i) with relaxed lips.

Notice the pairs: e/a, i/ı, ö/o, ü/u. Each front vowel has a back partner with the same lip shape. Say i, then ı (no dot): your lips stay the same, but your tongue slides back. Try it with ü and u too.

Harmony looks at the last vowel of the word, not the first one or the stressed one. In öğretmen (teacher), the last vowel is e. In bilgisayar (computer), it is a. If ö, ü and the dotless ı are still new to you, our guide to the Turkish alphabet has audio for every letter.

Two-way harmony: e or a

Some endings have only two forms, one with e and one with a. For these, you ask just the first question. If the last vowel is front (e, i, ö, ü), the ending takes e. If it is back (a, ı, o, u), it takes a. This is how you choose between -ler and -lar, and the same rule covers several other common endings.

• kuşlar

  birds

• öğretmenler

  teachers

• bilgisayarlar

  computers

Öğretmen starts with ö but ends with e, so it takes -ler. Bilgisayar ends with a, so it takes -lar. Names get an apostrophe before the ending, but harmony still applies: İzmir'de (in İzmir), Ankara'da (in Ankara).

• Kediler bahçede.

  The cats are in the garden.

• Kızlar okulda.

  The girls are at school.

• Öğretmenler İzmir'den geliyor.

  The teachers are coming from İzmir.

Four-way harmony: i, ı, u or ü

Other endings have four forms, and here you ask both questions. Front or back picks the front pair (i, ü) or the back pair (ı, u). Rounded or not picks the round vowels (u, ü) or the flat ones (i, ı). Together, only one vowel is left.

Many everyday endings are four-way: the question word mi, the “to be” endings such as -im (I am) and -sin (you are), the possessive -(i)m (my), -siz (without) and -li (with). In a question, the person ending joins mi, and both follow the same vowel:

• Öğrenci misin?

  Are you a student?

• Hazır mısın?

  Are you ready?

• Yorgun musun?

  Are you tired?

• Türk müsün?

  Are you Turkish?

A quick way to remember it: front stays front, round stays round. So e and i give i, a and ı give ı, o and u give u, and ö and ü give ü.

How harmony works when suffixes stack up

Turkish often adds several endings in a row. The rule stays the same: each new ending looks at the vowel just before it, which is the last vowel of the word built so far.

• ev

  house

• evler

  houses

• evlerimiz

  our houses

• evlerimizde

  in our houses

• okul

  school

• okullar

  schools

• okullarımız

  our schools

• okullarımızda

  in our schools

Step by step: ev ends in front e, so the plural is -ler. Now the last vowel is the e of -ler, front and unrounded, so “our” is -imiz. Then i is front, so “in” is -de. For okul, u is back, so the plural is -lar. The a of -lar is back and unrounded, so “our” is -ımız, and ı is back, so “in” is -da.

This explains something that confuses many beginners. “My school” is okulum, but “my schools” is okullarım, not okullarum. Once -lar is added, the nearest vowel is a, and the round u of the root no longer counts.

• okulum

  my school

• okullarım

  my schools

• gözüm

  my eye

• gözlerim

  my eyes

Buffer letters and consonant changes that travel with harmony

Harmony decides the vowel of an ending. Three separate rules decide the consonants.

The buffer y. When a word ends in a vowel and an ending such as -e (to) or -im (I am) starts with one, a y goes between them: hasta (sick) becomes hastayım (I’m sick). Compare İzmir'e (to İzmir) with Ankara'ya (to Ankara). Not every ending uses y: “his” or “her” takes s, as in arabası (his or her car), and “my” simply drops its vowel: arabam (my car).

• Hastayım.

  I’m sick.

• İzmir'e gidiyorum.

  I’m going to İzmir.

• Ankara'ya gidiyorum.

  I’m going to Ankara.

d becomes t. Endings that start with d, such as -de/-da and -den/-dan, switch to t after the hard consonants ç, f, h, k, p, s, ş, t. Turkish schoolchildren learn them as the phrase Fıstıkçı Şahap (“Şahap the pistachio seller”). The consonant depends on the last sound of the word and the vowel on the last vowel, so there are four combinations:

• Annem markette.

  My mother is at the supermarket.

• Paris'ten geliyorum.

  I’m coming from Paris.

• Otobüsteyim.

  I’m on the bus.

Otobüsteyim combines everything so far: otobüs ends in s and its last vowel ü is front, so the ending is -te; then comes a buffer y; then -im, because the last vowel is now e.

k becomes ğ, p becomes b. When a word of two or more syllables ends in k and the ending starts with a vowel, the k usually becomes ğ: çocuk (child) gives çocuğum (my child). In the same way, p usually becomes b and ç usually becomes c: kitabım (my book), ağacı (the tree, as an object). A few verbs also change t to d: gitmek (to go), gidiyorum (I’m going). One-syllable words usually keep their consonant (saçım, my hair), and before a consonant nothing changes: çocuklar, kitaplar.

• çocuğum

  my child

• köpeğim

  my dog

• kitabım

  my book

• gidiyorum

  I’m going

Turkish vowel harmony exceptions: loanwords and fixed endings

First, what is not an exception. Many loanwords mix front and back vowels inside the word, such as kitap, kalem (pen) and otobüs. That does not matter, because endings only look at the last vowel: kitaplar, kalemler, otobüste. The real exceptions are of two kinds.

Loanwords that take front endings. A small group of words, mostly from Arabic and French, have a back last vowel but take front endings. In words that end in l, such as alkol and meşgul, the l is said further forward in the mouth than usual, and the ending follows that sound. For others, such as saat and kalp, neither the spelling nor the sound warns you, so learn them as you meet them. Turkish dictionaries, including the one from the Turkish Language Association (TDK), show the ending next to the word: saat, -ti.

• Saatim nerede?

  Where is my watch?

• Alkolsüz bira var mı?

  Do you have alcohol-free beer?

• Şu an meşgulüm.

  I’m busy right now.

• Dikkatli ol!

  Be careful!

Endings that never change. A few endings have a fixed vowel and ignore harmony:

Before -yor, the vowel follows four-way harmony, but -yor itself keeps its o, and the next ending follows that o: geliyorum (I’m coming), Geliyor musun? (Are you coming?). With -ki, the common exceptions are bugünkü (today’s) and dünkü (yesterday’s), plus the rarer öbürkü (the other one).

• Geliyor musun?

  Are you coming?

• Ders çalışırken müzik dinlerim.

  I listen to music while I study.

• Yarınki toplantı saat kaçta?

  What time is tomorrow’s meeting?

• Bugünkü ders zor mu?

  Is today’s lesson hard?

Common mistakes English speakers make

Vowel harmony is one of the reasons people ask whether Turkish is hard to learn, but the mistakes learners make with it are predictable:

1. Looking at the wrong vowel. It is tempting to go by the first vowel of a word. In kitap, i comes first but a comes last, so the plural is kitaplar, not kitapler.

2. Treating i and ı as one letter. English has no letter ı, so learners often write and say i everywhere: kızim instead of kızım, or Bu kitap mi? instead of Bu kitap mı?

3. Forgetting harmony because mi is written apart. It is a separate word, but it still follows harmony. Do not join it to the word before, either: Geliyor musun?, not Geliyormusun?

4. Applying harmony to fixed endings. After -yor, learners often go back to the vowel of the verb and say geliyorim. The correct form is geliyorum. In the same way, it is okuldaki, not okuldakı.

Say every new form out loud. Harmony is a sound rule before it is a spelling rule, and with enough practice, a wrong ending will simply sound wrong to you.

Quick check: pick the right ending

Try these ten before checking the answers. Watch out for a consonant change, a buffer letter, a fixed ending and an exception.

Answers:

• kediler

  1. cats (i is front)

• kapılar

  2. doors (ı is back)

• okulda

  3. at school (u is back)

• Paris'te

  4. in Paris (s is hard, so t; i is front, so e)

• Bu çay mı?

  5. Is this tea? (a is back and unrounded)

• Doktor musunuz?

  6. Are you a doctor? (o is back and rounded)

• sütsüz

  7. without milk (ü is front and rounded)

• öğrenciyim

  8. I’m a student (buffer y, then -im)

• geliyorsun

  9. you’re coming (the ending follows the o of -yor)

• saatler

  10. hours (saat is an exception)

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between two-way and four-way vowel harmony? Two-way harmony gives e or a and depends only on front or back. Four-way harmony gives i, ı, u or ü and also depends on rounding. Endings usually written with e (-ler, -de) are two-way; those written with i (-im, -siz, mi) are four-way, apart from the fixed endings.

Does vowel harmony apply to names and foreign words? Yes. The ending goes after an apostrophe and follows the last vowel you pronounce: Londra'da (in London), Berlin'de (in Berlin), New York'ta (in New York).

What about numbers and abbreviations? Follow what you say, not what you see. A digit is read as a word, so saat 3'te (at three o’clock) follows üç, and 6'da (at six) follows altı. An abbreviation follows the names of its letters: ABD'de (in the USA) is read a-be-de, so it takes -de.

Practice vowel harmony in the free A1 lessons

Harmony becomes automatic through use, not through reading tables. In the free first units of Mitsling’s A1 course, the Vowel harmony lesson in unit 2, Ben öğrenciyim, drills the four-way “to be” endings with audio and speaking practice, and unit 3, Bu ne?, adds mi and the plural -ler/-lar. Unit 6, Neredesin?, then practices -de/-da and -te/-ta in real sentences.

If you would like someone to listen to your endings and correct them as you speak, Kerem, a native Turkish teacher, also offers 1-on-1 live lessons.