Turkish Vowel Harmony

Turkish grammar relies heavily on suffixes, whose vowels change according to the last vowel of the receiving word — a pattern known as Vowel harmony (Sesli/Ünlü uyumu).

Vowel harmony is one of the first topics you’ll learn after the alphabet, and although it may look a bit intimidating at first, it’s actually quite logical and easy to get used to. This change isn’t arbitrary; it exists to make words easier to pronounce and to keep the natural rhythm of Turkish speech.

In fact, the same is true for other phonological rules — not only in Turkish but in every language. They usually develop to make speech flow more easily and sound more natural.

For example, the Turkish plural suffix appears as -ler or -lar, depending on the last vowel of the word. Can you tell which vowel (e or a) sounds better in the nouns below when you make them plural? Try reading them aloud both ways and notice which one feels more natural and easier to pronounce:

• kitap → kitaplar / kitapler

• kalem → kalemlar / kalemler

• ayı → ayılar / ayıler

• silgi → silgilar / silgiler

• telefon → telefonler / telefonlar

• köy → köylar / köyler

• okul → okullar / okuller

• gün → günler / günlar

  
  

Don’t worry if you can’t always tell which one sounds right yet. We haven’t provided the correct answers for these plural forms — and that’s completely okay! You might have just started learning Turkish or seen these words for the first time. As your ear gets used to the rhythm of Turkish, you’ll naturally begin to sense which vowels fit better.

You can think of this sound pattern as similar to how some English suffixes change their pronunciation depending on the preceding sound. For instance, the past tense ending -ed sounds different in played, finished, and started — this happens to make pronunciation smoother and more natural.

Just as English speakers instinctively pronounce -ed endings differently, Turkish learners will intuitively apply vowel harmony once their ear is tuned.

From my experience as a teacher, I’ve noticed that even beginners start to apply vowel harmony naturally after a while. Apart from an occasional small mistake, most learners end up using suffixes with the correct vowels without consciously thinking about the rules. So, vowel harmony is actually one of the easiest parts of Turkish — not something to worry about at all!

👉 You can study the detailed rules of Turkish vowel harmony here, with audio support. Before visiting the lesson, remember this: you don’t need to consciously think about vowel harmony all the time. At first, it’s perfectly normal to make mistakes. As you get familiar with the rhythm of Turkish, you’ll start following vowel harmony intuitively — often without even realizing it.