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The Turkish language is spoken by anywhere between 70 to 80 million people all over the world. Although the vast majority of Turkish speakers live in the Anatolian peninsula (Turkey and its surrounding regions), the language is spoken unofficially in more than 30 countries around the world.
With a growing economy and tons of attractions and historical sites that attract tourists from all over the world, a lot of people are becoming interested in learning Turkish!
If you’re one of them but you don’t know where to start, this article has got you covered. I’ll walk you through a brief guide that showcases 10 of the best books to learn Turkish on the market, especially if you’re a beginner. Let’s dive right in!
1. Complete Turkish Beginner to Intermediate Course
Kicking off the list with one of the best books out there that will help you learn the Turkish language.
What I like about this book is that, as the name suggests, it’s a complete course that is designed for absolute beginners and walks them all the way to an intermediate level Turkish learner. Complete Turkish tackles all essential skills for learning Turkish: reading, writing, listening, and even speaking!
All this information is presented in well-sequenced 18 chapters that are also coupled with a lot of cultural notes that will help you learn more about Turkish people too!
The book also features various exercises along with an answer key to help you test your progress with a minimal amount of errors, especially when the book is continuously revised and corrected!
This book is available on BetterWorldBooks.
Key features:
- A complete course with everything a serious beginner needs to learn Turkish
- Covers all the essential skills for learning a language
- Comes with several tests to assess your progress
2. 2000 Most Common Turkish Words in Context
One of the most problematic issues for a beginner language learner is that you may spend time learning a lot of words in Turkish that you end up not using in everyday life.
To solve this problem, you should consider using this book! What makes this vocabulary book special is that it’s a mini dictionary that contains about 2,000 of the most common words in Turkish vocabulary and their English counterpart.
Not only that, but the book also uses each one of these words in an example in both Turkish and English to put them in context and make them easy to memorize.
Additionally, the book comes in an audiobook version to help you with the proper pronunciation of each of these sentences.
This book is available on BetterWorldBooks.
Key features:
- Compiles 2,000 most common Turkish words in one book with context examples
- Available in both textbook and audiobook versions
- Features a lot of side tips and tricks to memorize and learn the words
3. The Delights of Learning Turkish
- Amazon Kindle Edition
The Delights of Learning Turkish is one of the most popular books to learn the Turkish language out there. Designed as a complete self-learning course for absolute beginners, it can take you to the intermediate level in no time.
The book is well-designed and has a non-denominational approach that makes it suitable for both young people and adults with an emphasis on those willing to travel to Turkey!
The book teaches you how to construct sentences and shows you all the grammar points and dialogues examples needed to learn basic Turkish. Moreover, it comes with tons of vocabulary, cultural notes, Turkish/English glossary, proverbs/idioms, and exercises, making it a one-of-a-kind book!
This book is available on BetterWorldBooks.
Key features:
- A complete course to teach yourself Turkish from scratch
- Comprehensively explain grammar
- Huge glossaries for vocabulary, idioms, and expressions
4. Turkish Tutor: Grammar and Vocabulary Workbook
Turkish Tutor is an excellent book that does a pretty good job of teaching the pillars of the Turkish language to beginners.
The book mainly addresses grammar rules and essential vocabulary of the language while showcasing the exceptions to make them easy to memorize. This makes it a perfect guidebook to be used alongside other books, such as extensive vocabulary books or short stories in simple Turkish.
However, the book on its own is still a complete course for a serious novice who wants to see relatively quick results!
This book is available on BetterWorldBooks.
Key features:
- Focuses on grammar and sentence construction
- Ideal for serious beginners who use multiple books to make a complete self learning course
- Excellent choice for those who want a practical approach to learning a language
5. Get Started in Turkish: Absolute Beginner Course
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Get Started in Turkish is another remarkably popular textbook to teach Turkish and is suited for those who prefer the traditional approach to teaching a language.
The book walks you through a number of lessons and units that progressively teach you essential reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. It’s also an excellent cultural source about Turkish traditions and people, which makes it a great book for those planning to visit Turkey in the future.
One of the reasons why this book doesn’t top the list is that its audio features need some proper formatting to work properly, which makes it difficult to use for some people.
This book is available on BetterWorldBooks.
Key features:
- Ideal for absolute beginners
- The textbook contains cultural notes to learn more about the native speakers
- Written by a native Turkish who teaches the language at Birmingham University for years
6. Short Stories in Turkish for Beginners
One of the biggest issues with many “complete course” textbooks out there is that, sometimes, this sit-down-and-learn approach might feel a bit outdated or boring. Examples may be also not enough to help you memorize essential information, such as grammar rules and vocabulary.
However, a short story may make this pretty possible, and that’s exactly what this storybook is about! This book features eight short stories from various genres to enrich your Turkish vocabulary and reading skills.
These stories also contain a wide range of dialogues and expressions to help you learn conversational Turkish the easy way, with plot summaries and tests at the end of each story to measure your level of language competency!
This book is available on BetterWorldBooks.
Key features:
- Includes 8 exciting short stories to make learning more fun
- Comes with a bilingual glossary for all the vocabulary
- Tests your Turkish language comprehension at the end of each story
7. Turkish Short Stories for Beginners
If the concept of learning through stories really attracts you, this book would be ideal for you! Turkish Short Stories for Beginners is part of the Lingo Mastery, which is a successful series of language teaching books that uses the format of short stories to teach various languages from all over the world.
Similar to the previous book, this one also contains a variety of short stories with dialogues and summaries after each one. However, it has 20 short stories, which is much more than the previous book.
In this book, you’ll find all the relevant and new Turkish terms at the end of each short story, which makes it easier to find within context. The book is also available in an audio version for proper pronunciation of Turkish words!
This book is available on BetterWorldBooks.
Key features:
- Contains a wide range of essential vocabulary as well as slang and expressions
- Ends with a glossary for each story for easy referencing
- Comes in an audiobook version and eBook version as well
8. Elementary Turkish
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Next up we have Elementary Turkish, which is easily one of the most popular self-learning books to learn Turkish out there and is also an incredibly popular choice for students on a strict budget.
The book is great at teaching Turkish vocabulary, sentence creation, and basic grammar. It’s a very practical book that is designed specifically for learners who are willing to travel to Turkish-speaking regions because it’s filled with day-to-day conversational expressions and languages.
I also like that this book is very well organized into multiple small units that cover everything you need in an ascending level of complexity, which makes it double as an excellent pre-intermediate level book!
The book is considered both a textbook and a workbook, as it contains a lot of sample exercises after each chapter along with an answer key to measure your level of advancement and help you memorize.
This book is available on BetterWorldBooks.
Key features:
- Ideal for buyers on a strict budget who are looking for a comprehensive Turkish self learning book
- An extremely practical approach to learning the language
- Doubles as a preparatory course for intermediate level Turkish
9. Turkish Grammar in Practice
Turkish Grammar in Practice is an excellent grammar-oriented workbook that covers all the basic and essential grammar rules for beginners.
The book is split into 15 chapters and 114 grammar units with natural progression in terms of complexity, which also makes it an excellent reference book for revision in the future. Although it’s mainly focused on teaching Turkish grammar, you’ll learn a lot of Turkish expressions, terms, and vocabulary along the way.
In fact, the book provides you with over 1,900 Turkish words as well as a large dictionary at the end of the book to help you translate all words used in the book.
This book is available on BetterWorldBooks.
Key features:
- Excellent source for studying Turkish grammar in depth
- Features over 1,900 words and 3,000 questions along the way to enrich your knowledge
- Backed with a dictionary of all the words used along the book
10. Pre-Intermediate Turkish Short Stories
Last but not least, if you’re a beginner that has a small background in the Turkish language and you don’t want a book that starts from scratch, this pre-intermediate book will definitely pique your interest!
What is unique about this book is that it is designed for A2 level students who successfully completed the beginner course and want to expand more before heading into more complex language structures.
The book is made of 6 units, each containing a number of short stories in Turkish about various situations in addition to vocabulary, comprehension, and grammar tests at the end of each chapter.
Key features:
- Excellent choice for beginners with a little Turkish background
- Well organized with quizzes to measure your level and progression
- Comes with a large glossary at the end of the book
Final words
This wraps it up for today’s guide about the 10 best books to learn Turkish that you can find out there! As you can see, there are plenty of excellent options that will walk you through your first steps of learning the language and prepare you for the next level.
Personally, I recommend the Complete Turkish Beginner to Intermediate Course because it’s specifically designed for a beginner who’s starting from scratch and advancing gradually with plenty of quizzes after every chapter. You can also complement that with Turkish grammar books and apps to learn Turkish for a well-rounded learning experience!
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