What are common mistakes with Ünlü uyumu?

This is THE hardest concept for learners from non-agglutinative languages. Learners often apply the wrong vowel to suffixes. 🇬🇧 English speakers: English has no vowel harmony at all, so this concept is completely foreign. Tend to default to -lar for all plurals. 🇷🇺 Russian speakers: Russian has some vowel reduction patterns but no true harmony. Better phonological awareness helps, but still difficult. 🇨🇿 Czech speakers: Czech has no vowel harmony. However, Czech speakers are used to complex morphological rules, which helps. 🇩🇪 German speakers: No vowel harmony in German. Umlaut changes are superficially similar but work differently.

Ünlü uyumu: kurallar, örnekler ve alıştırmalar | Turkish Grammar A1

Ünlü uyumu

A1 — Ses Bilgisi

Vowel harmony — the fundamental rule of Turkish: front/back and rounded/unrounded vowel agreement in suffixes

Can apply vowel harmony when adding suffixes to words

Vowel harmony — the fundamental rule of Turkish: front/back and rounded/unrounded vowel agreement in suffixes

Examples

Kitaplar masada, defterler çantada. — The books are on the table, the notebooks are in the bag.
Gözüm güzel, gözün güzel. — My eye is beautiful, your eye is beautiful.
Okulumuz büyük, evlerimiz küçük. — Our school is big, our houses are small.

Ses BilgisiA1

Ünlü uyumu

Vowel harmony — the fundamental rule of Turkish: front/back and rounded/unrounded vowel agreement in suffixes

Learning Goal

Can apply vowel harmony when adding suffixes to words

Exam Skills:KonuşmaYazma

Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?

Kitaplar masada, defterler çantada.

The books are on the table, the notebooks are in the bag.

Gözüm güzel, gözün güzel.

My eye is beautiful, your eye is beautiful.

Okulumuz büyük, evlerimiz küçük.

Our school is big, our houses are small.

Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?

Ünlü uyumu (sesli harf uyumu) Türkçe'nin en temel kuralıdır. Eklerdeki ünlüler, kelimenin son ünlüsüne göre değişir.

Büyük Ünlü Uyumu (2 yönlü): Kalın ünlülerden sonra kalın, ince ünlülerden sonra ince ünlü gelir.

Kalın (arka)	İnce (ön)
a, ı, o, u	e, i, ö, ü

Örnek — çoğul eki:

Kelime	Son ünlü	Çoğul	Kural
araba	a (kalın)	arabalar	-lar
ev	e (ince)	evler	-ler

Küçük Ünlü Uyumu (4 yönlü): Bazı ekler 4 farklı biçim alır: ı/i/u/ü

Son ünlü	Ek ünlüsü	Örnek
a, ı	ı	kız → kızı
e, i	i	ev → evi
o, u	u	yol → yolu
ö, ü	ü	göz → gözü

İpucu: Her ek öğrendiğinizde, ünlü uyumunu düşünün! Bu kural Türkçe'nin her yerinde geçerlidir.

Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises

Practice Exercises

This is THE hardest concept for learners from non-agglutinative languages. Learners often apply the wrong vowel to suffixes. 🇬🇧 English speakers: English has no vowel harmony at all, so this concept is completely foreign. Tend to default to -lar for all plurals.

Common Error Patterns

Used front vowel suffix after back vowel word or vice versa

Check the last vowel of the stem: a/ı/o/u → back suffixes (-lar, -dan), e/i/ö/ü → front suffixes (-ler, -den)

Used wrong rounded/unrounded variant in 4-way suffix

For 4-way suffixes (ı/i/u/ü): match both front/back AND rounded/unrounded of the last vowel

Kitaplar masada, defterler çantada.

The books are on the table, the notebooks are in the bag.

kitap ends in back vowel a → -lar; defter ends in front vowel e → -ler. This is büyük ünlü uyumu.

Gözüm güzel, gözün güzel.

My eye is beautiful, your eye is beautiful.

göz has front rounded ö → possessive suffix uses ü: göz-üm (my eye), göz-ün (your eye). This is küçük ünlü uyumu (4-way).

Okulumuz büyük, evlerimiz küçük.

Our school is big, our houses are small.

okul → back vowels → okul-u-muz (our school); ev → front vowels → ev-ler-i-miz (our houses). Every suffix follows harmony!

Practice in course

Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises

A1 Course

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Put it into practice

Try a free exercise from the course

Frequently asked questions

When is Ünlü uyumu used?: Ünlü uyumu (sesli harf uyumu) Türkçe'nin en temel kuralıdır. Eklerdeki ünlüler, kelimenin son ünlüsüne göre değişir.
How is Ünlü uyumu formed?: Büyük Ünlü Uyumu (2 yönlü): Kalın ünlülerden sonra kalın, ince ünlülerden sonra ince ünlü gelir. Küçük Ünlü Uyumu (4 yönlü): Bazı ekler 4 farklı biçim alır: ı/i/u/ü İpucu: Her ek öğrendiğinizde, ünlü uyumunu düşünün! Bu kural Türkçe'nin her yerinde geçerlidir.
What are common mistakes with Ünlü uyumu?: This is THE hardest concept for learners from non-agglutinative languages. Learners often apply the wrong vowel to suffixes. 🇬🇧 English speakers: English has no vowel harmony at all, so this concept is completely foreign. Tend to default to -lar for all plurals. 🇷🇺 Russian speakers: Russian has some vowel reduction patterns but no true harmony. Better phonological awareness helps, but still difficult. 🇨🇿 Czech speakers: Czech has no vowel harmony. However, Czech speakers are used to complex morphological rules, which helps. 🇩🇪 German speakers: No vowel harmony in German. Umlaut changes are superficially similar but work differently.