How Long Does It Take to Learn Turkish?
US figures point to about 1,760 hours for an English speaker to reach a professional level. What that means at an hour a day, and who gets a head start.
For an English speaker, reaching a professional level in Turkish takes about 1,760 hours of study, according to US government figures. At an hour a day, that's nearly five years. You'll read Turkish aloud within days and manage simple conversations long before that, and your first language can shorten the road a lot.
What the official figures say
The US State Department publishes how long its staff usually take to reach a professional level (a score of 3 on the ILR scale):
| Language | Typical training time | Class hours |
|---|---|---|
| French, Spanish | 30 weeks | About 690 |
| German | About 36 weeks | 828 |
| Turkish, Russian | About 44 weeks | 1,012 |
| Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin | 88 weeks | 2,200 |
A typical week there is 23 hours in class plus 17 hours of self-study. So 44 weeks of Turkish comes to about 1,760 hours in total.
What that means for you
| Study per day | Time to 1,760 hours |
|---|---|
| 30 minutes | About 9.6 years |
| 1 hour | About 4.8 years |
| 2 hours | About 2.4 years |
Please don't let those numbers put you off. The State Department's goal is high: its students are training to work in the language. If you want to travel, talk to family or follow a Turkish series, you need far less. Its students also study full-time with professional teachers, so a self-taught learner may need longer for each level.
What comes first, and what comes later
This order comes from our own view of the language, not from a study.
| Stage | When to expect it |
|---|---|
| Reading any word aloud | Days. Spelling is almost perfectly regular |
| Vowel harmony starting to feel automatic | Weeks of regular practice |
| Introducing yourself, ordering food, asking the way | Early on, with everyday words and a few set phrases |
| Following a slow conversation about familiar things | Months |
| Reading a short story with a translation beside it | Sooner than you'd think, since the translation carries you |
| Reading a novel without help, and following fast speech | Years |
Who gets a head start
Those official figures are for English speakers. Your first language can change them a lot, though nobody publishes figures for each language.
- Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Kazakh and other Turkic languages. These are Turkish's relatives. Azerbaijani speakers have the biggest advantage, since the two languages are very close.
- Arabic and Persian. Everyday Turkish is full of words from both, like kitap (book) and merhaba (hello). Grammar still works very differently.
- Japanese and Korean. Few words are shared, but the sentence structure will feel familiar: the verb comes last, and small endings do the work of English prepositions.
- English and most European languages. You get the Latin alphabet and some modern loanwords like tren and otobüs, but little else. That's the real challenge of Turkish for most learners.
What takes the longest
- Fast speech. Textbooks teach geleceğim (I'll come), but people say gelicem. Yapıyorum (I'm doing) often becomes yapıyom. Listen early, or you'll understand your book and not the people around you.
- Long words at full speed. Evlerimde (in my houses) is simple on paper. Hearing it and unpacking it instantly takes far longer, so give cases and suffixes plenty of practice.
- Word order and verbals. Turkish builds long sentences that English would split with "who", "that" and "when". This is often where learners stall at the intermediate level.
- Vocabulary. If your language has no link to Turkish, most everyday words will be new. There's no shortcut, though daily reading helps them stick.
What speeds you up
- Study every day. Short, regular sessions suit a language built on patterns.
- Choose a goal. An exam like TYS or TÖMER gives you a definite target, and so does a trip or a series you want to follow.
- Spend time with real Turkish. Use understandable listening and reading from early on, and pick books at your level.
- Talk to people. Turkish speakers are usually delighted when a foreigner tries, so use what you've got.
Start today
You can begin right now with our free Turkish grammar lessons and word lists with audio, with no account needed.
Our Learn Turkish app takes you from your first words through graded reading to Sabahattin Ali, with XP along the way and your progress saved. It's free to download, though some books and extra content need diamonds you earn while learning, or Premium.