You will hear and say s against ş, and write each in the right word. No recording is attached to this lesson, so it teaches through spelling and mouth position.
The idea
The letter s is the plain hiss of English sun, made with the tongue tip behind the upper teeth, and it is always voiceless. The letter ş is the sh of English shoe: the tongue is drawn a little back and the lips are loosely rounded. They are two sounds, so su (water) and şu (that) are different words.
| With s | With ş |
|---|---|
| tas | taş |
| kas | kaş |
| sis | şiş |
| yas | yaş |
| sıra | şıra |
| su | şu |
Examples
- Kuş su içiyor.The bird is drinking water.Kuş ends in ş and su begins with s: two different sounds, two different mouth positions.
- Sabah şehirde sis var.There is fog in the city in the morning.
- Kışın şehir sessiz.In winter the city is quiet.
- Şu su soğuk.That water is cold.Only the first letter separates şu (that) from su (water).
- kaşeyebrow
- kasmuscle
- taşstone
- tasbowlTas and taş differ only by the cedilla, yet one is a bowl and the other a stone.
Read-aloud uses a synthetic Turkish voice available on your device. Voice quality and availability vary; it does not assess your pronunciation.
No Turkish device voice is available. You can still read the text.
Watch out
Dropping the cedilla gives another word: taş (stone) becomes tas (bowl) and kaş (eyebrow) becomes kas (muscle). Do not write sh or sch for this sound, and keep s a clean hiss even between two vowels, as in masa: a buzzing sound there would be the separate letter z.
Try it yourself
Type the whole word for “stone”.
Show answer or example answer
taş
taş: the meaning is stone, and this word ends in the hushing sound ş; with a plain s, tas means bowl.
Type the whole word for “bowl”.
Show answer or example answer
tas
tas: a bowl has the clean hiss; with the cedilla the word would be the stone, taş.
Type the whole word for “water”.
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su
su: water begins with the plain hiss, while the pointing word şu has the hush.
Type the whole word for “bird”.
Show answer or example answer
kuş
kuş: a bird ends in ş; kus is not the word for bird.
Practice round
Answer questions, then rebuild Turkish sentences and words where available. We keep your score.
Type the whole word for “stone”.
Type the whole word for “bowl”.
Type the whole word for “water”.
Type the whole word for “bird”.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Keep your progress
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Say the six pairs of the table aloud and feel your tongue move back for ş. Then write three of the words and check every s and ş.