Turkish translation
Turkish letters and
suffixes handled correctly
Turkish uses a Latin alphabet of 29 letters, vowel harmony and agglutinative word formation: suffixes added to a root express case, possession, tense and more. One Turkish word can carry what other languages express in a phrase, which shapes sentence structure, terminology and text length.
One production detail has outsized importance: Turkish distinguishes dotted İ/i from dotless I/ı. Case conversion based on English rules can corrupt words, names and database keys, so documents and software strings need Turkish-aware language settings and review.
Language and locale facts
Turkish
conventions to specify
Turkish uses the Latin alphabet with letters that standard English processing mishandles. The damage is usually done to names, codes and search terms rather than to running prose.
| Convention | Turkish |
|---|---|
| Alphabet | 29 letters including ç, ğ, ı, İ, ö, ş and ü; no q, w or x |
| Casing | i becomes İ and ı becomes I in Turkish; English rules give I for both |
| Date | DD.MM.YYYY; months in lower case |
| Numbers | Decimal comma, full stop between thousands: 1.250,50 |
| Currency | ₺ before or TL after the amount: ₺1.250,50 or 1.250,50 TL |
| Apostrophe | Suffixes on proper names and acronyms attach with an apostrophe: Ankara’da, ISO’nun |
| Address | Formal siz or informal sen; siz is the business default |
| Gender | No grammatical gender; one pronoun, o, serves for he, she and it |
Typical source material
Turkish documents
and their translation focus
Turkish work is largely trade-driven: contracts, invoices, specifications and interface text. Suffix-heavy grammar means source and target strings seldom align word for word.
| Material | Translation focus |
|---|---|
| Contracts and company records | Names and registry details copied exactly; suffixes attached correctly to foreign and proper names |
| Invoices and customs paperwork | Amounts, ₺ formatting and product descriptions kept exact |
| Manuals and specifications | Technical terms taken from the product’s Turkish documentation; long suffixed words checked in tables |
| Software and web strings | Turkish-aware casing, search and sorting; button widths tested for longer words |
Language-specific checks
Details that change
the finished translation
Turkish checks are mainly about letters, suffixes and records.
Dotted and dotless i
İ/i and I/ı are separate letters. English casing rules turn both ‘ılık’ (lukewarm) and ‘ilik’ (marrow) into ILIK, merging two different words.
Suffixes carry grammar
Case, possession and plural are added as suffixes whose form follows vowel harmony. Placeholders and variable names inserted into a sentence need full-form handling, or the suffix will be wrong.
Names and apostrophes
Turkish separates suffixes from proper names with an apostrophe, and names must be taken from registers exactly. Text engines that convert apostrophes or case can break both.
Dotted and dotless i, suffixes and name records in Turkish projects
Turkish projects need the dotted İ/i and dotless I/ı preserved in data, filenames and search fields, because English casing rules turn them into the wrong letters. Agglutinative grammar also changes string length: one Turkish word can match a whole English phrase, which affects button widths and table columns. Name records are taken from passports or registers and kept unchanged.
A native Turkish translator living in the target country produces the text, and a second qualified linguist revises it in the agency’s DIN EN ISO 17100 workflow. Interface strings and casing checks sit with software localisation, while supplier and customs paperwork falls under business translation.
Buyer questions
Questions about
Turkish translation
Why does Turkish dotted and dotless i matter in translation?
Turkish distinguishes dotted İ/i from dotless I/ı, including in uppercase forms. A system that changes case using English rules can produce incorrect spellings, names or search terms, so Turkish text should be checked with Turkish-aware language settings. Names, product codes and database keys are the most exposed, because a wrong letter there can make a record impossible to find or match later.
Should documents say Turkey or Türkiye?
Türkiye is the country’s name in current official usage, and the United Nations adopted it in 2022. Company style guides vary, so the brief should state which form applies to each document. Names inside legal records are kept exactly as registered, whichever form the running text uses.
Why are Turkish words often longer than their English equivalents?
Turkish is agglutinative: suffixes attach to a root to express case, possession, tense and negation. A single word can therefore correspond to a phrase in another language. Interface labels, table columns and slide titles should be tested with real Turkish text, and the translator can shorten wording where meaning allows.
How are Turkish currency and numbers written?
Turkish uses a decimal comma and a full stop between thousand groups, as in 1.250,50. The lira sign ₺ may precede the amount, or TL may follow it, depending on the document. Fonts and systems must support the ₺ character, which is newer than many legacy encodings. The brief should state the house style.
Does Turkish use formal and informal address?
Yes. Siz is the formal form and sen the informal one, and siz is the usual business default. Turkish has no grammatical gender, which simplifies some strings but removes cues the translator may need from another language, so gender-specific source text benefits from context. The register is fixed in the brief.
How is a Turkish translation checked?
Under the agency’s ISO 17100-certified process, a second qualified linguist revises the translation against the source. For Turkish, that review also catches dotted and dotless i, apostrophes before suffixes, consistent names and market terminology, and covers the text in its final file where layout is involved.