The Kazakh Alphabet

Kazakh grammar for beginners · Read Kazakh without learning Cyrillic

Kazakh has changed script three times in a century, and is in the middle of a fourth change now. Until 1929 it was written in Arabic script. From 1929 to 1940 it used a Latin alphabet. In 1940 the Kazakhs, like every other Turkic people in the Soviet Union, were required to adopt Cyrillic — which is still what you will meet in books, signage and song lyrics today.

In 2017 Kazakhstan decided to go back to Latin. The design took three attempts: apostrophes in 2017, acute accents in 2018, and the current version approved in 2021, which uses the umlauts and breves that most Turkic Latin alphabets already use. Rollout now runs to 2031, and it has slipped before — so for the foreseeable future you need to be able to read both.

This site shows you both at once. Every Kazakh word here carries its 2021 Latin form, generated from the Cyrillic by a fixed table, so you can read the whole course without learning a single Cyrillic shape.

Good news if you read Turkish

The Cyrillic alphabet has 42 letters: the 33 Russian ones plus 9 added for sounds Russian does not have. But about a third of those 42 appear only inside Russian loanwords, and they disappear entirely in the Latin alphabet — which has just 31 letters.

Those 31 are almost the Turkish set: a, b, d, e, f, g, ğ, h, i, ı, j, k, l, m, n, o, ö, p, r, s, ş, t, u, ü, v, y, z — 27 letters you already write. Only four shapes are new to you: ä (an e held one step more open), q (a k made deep in the throat), ñ (the ng sound), and ū (a back rounded u that Turkish does not distinguish from plain u).

The one trap for a Turkish reader: i, ı and y

These three letters do not mean what you expect. In the 2021 alphabet, Cyrillic і becomes Latin ı (dotless) and is the FRONT vowel; Cyrillic ы becomes Latin y and is the BACK vowel; and Cyrillic и and й both become Latin i.

So Kazakh Latin y is a vowel, not the glide it is in Turkish — and dotless ı is the front one, the exact reverse of the Turkish instinct. The word for "language" comes out as tıl where Turkish writes dil; "girl" is qyz where Turkish writes kız; "moon" is ai where Turkish writes ay — the same word again, with the glide at the end spelled i rather than y.

Capitalisation still follows the Turkish rule you already know: the capital of i is İ, and the capital of ı is I. Read ı and y by what they are rather than by their Turkish shapes, and the rest of the alphabet falls into place.

The complete alphabet

Cyrillic	Latin	Sound	Turkish
Ә ә	Ä ä	the a in English "apple" — one step more open than e	the e in el, gel, ben
Ғ ғ	Ğ ğ	the g of "garden" pushed right back in the throat — and, unlike Turkish ğ, actually pronounced	ğ, but audible
Қ қ	Q q	the c of "clock", but made further back	k — Turkish writes one letter for both
Ң ң	Ñ ñ	the ng of English "hunger" — one nasal sound, with no hard g after it	the n in Ankara, banka, tank
Ө ө	Ö ö	the ö of German and Turkish	ö
Ұ ұ	Ū ū	a short back rounded u, roughly the u of English "put"	u
Ү ү	Ü ü	a front rounded u	ü
Һ һ	H h	a soft h; turns up in a handful of Perso-Arabic loanwords and nowhere else	h
І і	I ı	a short front i, like the i of English "bit" — written dotless	i, but written ı
А а	A a	the a of English "but" — further back than Turkish a	a
Б б	B b	b as in "best"	b
Г г	G g	g as in "gate"; used next to front vowels	g
Д д	D d	d as in "door"	d
Е е	E e	e as in "end" — but pronounced "ye" at the start of a word	e
Ж ж	J j	the j of French "jour"	j — but usually where Turkish has y
З з	Z z	z as in "was"	z
И и	İ i	a vowel, and a compound one: it stands for ій or ый, so it sounds like a long i	i
Й й	İ i	a consonant: the y of English "yes". It only ever follows a vowel	y, but written i
К к	K k	the c of "care"; used next to front vowels	k
Л л	L l	l as in "old"	l
М м	M m	m as in "mother"	m
Н н	N n	n as in "no"	n
О о	O o	the o of English "or", but shorter	o
П п	P p	p as in "past"	p
Р р	R r	r as in "arrow"	r
С с	S s	s as in "summer"	s — but often where Turkish has ş
Т т	T t	t as in "top"	t — but often where Turkish has d
У у	U u	the oo of "pool" — and a w glide next to another vowel	u, v
Ш ш	Ş ş	sh as in "ship"	ş — but often where Turkish has ç
Ы ы	Y y	a back unrounded i — written y, not ı	ı, but written y
В в	V v	v as in "vase"	v
Ё ё	Yo yo	the jo of "younger"	yo
Ф ф	F f	f as in "father"; foreign words only	f
Х х	H h	h as in "hat", harsher than һ; occurs only in Arabic and Persian borrowings, but unlike the letters below it is kept in the Latin alphabet	h
Ц ц	Ts ts	the ts of "its"; Russian loanwords only	ts
Ч ч	Ch ch	ch as in "church"	ç
Щ щ	Şş şş	sh-ch; Russian loanwords only	şç
Э э	E e	e; only at the start of Russian words	e
Ю ю	Yu yu	the yu of "you"	yu
Я я	Ya ya	the ya of "yarn"	ya
Ъ ъ	—	hard sign, silent
Ь ь	—	soft sign, silent

Ordered by the official 2021 Latin alphabet (A Ä B D E F G Ğ H I İ J K L M N Ñ O Ö P Q R S Ş T U Ū Ü V Y Z), not by the Cyrillic sequence. KZ marks the nine letters Russian does not have — these carry the distinctly Kazakh sounds. RU marks letters confined to loanwords. Note that the 2021 alphabet has only 31 letters and simply leaves out ё, ц, ч, щ, ъ, ь, э, ю and я: they have no official Latin form at all. The forms shown for them here (ch, ts, yo, yu, ya) are the conventional spellings this site falls back on so that Russian loanwords remain readable — they are not part of the standard. Two rows above give the same Latin letter: И and Й both become i. That is not an error in the table — the 2021 alphabet really does spell them alike, although one is a vowel and the other a consonant. The block below the table is about how to read that.

One Latin letter doing two jobs: reading i

Two of the rows in the table above hand you the same thing: Cyrillic И and Cyrillic Й are both written with the single letter i. They are not even the same kind of sound. И is a vowel — a compound one, standing for ій or ый, which is why it comes out sounding like a long i. Й is a consonant: a glide, which means a sound you make like a vowel but use like a consonant. It never forms a syllable of its own; it only slides off the vowel next to it. It is the sound Turkish writes with y in ay and yol.

Position is what tells them apart, and it is reliable. An i sitting straight after another vowel is the glide Й. An i anywhere else — after a consonant, or opening a word — is the vowel И.

If that feels like a flaw rather than a rule, you are in good company: the standing objection to the 2021 design is exactly this, that one letter was made to carry both a vowel and a consonant.

Read these without translating — just sound them out

Keep going

How the Letters Behave →

All Kazakh lessons

• How the Letters Behave — The things spelling does not tell you
• Turkish ↔ Kazakh Sound Laws — Six rules that unlock hundreds of words for free
• Vowel Harmony — The same system as Turkish — with one simplification
• Numbers — One to a thousand, and what a number does to the word after it
• Days of the Week — Saturday, and the days counted off it
• Months — Twelve names to learn outright
• Seasons — The four, and the weather that comes with them
• The Plural — One suffix, six written shapes
• Body Parts — From the top of the head to the sole of the foot, and the organs in between
• Personal Pronouns — Four ways to say "you", one word for "he" and "she"
• Possessive — The ending goes on the thing owned
• Family and Kinship — Lineages, generational ties, and reciprocal kinship
• The Copula — Saying "I am a teacher" with no verb at all
• Saying What Something Is Not — One extra word, and the personal ending moves onto it
• Asking a Question — One small word at the end, and nothing else moves
• Having and Not Having — No verb "to have" — only "there is" and "there is not"
• Where: the Locative — Location and time: one ending
• Where to: the Dative — Direction, destination, recipient, and purpose
• Where from: the Ablative — Starting points, origins, and standards of comparison
• Whose: the Genitive — Possession, definite noun phrases, and relationships
• What: the Accusative — The thing an action is done to — marked only when it is a particular one
• With: the Instrumental — Who you did it with, and what you did it with
• All Seven Together — What each ending marks, and every shape it takes
• Spatial Postpositions and Relational Nouns — Expressing position, direction and time with postpositions and relational nouns
• Verbs, Infinitives and Commands — From dictionary forms in {{-у}} to bare stems, commands and polite requests
• Simple Present Tense — Habitual actions, general facts and future intentions in {{-а / -е / -й}}
• Simple Past Tense — Witnessed and completed past actions in {{-ды / -ді / -ты / -ті}}
• Distant Past and Past Participle — Experienced past actions in {{-ған / -ген}} and conversational negation with {{жоқ}}
• Habitual Past and the "Used-To" Aspect — Expressing past routines in {{-атын / -етін / -йтын / -йтін}} and habitual participles
• Reported and Narrative Past — Hearsay, indirect evidence and surprise discoveries in {{-ыпты / -іпті / -пты / -пті}}
• The Present Continuous Tense — Ongoing actions and the four auxiliary verbs of physical stance
• Future Tenses — Definite intentions in {{-мақ / -мек}} and probable futures in {{-ар / -ер / -р}}
• Desires, Intentions and Optatives — Expressing wishes in {{-ғым келеді}} and making proposals in {{-айын / -айық}}
• Ability and Inability — Expressing "can" and "cannot" using converbs in {{-а / -е / -й}} and {{алу}}
• Conditionals and "If" Clauses — Real and hypothetical conditions in {{-са / -се}} and counterfactuals with {{еді}}
• Sequential Converbs and Action Chains — Linking consecutive actions in {{-ып / -іп / -п}} without repeating conjunctions
• Causative, Passive and Reflexive Verb Voices — Grammatical voice derivations in {{-дыр / -қыз / -т}}, {{-ыл / -іл}} and {{-ыс / -іс}}
• Necessity, Obligation and Possibility — Expressing "must", "need to" and "might" with {{керек}}, {{қажет}} and {{мүмкін}}
• Verb Differences & False Friends — How common Kazakh and Turkish verbs parted ways over time

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