Stories, audio, and videos can all help you learn Turkish when you can follow what they mean. That is the idea behind comprehensible input: learning from Turkish you can mostly understand. Turkish shows are easy to find, because Turkey became the world's second-largest exporter of TV series, after the United States, by the mid-2010s. Turkish written for beginners is harder to find, and learners on Reddit often ask where to look.
These apps help you find Turkish at your level, or add meanings to the Turkish you choose. For courses, speaking practice, and tutors, see our Turkish app comparison.
Custom Lessons Made for You
Bubblegum
Learn Turkish with a path made just for you. Start with your level, what you like, and why you want to learn. Your path grows as you learn, with new lessons that fit you. Bubblegum also has news and stories, so you can read and listen to a mix of Turkish about music, food, family, or daily life.
Poppy, your AI tutor, writes each lesson for your level, interests, and goals. If a long word is hard to follow, just ask her to explain its endings.
The trade-off is that Bubblegum can't help you read or watch Turkish you found yourself. For a show, a book, or an article you already picked, the apps in Read and Watch Turkish You Choose are the better fit.
- Read and listen to lessons, news, and stories about things you like.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons, so you review them by reading instead of using flashcards.
- Ask Poppy for help as you read.
- Lesson audio uses AI voices, not recordings of Turkish speakers.
- You cannot bring in your own books, shows, or articles.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so you can ask Poppy for a free one, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
- Teaches the Turkish Alphabet
Mobile
Read and Listen to Children's Books
TRT Çocuk Kitaplık
TRT Çocuk Kitaplık is a library of picture books for children, with stories about everyday life, nature, and well-known TRT Çocuk characters. A learner on Reddit suggests it for hearing and reading Turkish at the same time. It suits beginners who don't mind stories made for kids.
- Hundreds of free picture books and fairy tales from TRT, Turkey's public broadcaster.
- Books come with a voice that reads the story, so you can listen while you follow the Turkish text.
- Books also work without the internet.
Mobile
Read and Watch Turkish You Choose
Many Turkish learners watch Turkish dramas, and these tools help you learn from shows, videos, books, and web pages you pick yourself. They suit learners who already know what they want to read or watch.
Language Reactor
Language Reactor shows Turkish subtitles beside a translation while you watch a Turkish series. It also works on YouTube, so you can use it with the learner channels below. It is free to install, with paid extras.
- See Turkish subtitles beside a translation on Netflix and YouTube.
- Look up words in a pop-up dictionary.
- Pause and replay one line when it goes too fast.
- Doesn't teach the Turkish Alphabet
Browser extension
LingQ
LingQ lets you read and listen to Turkish from its library or bring in videos, books, and articles. Its Turkish library starts with Mini Stories, a beginner course of 62 lessons that practices the basic patterns of Turkish.
- Read and listen to Turkish from a library, or import your own.
- New words and words you are learning are highlighted, and words you know are left plain.
- Review words with flashcards.
- Flashcards
MobileWeb
Readlang
Readlang helps you read Turkish articles and web pages. Tap a word or short phrase to see what it means, and review those words later.
- Look up words and short phrases in any Turkish text.
- Upload your own texts, or read on web pages with its browser extension.
- Review the words you looked up with flashcards.
- Flashcards
- Doesn't teach the Turkish Alphabet
WebBrowser extension
Free Videos, Podcasts, and Audiobooks
Turkish has free YouTube channels made for learners. Easy Turkish interviews people on the street in Istanbul and other cities, with Turkish and English subtitles on every video, and its Super Easy Turkish videos use simpler words for beginners. Turkish with Özge shares everyday stories, conversations, and vlogs, and Türkçe Lingua tells stories about Emre and Elif in Istanbul for levels A1 and A2. Turkishle, which learners on Reddit mention often, teaches phrases and grammar.
For listening, the Easy Turkish Podcast has more than 200 episodes about Türkiye and the world, and its Slow News episodes go over the latest news at a slower pace. Members get full transcripts. Turkish Podcast with Ebru and Letspeakturkish are made for intermediate learners, with simple, natural Turkish about culture and everyday life. Lingopie's News in Easy Turkish reads short world news stories in slow, clear Turkish.
TRT also posts its children's shows on the TRT Çocuk YouTube channel, and its free TRT Dinle app and website have Turkish audiobooks, radio plays, and podcasts.
For reading, Olly Richards' Short Stories in Turkish for Beginners has eight stories for levels A2 and B1, and it also comes as an audiobook. We found no current website that rewrites news articles in easy Turkish. When you can follow news made for Turkish readers, BBC News Türkçe is free to read.
Learn Turkish in Your Language
These counts cover menu-language choices, including script variants. Other apps’ counts and full lists come from their iPhone listings, except Language Reactor (Chrome Web Store) and Readlang (its help forum). TRT Çocuk Kitaplık is in Turkish. Word meanings, lesson explanations, and other platforms may differ.
| App | Supported Display Languages | Full List |
|---|---|---|
| Bubblegum | 74 | Full list
|
| Language Reactor | 27 | Full list |
| LingQ | 17 | Full list |
| Readlang | 1 | Full list |
Other Apps We Looked At (10)
- LingopieTurkish TV shows and movies with dual subtitles you can tap, plus short stories with Turkish and English side by side, audiobooks, and podcasts.
- BeelinguappAudiobooks for beginner, intermediate, and advanced learners, with Turkish beside your own language and text that moves along with the audio.
- Luna ReaderMore than 200 audio stories in Russian, Turkish, and English, from A1 to C2, with words you can tap and the translation beside the text. It is new and growing.
- Story LanguagesGraded stories at four levels in nine languages, including Turkish, with words you can tap and short video clips. It is new and growing.
- BookTapBooks in Turkish, Italian, or English, where you tap any word to see its meaning, and your first book is free. It is new and growing.
- ErlaShort Turkish stories you can read sentence by sentence, listening practice, and conversations with an AI tutor. It is new and growing.
- TurkWorldTurkish words and phrases plus more than 40 reading stories with instant translation, in English and Arabic. It is new and growing.
- StorytelA paid audiobook and e-book app with a large library in Turkish, which learners on Reddit suggest for Turkish audiobooks.
- TurkishFluent News ConverterFree Turkish news articles from 2024 and 2025, rewritten at three levels (A1, B1, and C1), with English meanings for words you highlight.
- Turkish JourneyA YouTube channel and podcast that explains Turkish grammar and how words are used in everyday life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to learn the Turkish alphabet first?
It helps, and it is quick. Turkish has 29 letters, and only six of them are new to English readers: ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, and ü. A few familiar letters make different sounds, like c, which sounds like the j in "jam." Bubblegum's free Turkish Alphabet course teaches them in two short chapters, right in your browser.
Can I learn Turkish by watching Turkish dramas?
Dramas help most once you know the basics. An episode of a Turkish drama often runs 120 to 150 minutes, so many learners start with short videos made for learners. One learner on Reddit says they could understand Turkish TV with Turkish subtitles only around level A2 to B1.
Why are Turkish words so long?
Turkish adds endings to a word, one after another. Ev means house, evler means houses, and evlerimizde means in our houses. When a word looks long, find the root at the start, then read the endings one at a time.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so you can ask Poppy for a free one, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
The Turkish Alphabet course and Turkish guides on this site are also free and need no account.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Turkish television drama
- Wikipedia: Turkish alphabet
- Wikipedia: Turkish language
- r/turkishlearning: Absolute beginner reading materials
- r/turkishlearning: Watching Turkish Shows as an A1 Learner
- Easy Languages: Easy Turkish
- Easy Turkish Podcast: episodes
- Turkish with Özge on YouTube
- Türkçe Lingua on YouTube
- Turkishle on YouTube
- Ebru Sarıkaya: Turkish Podcast with Ebru
- Letspeakturkish on YouTube
- Lingopie: News in Easy Turkish
- TRT Çocuk on YouTube
- TRT Dinle: music, radio, and audiobooks
- Hachette: Short Stories in Turkish for Beginners by Olly Richards
- BBC News Türkçe
- Bubblegum
- TRT Çocuk Kitaplık
- Language Reactor
- LingQ
- Readlang
Checked on October 8, 2026 against each app's own pages.
