Uzbek Gʻ and Oʻ: How to Say and Type Them

Gʻ and oʻ are letters of their own in Uzbek, and the small mark can change a word: tor means narrow, and toʻr means net. Uzbekistan's alphabet law spells both letters with a mark after them, and Unicode's data for Uzbek writes that mark as ʻ, the character U+02BB.

What Do Gʻ and Oʻ Sound Like?

Gʻ sounds like a French or German r, and oʻ sounds close to the o in row. Each row of the table has a word from the Uzbek Alphabet course, and the letters that are easy to mix up sit next to each other.

Which Mark Is Which?

The mark in oʻ and gʻ looks like a tiny 6, and the tutuq sign ʼ looks like a tiny 9. A typewriter apostrophe is a third character, and it often stands in for both.

How Do You Type Gʻ and Oʻ?

The quickest way is to copy the mark from the box above. These are the other ways to type it on your own device.

• 📱iPhone and iPadIn Settings, tap General, Keyboard, Keyboards and Add New Keyboard, then choose Uzbek (Latin).
• 🪟Word on WindowsType 02BB right after the o or g, select just those four characters, and press Alt and X together.
• 💻MacPress the Fn or globe key and E, or choose Edit, then Emoji & Symbols. Search for turned comma and click the mark.
• 🔤Capital LettersThe mark stays the same after a capital, so you write Oʻzbekiston and Gʻ with the same ʻ.

What About Sh, Ch and Ng?

Sh, ch and ng are pairs of letters that make one sound each: sh in shahar (city), ch in choy (tea), and ng in tong (dawn), like the end of king. Ng stays one sound in the middle of a word as well, so dengiz (sea) has no hard g in it. If an s and an h belong to two different sounds, the tutuq sign goes between them, as in the name Isʼhoq.

Where Did These Letters Come From?

Uzbekistan passed a law for a Latin alphabet on 2 September 1993, with 31 letters and the tutuq sign. A second law on 6 May 1995 changed it to 26 letters and the three pairs sh, ch and ng. Ş became Sh, Ç became Ch, and two letters with marks on top became Oʻ and Gʻ. The plan put the new alphabet into first-grade classes from 1 September 1996. Uzbek in Cyrillic letters is still common, especially in older books and on older signs.

A new change is on the way. On 10 September 2026, Uzbekistan's Senate approved a 28-letter alphabet that writes Ö for Oʻ, Ğ for Gʻ, Ş for Sh and Ç for Ch, and sent it to the President to sign. The plan lets old signs and documents stay in use while the country switches. When we checked on 14 October 2026, the national law database still listed the 1995 alphabet, so oʻ and gʻ are still the official letters.

How Can You Learn These Sounds?

In the Uzbek Alphabet course, you hear each pair from the table side by side before you say it.

The same course is in Bubblegum, a language app where Poppy, your AI tutor, writes Uzbek lessons that fit what you already know. For what to do after the alphabet, read the best way to learn Uzbek.

Frequently Asked Questions