Learn Turkish for Free at PBC Languages, from Italian
Learn Turkish from Italian at PBC Languages: free classes with native teachers and 1-to-1 exchanges, half an hour in each language.
Create your free accountNo card needed. Exchanges between members are always free.
Italian speakers get a head start on pronunciation because Turkish spelling is as literal as Italian's: every letter keeps its sound, no silent clusters to memorize, no surprises like English 'gh'. You'll also notice Turkish picked up a chunk of maritime and trade vocabulary from Italian, especially Venetian, during the Ottoman era, so words like 'banka' (banca, bank), 'banyo' (bagno, bathroom), 'vapur' (vapore, steamship/ferry) and 'fabrika' (fabbrica, factory) sound familiar the first time you hear them. Dropping grammatical gender is another shortcut - 'o' covers he, she and it, so you stop worrying about agreement almost immediately.
What trips people up is vowel harmony and the extra vowels Italian doesn't have: ı, ö and ü don't exist in standard Italian, so getting words like 'güzel' or 'yumuşak' to sound right takes ear training, not just reading a rule sheet. The letter ğ (yumuşak g) is silent or just lengthens the vowel before it - Italians instinctively want to pronounce it like a hard g and end up adding a sound that isn't there. Word order is the other trap: Turkish is SOV, so 'Ben eve gidiyorum' is literally 'I home going', verb at the end. Italian speakers often build the sentence in Italian order first and then bolt Turkish words onto it, which natives will understand but flags you as translating in your head.
Watch out for false friends too: 'pasta' in Turkish means cake or pastry, not noodles, and it trips up almost every Italian speaker at least once at a bakery counter. Cases (six of them, built as suffixes) replace Italian prepositions, and that's the part that takes the most repetition - you can read the rule in five minutes, but you only get it into your mouth by using it out loud with someone who corrects you on the spot.
Words you will actually hear
| Here | Elsewhere | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| pasta | pasta | False friend: in Turkish it means cake or pastry, not noodles. |
| banka | banca | Same word, same meaning: bank. Easy win, use it as is. |
| banyo | bagno | Same root, same meaning: bathroom or bath. Recognizable straight away. |
| vapur | vapore | Related, meaning narrowed to steamship/ferry - very common word in Istanbul for the Bosphorus boats. |
| fabrika | fabbrica | Same word, same meaning: factory. No surprises here. |
| makarna | maccheroni | Meaning widened: 'makarna' covers pasta in general, not just one shape. |
| gazoz | gazzosa | Close cognate, both mean a fizzy soft drink; helps you guess the word before you're taught it. |
| lira | lira | Same word for currency, both countries used it, so the term feels familiar even if the money doesn't match. |
| kolonya | colonia | Partial overlap: Turkish 'kolonya' is a specific rubbing-alcohol cologne tradition, not just any perfume. |
How it works here
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Sign up and say your level
Two minutes. If you do not know your level, we place you in the first class.
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Pick a class or an exchange
Classes are led by a native teacher. An exchange is with another member: half the time in their language, half in yours.
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Join by video, nothing to install
From your phone or your computer. If you cannot make it, cancel and get your place back.
Questions about this
How long does it take an Italian speaker to hold a real conversation in Turkish?
There's no fixed number, it depends on the hours you actually put in. The phonetic spelling and the lack of gender mean early lessons move fast; the suffix-based cases are usually what slow things down after the first few months. Regular exchange practice speeds that part up because you hear the same endings over and over in real sentences instead of just conjugation tables.
Is the one-to-one exchange really free?
Yes - you trade time, not money. Half an hour goes to Turkish with a Turkish-speaking member, half an hour flips to Italian so they get something out of the session too. No fees attached to that part.
What level do I need to join a class or start an exchange?
Group classes with native teachers are organized by level, so complete beginners can start on day one. For the one-to-one exchange it helps to already know basic phrases and vocabulary, otherwise thirty minutes ends up mostly in gestures and neither side gets much out of it.
How exactly is the time split during an exchange?
Thirty minutes in Turkish, thirty in Italian, in the same session. Most pairs just set a timer and switch halfway through so both people get equal practice and neither language dominates the conversation.
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