This guide adapts rules and examples from Microsoft’s Localization Style Guide for Turkish (originally written for software/UI localization). The underlying linguistic rules apply universally — to legal contracts, medical documents, marketing copy, and any Turkish translation work. Restructured and reformatted as a general Turkish translator reference by ChatsControl.

Turkish Translation Style Guide — Voice, Word Choice & Common Pitfalls (Legal, Medical, Marketing, IT)¶

TL;DR¶

• Address Turkish readers with siz (formal plural-you, verb suffix -in/-iniz) for general consumer content; informal sen reserved for younger audiences, marketing banners, and call-to-action taglines.
• Replace Ottoman/formal vocabulary with modern Turkish: suretiyle → aracılığıyla; muhakkak → kesinlikle; maksadıyla → amacıyla; hızlı bir şekilde / ivedilikle → hızla; vasıtasıyla → aracılığıyla; halihazırda → şu anda — Ottoman register sounds bureaucratic.
• Avoid English-style polite-imperative forms (yapınız) — they sound authoritative and serious in Turkish; use the standard imperative (yapın) for natural conversational tone.
• Don’t translate every English ‘please’ as lütfen — use only when asking the user to do something inconvenient or wait; don’t translate ‘sorry’ as üzgünüz (unnatural) — use maalesef, ne yazık ki, or özür dileriz depending on severity.
• Em dashes are NOT used in Turkish — convert to colons, semicolons, or parentheses; product names stay in Latin script untranslated with possessive suffixes attached (OneNote’s → OneNote uygulamasının); rearrange word order for fluency (Arrange your files—quickly → Dosyalarınızı hızla düzene sokun).

Register and tone for Turkish translation¶

Modern Turkish readers expect clear, friendly, and concise language — not the Ottoman-influenced formal register often used in legacy technical and commercial content. Three guiding principles:

• Warm and relaxed. Natural, less formal, grounded in honest conversation.
• Crisp and clear. Written for scanning first, reading second. Simplicity above all.
• Ready to help. Anticipate user needs and offer the right information at the right moment.

When localizing source text, feel free to choose words that aren’t standard translations if that’s the best way to stay true to the intent. Literal translation produces target text that is not relevant to customers.

Flexibility — rewrite, don’t translate literally¶

Modify or rewrite translated strings so they sound natural to Turkish readers. Understand the whole intention of sentences, paragraphs, and pages, then rewrite as if writing the content yourself. Don’t be afraid to add words to complete meaning, and omit words or phrases that make text unnecessarily long.

Sounding natural is especially important when offering a solution. The important thing is to capture the main idea, then express it in Turkish words as you would author:

Why this matters: Source-faithful Turkish reads as obviously translated and feels Ottoman-formal. In marketing copy it kills engagement. In patient-facing medical materials it reduces comprehension. In software UI it creates friction. In consumer-facing legal documents plain Turkish is increasingly required. Sworn legal translation and traditional contracts retain formal register.

Word choice: everyday Turkish over Ottoman formality¶

Use approved terminology for key terms, technical terms, and product names. Shorter words are friendlier and parse faster. Shortened forms of English words (info, app) are NOT used in Turkish — shortening words by removing letters confuses people. Use shorter synonyms to keep things tidy.

Use of “please” and “sorry”¶

Use lütfen (please) only when the user is asked to do something inconvenient, is asked to wait, or is inconvenienced by the software:

Use sorry only in error messages that result in serious problems (data loss, user can’t continue, must get help from support), or when a product/service fails. Make it sound sincere, not flippant.

Don’t use the literal üzgünüz — not natural in Turkish. Use özür dileriz for serious situations, maalesef or ne yazık ki for normal regret:

Words and phrases to avoid in Turkish¶

Ottoman/formal vocabulary should be replaced with conversational Turkish:

Why this matters: These Ottoman-influenced forms appear in legal templates and government documents out of institutional habit but feel stiff and bureaucratic in modern consumer products, patient-facing medical materials, brand-led marketing, and user-friendly software. The replacement column reads as everyday Turkish.

Word-to-word translation: why direct mapping fails¶

Avoid word-for-word translation. Be careful about word order issues and placeholders — these require restructuring of Turkish text.

Sample voice usage¶

Focusing on the user action¶

Explanatory text and providing support¶

Promoting a feature¶

Providing how-to guidelines¶

Inclusive language¶

Use plain language. Don’t generalize or stereotype. Don’t use profane or derogatory terms. In Turkish context, the word “zenci” for “black” should be avoided — “siyahi” can be preferred. Any term with references to color or race should be handled diligently.

Avoid gender bias¶

Use gender-neutral alternatives. Avoid compounds containing gender-specific terms.

When presenting generalization, use plural noun forms (kişiler, bireyler, öğrenciler).

Use neutral form of nouns when diversity needs to be highlighted: “Kız ve erkek öğrenciler Eylül ayında okula başlar” instead of “Öğrenciler Eylül ayında okula başlar”.

Rules for translating gendered pronouns:

• Direct translation of gendered pronouns (she-her/he-his) into Turkish is non-gendered “o” and its suffixed forms. In many cases, direct translation works.
• Rewrite to use second or third person (siz or o).
• Rewrite with plural noun and pronoun.
• Prefer adjectives or definite nouns instead of pronoun (söz konusu belge or belge instead of onun belgesi or kendi belgesi).
• Refer to person’s role (okuyucu, çalışan, müşteri). Avoid implied genders in borrowed words (müdür/müdire).
• Use kişi or kişiler.

When writing about a real person, avoid word-for-word translation with pronouns — use actual names (or other applicable nouns) rather than repeating or overusing pronouns. For real persons who use plural pronouns themselves (they/their), you can use “o” (onun).

Accessibility¶

Focus on people, not disabilities. Don’t use words that imply pity (tekerlekli sandalyeye mahkum). Don’t mention a disability unless relevant.

Keep paragraphs short. Spell out words like ve, ile, ayrıca, yaklaşık — screen readers misread special characters like &, +, ~.

Language-specific standards¶

Abbreviations¶

Avoid abbreviations whenever possible — they should be the last option. Product names are never abbreviated. Titles/headings should not include abbreviated words. Prefer hyphenation to avoid abbreviations.

Two methods if needed: take vowels out (start with “e”), or truncate end with period. Examples:

Acronyms¶

Only widely-known acronyms are used in localized form. TDK maintains a list. Most acronyms stay as-is in English:

• USA → ABD (localized)
• OVR (overwrite) → ÜYZ (localized)

Unlocalized acronyms inflect according to Turkish grammar: - If readable as a word (enough vowels), inflect as word: OLE DB → OLE DB’den, to SMTP → SMTP’ye. - If no vowels or not word-readable, spell letter-by-letter and append suffix per last letter: API → API’si. - Some product names (MSN) or commonly known acronyms (IP) can be read in English and inflected accordingly.

Adjectives¶

Consecutive adjectives in English cause fluency issues in Turkish — rearrange word order:

Possessive adjectives. English uses them frequently; Turkish doesn’t. Per Turkish grammar, possessives become suffixes. When needed, they may be omitted for fluency:

Articles¶

Articles are not part of Turkish grammar — render carefully by context. Definite and indefinite articles are not always translated the same way.

Using “bir” for indefinite articles is not always right. Definite articles often require inflecting the associated word:

Capitalization¶

English overuses capitals. Only proper nouns and first word of sentence are capitalized. ALL CAPS and no caps are not normally used in Turkish — if used as design elements in source, can be applied in Turkish but case changes need manual handling to avoid corrupting Turkish characters “i” (“İ” upper) and “ı” (“I” upper).

Compounds¶

Compound nouns in English are not translated word-for-word into Turkish. Some written as two words, some as single without hyphens:

Recent TDK spelling change: some words now written as two:

Conjunctions¶

Avoid excessive conjunctions in Turkish. Divide overly long sentences. Repeating the same conjunction sounds unnatural.

Genitive¶

Genitives to product names should be translated as separate words, especially for unlocalized names difficult to read in Turkish:

Localizing colloquialism, idioms, and metaphors¶

Don’t replace source colloquialism with Turkish one unless perfect and natural fit. Translate intended meaning when integral to text. Omit if possible without affecting meaning.

Nouns¶

Inflection. Nouns get suffixes per vowel harmony rule. Turkish is agglutinative — multiple suffixes, stem may change:

Plural formation. Add -ler or -lar per vowel harmony. Avoid unnecessary plurals:

Singular in English may be plural in Turkish for fluency:

Noun groups. Rearrange per Turkish syntax:

Prepositions¶

In Turkish, postpositions/case affixes take the place of English prepositions. Following source too closely causes fluency problems.

Pronouns¶

Omitting pronouns is common error; overusing also hurts fluency. Better to change word order to avoid wordiness.

In some cases, null subjects work — but only when subject is clear:

When first person plural is used in source, preserve same structure in Turkish:

Use first person (I/me/my) when user is telling application/wizard what to do:

Use second person (you/your) when application/wizard/UI is telling user what to do:

Formal siz used in general context. Informal sen used for younger audiences, marketing banners, taglines calling to action.

Punctuation¶

Bulleted lists. If item is full sentence: start with capital, end with period. Bulleted phrases also start with capital.

Comma. Use when needed — missing comma can change meaning. Don’t overuse — affects fluency. When subject and verb are not closely placed, comma is needed for clarity.

Colon. If text after colon is full sentence, start with capital. If fragment, lowercase.

Do not use colons in document titles. Text after semicolon should not start with capital. Don’t use semicolons after the subject of a long sentence — a comma is enough.

Exclamation mark. Used less in Turkish than English. Don’t copy from source if not needed.

Dashes and hyphens — three types:

• Hyphen. Limited usage in Turkish — most compounds written as two words or single word without hyphens.

• En dash. As minus sign (no space after in Turkish): - 5 → -5. In number ranges, no spaces: Pages 3-5 → Sayfa 3-5.

• Em dash. NOT applicable to Turkish. Convert to colons, semicolons, or parentheses.

Ellipsis (suspension points). No spaces before, always three points. In software, used at end of present-continuous-tense sentence describing on-going operation:

Period. Only one space after period at end of sentence (English sometimes uses double spaces — don’t follow).

Quotation marks. Straight ” ” in Turkish.

Parentheses. No space between parentheses and inner text. If sentence is within parentheses, full-stop is inside. If fragment within parentheses, place just after the complemented part of the sentence — not alone at end or starting a sentence. Suffixes attach to word before parentheses for fluency:

Symbols and non-breaking spaces¶

Some widely-used English symbols (@, #, &) are not used in Turkish translation:

Non-breaking spaces used between items that shouldn’t divide onto separate lines. Don’t overuse — necessary between product name and version, not between two regular text words.

Ampersand (&). Always translate as “ve” in running text. Don’t keep & in target unless part of tag, placeholder, shortcut, or code.

Verbs¶

Use simple tenses for clarity. Simpler tense and simpler verb forms (less suffixes) preferred — more to-the-point, less formal. Polite -ınız form (yapınız) is not appropriate — too authoritative.

Active vs passive voice. Active preferred, but passive sometimes useful for informational messages where blaming the user is unwanted. Status messages and progress indicators are translated in passive:

Localization considerations¶

Applications, products, and features¶

Application/product names usually trademarked and rarely translated.

Version numbers. Version 8.1 → Sürüm 8.1.

Translation of version strings. Copyright info must always be translated — check Microsoft Terminology for correct Turkish translations of “All rights reserved” and “Microsoft Corporation”.

Copilot predefined prompts¶

For AI assistant prompts:

• Be clear and specific. English prompts start with action verbs — make Turkish prompts natural questions/requests.
• Keep it conversational. Simple, natural language. Use informal tone of voice for Copilot prompts.
• Be polite and professional. Kind, respectful language.
• Use quotation marks. Helps AI know what to write/modify/replace.
• Pay attention to punctuation, grammar, capitalization.
• Pay attention to entity-token placement. Tokens not localizable; position must make sense in Turkish syntax. Exception: when prompt is display text/example, translate the entity text.

Error messages¶

Use natural-sounding, empathetic, non-robotic style. Follow logical order of events rather than source word order. Proper grammar helps explain error clearly.

Standard phrases.

Placeholders. %d, %ld, %u, %lu mean numbers; %c means letter; %s means string. Placeholders are a main challenge of Turkish localization.

Keys and shortcuts¶

(Standard key names and shortcuts follow Microsoft Windows Turkish conventions — refer to Microsoft Terminology.)

Voice video considerations¶

For voice-over: English terms and product names left unlocalized pronounced as English. If Turkish has established pronunciation for term (server), use it. Pronunciation can be adapted to Turkish phonetics if original sounds awkward.

Use tone matching audience — informal/playful for products/games, formal/factual for technical content.

Reference materials: authoritative Turkish dictionaries¶

Normative references:

1. Yazım Kılavuzu (Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları – Ankara 2009).
2. Türkçe Sözlük (Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları – Ankara 2009).
3. Güncel Türkçe Sözlük ve Yazım Kılavuzu — TDK Website at tdk.gov.tr.
4. Türkçe Sözlük ve Yazım Kılavuzu — Dil Derneği at dildernegi.org.tr.

Informative references:

1. Ana Yazım Kılavuzu (Ömer Asım Aksoy – Epsilon Yayınevi 2006).
2. Dil Yanlışları (Ömer Asım Aksoy – İnkılap Yayınevi 2008).
3. Türkiye Bilişim Derneği Bilişim Sözlüğü at tbd.org.tr.

FAQ¶

How should I address users in Turkish translation?¶

Use siz (formal plural-you) in general context — corresponding verb form ends in -in / -iniz (yapın, kullanın, seçin). Siz is correct for software UI, marketing copy, medical patient materials, business correspondence, and consumer-facing legal documents. Informal sen (verb form -in / no suffix) is reserved for younger audiences, marketing banners with call-to-action taglines, and explicitly casual contexts (children’s content, certain games). Don’t use the overly polite imperative -ınız form (yapınız) — it sounds authoritative and serious. For “I” use first person when the user is telling the application what to do (Gönderdiğim iletilere imzamı otomatik olarak ekle); second person when application/UI is telling user (Dışarıda olduğunuz süre boyunca…).

Which Ottoman/formal Turkish words should I replace?¶

Replace Ottoman or overly formal vocabulary with modern conversational Turkish: suretiyle → aracılığıyla / yoluyla (through); muhakkak → kesinlikle (surely); maksadıyla → amacıyla (to make sure); dolayısıyla → böylece / bu sayede (so that); hızlı bir şekilde / ivedilikle → hızla (quickly); vasıtasıyla → aracılığıyla / yoluyla (via); muhtemel → olası (possibly); ihtimal → olasılık (possibility); arıza / başarısızlık → sorun / hata (problem/issue/failure); nihayet → son / sonunda (in the end, last); halihazırda → şu anda (currently); içerisinde → içinde (in, within). Ottoman words signal bureaucratic distance in modern Turkish — replacement column is everyday natural Turkish.

How are please and sorry handled in Turkish?¶

Don’t translate every English “please” as lütfen. Use lütfen ONLY when the user is asked to do something inconvenient, asked to wait, or inconvenienced by the software. For everyday polite instructions, omit it — direct imperatives are already polite with siz forms. For “sorry” — never use üzgünüz (unnatural in Turkish). Use maalesef or ne yazık ki for normal regret. Use özür dileriz only for serious problems (data loss, user must contact support, product/service failure). Make sure the apology sounds sincere, not flippant or sarcastic. English uses both “please” and “sorry” more often than Turkish — don’t transfer them mechanically.

What’s the rule on em dashes and punctuation in Turkish?¶

Em dashes (—) are NOT used in Turkish for emphasizing isolated elements or introducing parenthetical content — convert them to colons (:), semicolons (;), or parentheses depending on context. Often the cleanest fix is to restructure the sentence to remove the em dash entirely. Hyphens and en dashes are basically the same in Turkish, used for compounds and number ranges (Pages 3-5 → Sayfa 3-5, no spaces). Exclamation marks are less common in Turkish than English — don’t transfer them mechanically. Quotation marks should be straight ” ” (not curly).

How are English loanwords and product names handled in Turkish?¶

Microsoft product names stay in Latin script untranslated: OneNote, Microsoft Word, Windows, Office. Possessive suffixes attach via a separate periphrastic construction for unlocalized names (OneNote’s → OneNote uygulamasının, NOT OneNote’in). Acronyms readable as words inflect as words (OLE DB → OLE DB’den); non-word acronyms (or those without enough vowels) are spelled letter-by-letter and take suffix based on last letter (API → API’si, SMTP → SMTP’ye). Don’t use English-style word shortenings (info, app) in Turkish — only a few formally recognized abbreviations exist; for everything else, use shorter synonyms or full words. Use bilgisayar (not PC) unless both Macs and PCs are mentioned.

What’s the rule on word order, voice, and verb tense in Turkish?¶

Word order is verb-final in Turkish — restructure English subject-verb-object into subject-object-verb. “Arrange your files—quickly” → Dosyalarınızı hızla düzene sokun, not Dosyalarınızı düzene sokun—hızla. For verb tense, use simple present (geniş zaman) most often; avoid complex tenses like past perfect (-mişli geçmiş zaman) when simple past works. Active voice preferred over passive, but passive is sometimes natural for status messages and progress indicators (Güncelleştirmeler indiriliyor, This document will be moved → bu belge taşınır). Avoid overly complex polite verb forms (tamamlayamamaktayız) — use simpler tamamlayamıyoruz. Use we/biz form via verb suffix to create personal feel where appropriate (kaldığımız yerden devam edeceğiz).

Sources¶

• Microsoft Localization Style Guides hub
• Türk Dil Kurumu (TDK)
• Dil Derneği
• Türkiye Bilişim Derneği Bilişim Sözlüğü