Turkish Help Center Translation: Complete Guide for Support Teams

Turkey is an emerging tech powerhouse with 85 million people and one of the fastest-growing SaaS markets in the Middle East and Europe region. If you're expanding into Turkey, your help center needs to speak Turkish properly.

But Turkish translation isn't like translating to other European languages. Turkish is an agglutinative language with unique characteristics: vowel harmony rules, suffix-based grammar, and word order completely different from English. These features trip up even experienced localization teams.

This guide covers everything you need to translate your help center to Turkish effectively.

Why Turkish Translation Matters

Turkey represents a significant market opportunity:

• 85 million people in Turkey alone
• 5+ million Turkish diaspora in Germany, Netherlands, Austria, and UK
• 70%+ internet penetration with rapid growth
• Young population: median age 32, highly tech-savvy
• Growing B2B SaaS adoption across finance, e-commerce, and logistics

Turkish users strongly prefer content in their language. A Common Sense Advisory study found that Turkish consumers are among the most likely to abandon websites without local language support.

For SaaS companies eyeing MENA/EMEA expansion, Turkish-language support provides access to a large, growing, and underserved market.

Understanding Turkish: Key Characteristics

Before translating, understand what makes Turkish unique.

1. Agglutinative Structure

Turkish builds words by stacking suffixes onto root words. A single Turkish word often replaces an entire English phrase:

Turkish	English Equivalent
evlerimizde	in our houses
yapamamıyordum	I wasn't able to do
Türkleştiremeyeceklerimiz	those that we won't be able to make Turkish

This creates very long words that can break UI layouts. Test thoroughly.

2. Vowel Harmony

This is the most critical rule. Turkish suffixes must "harmonize" with the vowels in the root word. There are two types:

Front/Back Harmony: If root has front vowels (e, i, ö, ü), suffixes use front vowels. If root has back vowels (a, ı, o, u), suffixes use back vowels.

Rounded/Unrounded Harmony: Affects which specific vowel appears in suffixes.

Example:

• "ev" (house) + plural = "evler" (uses front vowel "e")
• "araba" (car) + plural = "arabalar" (uses back vowel "a")

When vowel harmony is wrong, Turkish sounds broken. Native speakers notice immediately. This is why machine translation quality matters enormously for Turkish.

3. Word Order: SOV

Turkish uses Subject-Object-Verb order:

• English: "I read the document"
• Turkish: "Ben belgeyi okudum" (I document-the read)

This affects how you structure UI strings and help content.

4. No Grammatical Gender

Unlike German, French, or Spanish, Turkish has no grammatical gender. No masculine/feminine articles or agreements. This actually simplifies some translation challenges.

5. Pro-Drop Language

Turkish often drops the subject when context makes it clear:

• "I will help you" can be simply "Yardım edeceğim" (Help will-do-I)

This can make Turkish sentences shorter than English equivalents.

The Formal vs. Informal Decision

Like German's Sie/du, Turkish has formal and informal address.

Siz (Formal)

Use formal address ("siz") when:

• Targeting business or enterprise customers
• Operating in traditional industries
• Addressing older demographics
• Uncertain about audience expectations

"Siz" signals respect and professionalism. Most Turkish business communication defaults to formal.

Example:

"Size nasıl yardımcı olabiliriz?" (How can we help you? - formal)

Sen (Informal)

Use informal address ("sen") when:

• Targeting young consumers
• Your brand voice is casual and friendly
• Competitors use informal tone
• Building community-style engagement

Modern consumer apps sometimes use informal address, but this is less common in Turkey than in Western markets.

Example:

"Sana nasıl yardımcı olabiliriz?" (How can we help you? - informal)

The Consistency Rule

Like German, never mix siz and sen within your help center. This inconsistency confuses readers and damages brand perception.

Document your choice before translating anything.

Turkish Text Length Considerations

Turkish text length is less predictable than other languages:

Scenario	Typical Change
Simple UI strings	May be shorter (dropped subjects)
Technical documentation	10-20% longer
Agglutinative words	Single words can be very long
Formal content	Often longer than informal

Layout Implications

The main challenge isn't overall length but individual word length. Turkish compound words can be extremely long:

• "Çekoslovakyalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmışsınız" (You are said to be one of those that we couldn't make Czechoslovakian)

While extreme examples won't appear in help content, technical terms and formal phrasing create long words. Ensure:

• Buttons allow flexible width
• Tables handle long cell content
• Mobile views wrap text properly

Turkish Special Characters

Turkish uses six special characters not found in basic ASCII:

Character	Name	Note
ı	dotless i	Different letter from "i"
İ	dotted I	Capital of "i"
ğ	soft g	Lengthens preceding vowel
ş	s with cedilla	"sh" sound
ç	c with cedilla	"ch" sound
ö, ü	umlauts	Front rounded vowels

Critical: i vs ı

In Turkish, "i" and "ı" are completely different letters:

• "dil" = tongue/language
• "dıl" = (doesn't exist, sounds wrong)

The same applies to capitals: "İ" (capital dotted i) vs "I" (capital dotless ı). This trips up many systems.

Test case: Ensure your CMS properly handles Turkish case conversion:

• "istanbul" → "İstanbul" (not "Istanbul")
• "DIYARBAKIR" → "Diyarbakır" (not "DIYARBAKIR")

Many systems get this wrong. Test explicitly.

Four Translation Approaches

1. Machine Translation Only

Cost: Free to ~$20/month Quality: Risky for Turkish Best for: Internal testing only

Machine translation struggles with Turkish vowel harmony and agglutination. Google Translate has improved, but errors are common and obvious to native speakers.

2. DIY with Turkish Team Members

Cost: Staff time Quality: Variable Best for: Companies with native Turkish speakers

If you have Turkish team members, involve them in review. But translation is a specific skill. Speaking Turkish doesn't mean you can write professional help content.

3. Professional Translation Agencies

Cost: $0.10–0.20 per word Quality: High Best for: Initial translation of large content volumes

A 50-article help center at 800 words/article = 40,000 words = $4,000–8,000 for initial translation.

Good agencies ensure vowel harmony and natural phrasing. They're worth the investment for critical content.

4. Hybrid: AI Translation with Human Review

Cost: $348–600/year Quality: Near-native with review Best for: Ongoing translation with regular updates

Tools like TranslateDesk use high-quality machine translation for initial pass, then allow human review and terminology management.

For Turkish specifically, human review is more important than for European languages due to vowel harmony requirements.

Turkish Localization Checklist

Before translating:

• Choose siz or sen and document in style guide
• Create terminology glossary including technical terms
• Verify UTF-8 support for Turkish characters
• Test i/ı handling in your CMS
• Identify cultural references that need localization

During translation:

• Check vowel harmony on all suffixes
• Verify special characters render correctly
• Test long word handling in UI
• Review formal/informal consistency throughout
• Have native speaker review final content

After translation:

• QA on devices including mobile
• Test search with Turkish keywords
• Monitor user feedback for quality issues
• Plan update process for new content

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Wrong Vowel Harmony

❌ "dosyaler" (wrong suffix vowel) ✅ "dosyalar" (files)

Machine translation often gets this wrong. Always have native review.

2. Incorrect i/ı Handling

❌ "Istanbul" (missing dot on capital I) ✅ "İstanbul"

This is the most common technical error in Turkish localization.

3. Direct Translation of Idioms

English idioms rarely work in Turkish:

❌ "Hit the ground running" → direct translation makes no sense ✅ Rephrase: "Hızlı bir başlangıç yapın" (Make a fast start)

4. Ignoring Word Order in UI

English UI: "Click Submit to continue" Turkish needs: "Devam etmek için Gönder'e tıklayın" (Continue to-do-for Submit-to click)

The sentence structure changes completely.

5. Forgetting Turkish SEO

Your English keywords don't apply. Research Turkish search terms:

• "yardım merkezi" (help center)
• "destek" (support)
• "bilgi bankası" (knowledge base)
• "müşteri hizmetleri" (customer service)

Turkish Google has different search patterns than English Google.

Step-by-Step Implementation

Week 1: Preparation

1. Decide siz vs sen formality level
2. Create Turkish style guide
3. Build terminology glossary
4. Test Turkish character support in your CMS
5. Identify high-priority content

Week 2: Translation

1. Translate top 10-20 articles first
2. Have native Turkish speaker review each article
3. Pay special attention to vowel harmony
4. Test all UI strings and layouts
5. Verify special character rendering

Week 3: Launch & Expand

1. Publish initial translated content
2. Set up language detection for Turkish users
3. Translate remaining content by priority
4. Create process for ongoing updates

Week 4+: Maintenance

1. Translate new articles as published
2. Update translations when source content changes
3. Monitor user feedback actively
4. Refine glossary and style guide

Measuring Success

Track these metrics after launching Turkish help center:

Quality metrics:

• User feedback on translation quality
• Support tickets about confusing content
• Native speaker review scores

Usage metrics:

• Turkish user engagement
• Language preference selections
• Bounce rate comparison vs English

Business metrics:

• Turkey market conversion rates
• Turkish customer satisfaction scores
• Support ticket volume changes

How TranslateDesk Helps

Since Intercom doesn't include native translation, TranslateDesk fills the gap for Turkish help center translation:

• Quality translation engine: Handles Turkish vowel harmony correctly
• Terminology management: Maintain consistent terminology across articles
• One-click publishing: Push translations directly to Intercom
• Change detection: Know when source articles need retranslation
• Human review workflow: Edit translations before publishing

Start with a 5-credit free trial. Most teams translate their top 10 articles for free to evaluate quality.

Get started free →

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Key Takeaways

1. Choose siz vs sen first: Formal is safer for B2B
2. Vowel harmony is critical: Wrong harmony sounds broken
3. Test i/ı handling: Most common technical error
4. Plan for long words: Agglutination creates layout challenges
5. Always use native review: Turkish requires human QA more than European languages

Turkey is a growing market with strong demand for localized experiences. With proper attention to Turkish linguistic features, you can deliver help content that feels native.

More language guides

Expanding to other markets? Explore our complete guides for each language:

• German Help Center Translation Guide: DACH market, Sie/du, compound words
• Spanish Help Center Translation Guide: Spain vs LATAM, largest market reach
• French Help Center Translation Guide: France vs Quebec, Bill 96 compliance
• Arabic Help Center Translation Guide: RTL layout, Modern Standard Arabic
• Japanese Help Center Translation Guide: Keigo formality, character systems

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Ready to translate your help center to Turkish? TranslateDesk integrates with Intercom and provides human review workflows for quality Turkish translations.

Start translating →