Vowel harmony is a crucial part of Turkish grammar. When attaching personal pronoun suffixes to nouns or adjectives, the vowel of the suffix changes to agree with the preceding vowel. This is the vowel composition:
e, i takes i
o, u takes u
a, ı takes ı
ö, ü takes ü
EXAMPLES:
I am a doctor = Ben doktorum
You are a doctor = Sen doktorsun
You (formal) are a doctor = Siz doktorsunuz
He/she is a doctor = O doktor
We are doctors = Biz doktoruz
They are doctors = Onlar doktor
I struggle with vowel pronounciation, so in speaking I have a difficult time figuring out which vowel to use. The vowels 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u' are easy to remember since I don't struggle with them, but I do with the rest of the vowels. Despite that, I've definitely gotten better at vowel pronunciations! I got 'ı' down from listening to various videos until it finally clicked. Visualizing where the sound is supposed to come from helped and when I related it to some guttural Arabic sounds and cut short those sounds I already knew how to make, I got better with it. Doesn't mean I can necessarily pronounce it correct, but it's in my head and I know with practice it'll get there as my throat gets used to making those sounds.
This is a resource that I use to see more examples of the vowel harmony. I'm going to keep it here for reference if I need to review vowel harmony again:
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