Tatar language
Learn 70 basic Tatar words with us
Click a card to turn it over and see the Tatar word, then choose the correct answer from three options. Say the words out loud — a few of them at the right moment will tell her family more about you than a long letter.
First, a little about the Tatar language
Tatar is a Turkic language — a close relative of Turkish. If you know any Turkish, you will recognise words everywhere: su is water in both, bal is honey, ay is moon, and the numbers are almost the same. Tatar and Turkish come from the same family tree, so they share thousands of words and the same basic grammar.
And Urdu? Not a relative — but a generous lender. Because Tatarstan has been Muslim for over a thousand years, Tatar borrowed many words from Arabic and Persian, the same sources that fed Urdu. So dunya (world), kitap (book), dost (friend) and sabır (patience) will feel familiar to anyone who knows Urdu, Persian or Arabic.
A language with three alphabets
Few languages have lived such an adventurous life. For centuries Tatars wrote in the Arabic script, ever since Islam reached the Volga region in the year 922 — when the Volga Bulgars, the ancestors of today's Tatars, embraced the faith. Beautiful handwritten books in Arabic letters were the pride of every learned family.
In the 1920s the alphabet was changed to Latin letters, and then in 1939 to the Cyrillic alphabet — the one used in Russian — with six extra letters for special Tatar sounds: ә, ө, ү, җ, ң, һ. That is the alphabet Tatar children learn in school today. You don't need to read it to enjoy these cards — we write every word in Latin letters for you, with a simple pronunciation guide.
Five friendly facts
- About 5 million people speak Tatar, mostly in Tatarstan, with its heart in Kazan.
- Tatar has no word for "he" or "she" — one word, ul, covers both. Very fair.
- There are no difficult "th" or "w" sounds — nearly every Tatar sound already exists in English.
- Words build like Lego: add small endings to one root and you get new meanings. Dus (friend) → dusım (my friend) → duslarım (my friends).
- The sweetest word you will learn today: söyäm sincä — "I love you".
Now the fun part — your first words
Which one means “Hello”?
Your reward
10 correct answers from a private invitation
Answer 10 words correctly and we will give you a code for our private Telegram channel. Your progress is remembered on this device, so you can come back and continue tomorrow.