Turkish TV is one of the world’s big exports, and many learners are first drawn to the language by a popular series. Used well, series, podcasts and YouTube can give you the hundreds of listening hours you need to reach B1 and beyond. Used badly, they’re just entertainment with English subtitles.
Below you’ll find real titles sorted by level, followed by a simple method for turning them into study. Availability changes by country and platform, so check where each title streams in your region.
How to choose your level
The rule of thumb: you should understand at least 70–80% of what you hear with Turkish subtitles on. If you’re pausing on every line, go down a level. If you never pause, go up one.
| Your level | What works | Subtitles |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | Children’s programmes, learner podcasts | English or none |
| A2 | Learner podcasts, sitcoms, street interviews | Turkish |
| B1 | Family series, cooking and science YouTube | Turkish |
| B2+ | Family dramas, classic films, native podcasts | Turkish, then none |
Not sure of your level? The Turkish level test takes a few minutes.
TV series and films
A1–A2: children’s programmes
- Pepee (TRT Çocuk). A preschool cartoon about a little boy. The sentences are very simple and repeated a lot, with clear present-tense verbs: Pepee top oynuyor (Pepee is playing ball).
- Rafadan Tayfa (TRT Çocuk). An animated series about a group of neighbourhood kids. It’s still simple, but more like real conversation, with everyday street vocabulary.
- Kral Şakir (Cartoon Network Türkiye). An animated family comedy about a boy and his family. Faster than Pepee, with lots of everyday household phrases.
Children’s TV can feel babyish, but it’s one of the few kinds of Turkish where speakers slow down and repeat themselves.
A2–B1: comedies and sitcoms
- Leyla ile Mecnun (TRT 1, 2011–2013; later seasons on Exxen). An absurdist comedy parodying the classic love story. The jokes depend on wordplay, so rewatch scenes with Turkish subtitles.
- Avrupa Yakası (2004–2009). A long-running Istanbul sitcom with everyday situations, family arguments and lots of colloquial expressions.
- Çocuklar Duymasın. A family sitcom built around a couple and their children. It’s dialogue-heavy and full of household vocabulary.
B1–B2: family series
Family series are a good bridge: the settings are everyday homes and neighbourhoods, and many episodes can be found with Turkish subtitles.
- Bizimkiler (1989–2002). A classic sitcom about the neighbours in one Istanbul apartment building. Short scenes and lots of everyday small talk.
- Seksenler (TRT 1, from 2012). A nostalgic family comedy about a neighbourhood in the 1980s, full of family titles, household vocabulary and gentle humour.
- Gönül Dağı (TRT 1, from 2020). A family drama set in a small Anatolian town. The pace is calm and the dialogue clear, with plenty of village and farming vocabulary.
B2 and above: classic films
- Hababam Sınıfı (1975). A classic school comedy about a class of mischievous students and their teachers, with many lines Turkish speakers still quote.
- Tosun Paşa (1976). A Yeşilçam period comedy built on mix-ups and wordplay; fast, so best with Turkish subtitles.
- Kış Uykusu (Winter Sleep, 2014). Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Palme d’Or winner. It’s long and very dialogue-heavy, so it’s only for advanced learners.
A warning about long dramas: prime-time Turkish episodes often run over two hours, and many series have more than 100 episodes. Pick something with short seasons first, or you may never finish.
Podcasts
For learners
- Turkish Tea Time. Lessons graded from “newbie” to “advanced”, each built around a dialogue with grammar notes. New episodes are no longer published, but the archive is still online.
- Let’s Learn Turkish. Meltem, a native speaker from Istanbul, teaches her partner. Episodes cover everyday distinctions like gel vs gelsene (“come!” vs “come on, come!”). Start from the earliest episodes, because they get harder over time. The archive ends in 2021.
- Learn Turkish with Turkish Coffee. Short intermediate episodes entirely in Turkish, spoken slowly, with transcripts on the host’s website. An excellent bridge to native content (archive from 2019–2020).
- TurkishClass101. Large commercial lesson library, from absolute beginner upwards; much of it requires a subscription.
Native podcasts and audio (B2+)
- SBS Turkish (SBS Türkçe). Australian public broadcaster’s Turkish-language news and features, often clearer than Turkish TV news.
- Açık Bilim. A long-running Turkish science podcast. Good for academic vocabulary.
- Fularsız Entellik. A popular podcast on culture, history and ideas, with a conversational, humorous tone.
YouTube channels
- Easy Turkish (A2–B2). Street interviews in Istanbul and other cities, with Turkish and English subtitles on screen. You hear real, unscripted speech from all kinds of people, and the channel also makes beginner episodes.
- TurkishClass101 (A1–B1). Short lessons on vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.
- Refika’s Kitchen (B1+). Refika Birgül’s English-language cooking channel. She also publishes cooking content in Turkish. Recipes repeat the same verbs over and over (doğramak “to chop”, kavurmak “to sauté”, karıştırmak “to stir”), which makes cooking videos great for imperatives.
- Evrim Ağacı (B2+). A large Turkish science-education channel with clear, scripted explanations.
- BBC News Türkçe and DW Türkçe (B2+). Short news reports with standard, carefully spoken Turkish.
A method that actually works
Watching isn’t the same as studying. For each short scene or 5-minute clip:
- Watch once without pausing, with Turkish subtitles, to get the gist.
- Rewatch and pause on every unknown word or phrase. Write down full phrases, not single words: ne yapacağını bilmiyor (he doesn’t know what to do).
- Break down the suffixes. A word like görmüştüm (I had seen) is easier once you can split it into parts. Try the suffix deconstructor.
- Shadow two or three lines. Play a line and repeat it straight away, copying the rhythm.
- Add phrases to flashcards and review them the next day.
Twenty minutes of this does more than two hours of passive viewing. Keep the passive viewing too, though: it’s how you get used to fast colloquial forms like napıyorsun? for ne yapıyorsun? (what are you doing?) and gelicem for geleceğim (I’ll come).
Spoken forms you’ll hear on screen
Scripted dialogue and real conversation both shorten words in ways your textbook won’t show. Recognising these forms makes series much easier to follow:
| You hear | Written form | English |
|---|---|---|
| napıyosun? | ne yapıyorsun? | what are you doing? |
| geliyom | geliyorum | I’m coming |
| bilmiyom | bilmiyorum | I don’t know |
| gidicem | gideceğim | I’ll go |
| yapcaz | yapacağız | we’ll do (it) |
| nolur | ne olur | please (pleading); what would happen |
| napcaz? | ne yapacağız? | what are we going to do? |
| hadi ya! | hadi ya! | no way! / come on! |
| abi | ağabey | bro (to an older man) |
| bi’ dakka | bir dakika | just a minute |
Don’t write these forms in formal texts, but do learn to recognise them. They’re especially common in the present continuous, where -yor + ending gets squeezed together.
Matching content to your goal
- Living in Türkiye: sitcoms and street interviews give you the everyday speech you’ll hear at the market and the doctor’s.
- Studying at a Turkish university: add news, documentaries and science channels early, because academic vocabulary takes the longest to build.
- Talking with a Turkish partner or family: family dramas and comedies are full of the warmth, teasing and family titles you’ll hear at home.
Next steps
Pick one title from your level today and do the five-step method with a single scene. To fit it into a full study plan, see our self-study roadmap from A1 to B2, and if fast speech in shows trips you up, review the future tense, since its colloquial forms are among the most shortened.
