FemaleOrigin: Turkish / Old Turkic

Gönül: Meaning, Origin and Pronunciation

Gönül is a girl’s name of Turkish origin. It means “heart, soul (as the seat of love and feeling)”.

Say it: gur-newl

About the name Gönül

Meaning: heart, soul (as the seat of love and feeling)
Origin: Turkish / Old Turkic; Turkish; also used as a man’s name in older generations.
Gender: Female
Pronunciation: gur-newl

How to pronounce Gönül

Turkish spelling is phonetic: every letter is pronounced, and each letter always has the same sound. Our respellinggur-newl is an approximation for English speakers. Turkish stresses syllables much more evenly than English, so avoid hitting one syllable hard. Tap the letters below for tips.

Gönül

Letters English doesn’t haveFamiliar letters with a Turkish twist

ö
ö is a rounded “e”
Say “eh” and round your lips: the vowel of German “schön”. Our respelling writes it “ur” as in British “fur”, without the r.
Hear ö in the alphabet tool →
ü
ü is a rounded “ee”
Say “ee” and round your lips tightly: the vowel of German “über” or French “tu”. Our respelling writes it “ew”.
Hear ü in the alphabet tool →

Practice the sounds in the Turkish alphabet tool or readhow to pronounce i, dotless ı and soft g.

Gönül with Turkish suffixes

Turkish adds case endings where English uses prepositions. With a personal name the ending is separated by anapostrophe (Gönül'e, Gönül'ün), but it is still pronounced as one word. The apostrophe only marks where the name ends; the suffix itself follows the usual rules.

The last vowel of Gönül is ü, a front rounded vowel. So two-way suffixes take e and four-way suffixes takeü (vowel harmony):Gönül'de, Gönül'ü.

Because Gönül ends in a consonant, vowel-initial endings attach directly (Gönül'ü, Gönül'e) with no buffer letter.

Case forms of Gönül
Case	Form	Example
Accusative (object)	Gönül'ü	Gönül'ü tanıyor musun? Do you know Gönül?
Dative (to)	Gönül'e	Gönül'e bir mesaj yazdım. I wrote a message to Gönül.
Locative (at / with)	Gönül'de	Anahtarlar Gönül'de. Gönül has the keys. (lit. The keys are at Gönül.)
Ablative (from)	Gönül'den	Gönül'den bir hediye aldım. I got a present from Gönül.
Genitive (’s)	Gönül'ün	Bu Gönül'ün çantası. This is Gönül’s bag.
Instrumental (with)	Gönül'le	Dün Gönül'le konuştum. I talked with Gönül yesterday.

Forms are generated by TurkLogic’s tested grammar engine. See every case explained in theTurkish noun cases guide, or check the harmony of any word in thevowel harmony calculator.

More female names of Turkish origin

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Gönül mean?

Gönül is a Turkish girl’s name meaning “heart, soul (as the seat of love and feeling)”. Its origin is Turkish / Old Turkic. Turkish; also used as a man’s name in older generations.

How do you pronounce Gönül?

Say it roughly as “gur-newl”, keeping every vowel short and clear. Say “eh” and round your lips: the vowel of German “schön”. Our respelling writes it “ur” as in British “fur”, without the r.

How do you add suffixes to Gönül in Turkish?

Because Gönül is a proper name, case endings go after an apostrophe and follow vowel harmony: Gönül'e (to Gönül), Gönül'ün (Gönül’s), Gönül'de (at Gönül’s) and Gönül'le (with Gönül).