Turkish's learnability hinges on one core mechanic: vowel harmony. Get comfortable with it early, and the rest of the grammar — agglutinative suffixing — becomes far more predictable than it looks on paper.
Learn the 29-letter alphabet (see Turkish Alphabet), paying special attention to which vowels are "front" and which are "back" — this classification is the foundation vowel harmony depends on, so it's worth internalizing before moving further.
Learn a handful of common suffixed word forms as whole units first, and let the underlying suffix pattern become visible through repetition — starting from abstract suffix rules before you've seen real examples tends to feel more confusing than it needs to.
Practice simple subject-object-verb sentences, noticing how the verb consistently sits at the end — this becomes automatic faster than it seems at first.
Once basic sentences feel comfortable, add the witnessed-vs-reported past tense distinction (see Turkish Verbs) — a genuinely distinctive feature worth deliberate practice rather than assuming it'll click passively.
Alphabet and vowel-group basics: one to two weeks. Comfortable basic conversation: several months of consistent practice. Confident handling of agglutination and evidentiality in fast speech: closer to a year or more, similar to other grammatically rich languages.
See also the reference page: Learn Turkish.
Vowel harmony and which vowels are "front" or "back" — this classification underlies most of the suffix system that follows, so it's worth mastering before anything else.
After — learning whole common suffixed word forms first and letting the pattern become visible through repetition tends to work better than starting from abstract suffix theory.
At the end — Turkish's default word order is subject-object-verb, and this becomes automatic with practice faster than it might seem at first.
It's worth practicing deliberately once basic sentences feel comfortable, rather than assuming it'll click passively — most learners need dedicated attention to this feature specifically.