Como Escrever em Árabe

A escrita rabe muito interessante e muita gente gostaria de aprender.
Porm, falta de tempo e

muitas vezes falta de acessibilidade e boas explicaes podem fazer este sonho de muita gente
desaparecer e de perder o gosto para aprender rabe.

O nome Joo Pedro em rabe
Vou tentar nesta pgina ensinar passo a passo como pode aprender de maneira rpida e fcil a
escrever em rabe. Est preparado? Bora nessa!
Informao rpida sobre o Alfabeto rabe
O Alfabeto rabe tem 28 letras;
O Alfabeto rabe escrito da direita para a esquerda (o alfabeto portugus escrito da
esquerda para a direita);
Cada letra tem 4 maneiras de ser escrita: letra isolada, letra fase inicial da palavra, letra fase
mdia da palavra e letra fase final da palavra;
Cada letra pega-se sua prxima com excepo do d; do dh; do a; do r; do z; e o
u;
O nome Lilian em caligrafia rabe
Lio 1 A ligao das letras LETRA A
A letra A em rabe escreve-se assim:
muito fcil de identificar um A na escrita rabe, simplesmente um pau levantado que nunca
pega com a sua letra prxima (no confundir com o L que pega com a sua prxima.

Se quisermos juntar mais um A a outro A escreve-se assim:
No esqueamos que a letra A uma das poucas letras que nunca pega com a sua prxima, ou
seja, estas duas letras no se juntam.

Lio 1.1 A ligao das letras LETRA B
A letra B em rabe escreve-se assim:
Basicamente sempre que vir uma palavra em rabe com um s ponto em baixo, esta letra ser
sempre um B. Esta letra em baixo, a fase isolada da letra. O B em cr.

Se agora quisermos juntar mais um B a outro B fica assim:
Repare como a letra ganhou uma nova forma no incio da palavra. Temos assim sempre 1 ponto em
baixo para definir a letra B. Temos agora BB.

Se quisermos juntar mais um outro B fica assim:
Repare como a letra ganhou uma nova forma no fase mdia da palavra. um pouco parecida com o
incio mas sempre o que define esta letra o seu ponto em baixo da linha. Temos agora BBB.

Lio 1.2 A ligao das letras LETRA L
A letra l em rabe escreve-se assim:
Basicamente sempre que vir uma palavra em rabe com pau levantado, ou um A ou um L, a
diferena entre as duas letras que o A nunca pega com a letra seguinte, e a letra L pega
sempre com a letra seguinte. A letra L no seu final faz assim uma curva como pode ver na
imagem em baixo.

Se agora quisermos juntar mais um L a outro L fica assim:
Repare como a letra ganhou uma nova forma no incio da palavra. Temos assim um pau levantado
no inicio para definir a letra l. Temos agora LL.

Se quisermos juntar mais um outro L fica assim:
Repare como a letra ganhou uma nova forma no fase mdia da palavra. igual com o incio.
Temos agora LLL.

Lio 1.3 A ligao das letras LETRA Q
A letra Q (muitas vezes escrita em transcrio directa como 9 em rabe escreve-se assim:
muito fcil de identificar um Q na escrita rabe, porque uma bola com 2 pontos em cima,
sempre. Ou seja nada que enganar.

Se quisermos juntar mais um Q a outro Q escreve-se assim:
A letra q uma letra que pega com a sua prxima, ou seja, fica sempre pegada letra seguinte.

Se quisermos juntar mais QQ a outro Q escreve-se assim:

Lio 2 A ligao das letras PALAVRA PORTA
A palavra porta em rabe escreve-se assim:
Como se lembra das palavras anteriores, a letra B com um ponto em baixo, e, a letra A com
um pau levantado. Tem assim a sua primeira palavra em rabe: PORTA BAB (l-se bb). A letra
A pega com a sua anterior e toma um som longo de , um som prolongado de A.

Lio 2.1 A ligao das letras PALAVRA CORAO
A palavra corao em rabe escreve-se assim:
Como se lembra das letras anteriores, a letra B com um ponto em baixo, e, a letra L com
um pau levantado e a letra Q uma bola com 2 pontos em cima. Tem assim a sua SEGUNDA
palavra em rabe: CORAO QALB (l-se clbe ). O som da letra Q no princpio da palavra
um Q muito forte quase a engasgar a garganta.

Lio 2.2 A ligao das letras PALAVRA PAI
A palavra pai em rabe escreve-se assim:
Como se lembra das palavras anteriores, a letra B com um ponto em baixo, e, a letra A com
um pau levantado. Tem assim a sua TERCEIRA palavra em rabe: PAI- AB (l-se b). O som da
letra A no princpio da palavra um A normal (no sendo um som prolongado como da
palavra anterior (porta). Assim leva esse pequeno chapelinho chamado de hamza que faz o som
da letra A ser um A aberto como em caso.

Continue a ver o resto das pginas para aprender a escrever em rabe no menu em baixo. Obrigado.

Em rabe, as palavras so escritas num estilo cursivo (de forma de letra manuscrita), mas no existe um tipo de letra
manuscrita que seja discreta. Por causa disto, as letras so escritas de quatro diferentes maneiras dependendo da sua
localizao nas palavras. O quadro que se segue mostra a forma escrita na letra manuscrita para cada palavra:

Os Numeros
Nmero

Nmeros Dez Nove Oito Sete Seis Cinco Quatro Trs Dois Um Zero
Nomes
em rabe

refranes rabes final media principio
nombre
letra
...

Forma Final Forma Mdia
Forma
Iinicial
Forma
Separada
Letra

Alif

Ba'

Ta'

Tha'

Jim

Ha'

Kh

Dal

Zel

R

Zai

Sin

Shin

Sad

Dad

Tah

Zah

Ain

Guein

F

Qof

Keaf

Lam

Miim

Nun

H

Uau

I

Note:
Voc deve ter notado que as seguintes letras : Alef (A), Dal (D), Thal (Th), Ra' (R), Zay (Z), Waw (W) esto
marcadas a vermelho no quadro anterior in rosso nella tabella precedente" tem a mesma forma inicial e final
(isso significa que essas letras no se podem juntar com a letra que venha a seguir, quando elas veem no meio
ou inicio da palavra).
Quando uma letra do grupo de seis letras mencionadas anteriormente, vem perto de outra letra do mesmo
grupo, a segunda escrita na sua forma separada. (Confuso? H um exemplo deste caso na prxima lio!).
Quando a letra Alef vem depois da letra Lam, escrita de uma forma diferente (isto o correcto para
ambas as formas: meio e fim). A forma : (l-se LA desta maneira).

Exemplo 1
Vamos comear com uma palavra simples, a palavra Shams (que quer dizer Sol) composta pelas seguintes letras:
a letra Sheen, depois Meem e por fim Sin.
Comeamos com letra Sheen na sua forma
inicial.
Depois a letra "Meem" na sua forma mdia.
E por fim a letra "Sin" na sua forma final

Lembre-se de comear da direita para a esquerda.

+

+

Depois de juntar a letras, temos a palavra Shams:

Agora vamos tentar outra palavra,que tal o meu nome?

Exemplo 2
Se ainda no sabe o meu nome, bem FADI, eu acho que devia ter sido FADYe vai perceber o porqu na
prxima lio. Vamos escrever ento:
Comea com um "F" que equivale letra "Fa .
Depois a letra "A", que "Alef" .
Depois o "D" que "Dal" .
Finalmente um "I" ou o "Y" que corresponde a "Ya" (falaremos mais acerca disto na prxima lio).
A palavra deve formar-se como se segue:

+

+

+

Depois de juntar as letras, a palavra deve escrever-se assim:

Nota: Lembre-se que as letras "Alef" e "Dal", fazem parte das seis letras que no se podem juntar com letras que vm
depois delas, quando esto no meio ou principio da palavra (as duas regras que explicam este caso esto na lio
anterior!). Por causa disto, as letras "Dal" e "Ya'" so escritas na forma separada (a letra "Dal" vm logo a seguir letra
"Alef" e a letra "Ya'" vem logo a seguir letra "Dal").

Agoratente ler as duas palavras que se seguem, que existem em portugus e que esto escritas em manuscrito rabe
(para ter uma ideia, deixe o ponteiro do rato por um momento em cima da palavra):

Para verificar as suas respostas, v prxima lio.

About the Arabic Alphabet

Arabic is read from right to left

There are 29 letters in the Arabic alphabet

29

There is no such thing as capital letters versus small letters

Basically, there is no such thing as printing versus hand writing / cursive
So basically, theres only one way to write Arabic

Read the chart of letters below from right to left, top to bottom
You can click on each letter to hear its name

Basically, all 28 letters are consonants

Vowels are not part of the alphabet; they will be discussed later

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Each letter has 4 forms (which look very similar to each other)
o
when you write the letter by itself
o
when it comes in the beginning of a word
o
when it comes in the middle of a word
o
when it comes at the end of a word
These forms will be discussed later
The forms you saw in the chart are when the letter is by itself

end middle beginning by itself

When we learn the Arabic alphabet in these lessons, we will talk about the
following things:
o
what is the letters name?
o
how do you pronounce the letter?
o
how do you write the letter (in all 4 forms)?
The Letter Aleph

The first letter of the Arabic alphabet is Aleph

Remember that all 29 letters in the alphabet are consonants

Well, this is not exactly true for Aleph
Aleph doesnt have its own sound; it is used to stretch the short A vowel to
form the long AA vowel

compare the A sound in Bath & Father
the first is a short A and second is a long AA

Listening & Pronouncing

Listen to the words below. Each recording has two words that sound very
similar except that the first word has no Aleph and the second word has one
Aleph. Repeat the words you hear.

hadatha & haadatha

suwwam & suwwaam

jariha & jarihaa

Sometimes its hard to hear the Aleph when its at the end of a word

Exercise (easy): how many Alephs do you hear in the following?

Answer [7]

Answer [12]

Answer [9]

Exercise (medium): how many Alephs do you hear in the following?

The pace of the reading is now faster

Answer [6]

Answer [27]

Answer [17]

Exercise (hard): how many Alephs do you hear in the following?

The pace is faster and the Alephs arent exaggerated
This is how normal Arabic sounds

Answer [18]

Recognizing in Text

Writing the Aleph is easy; its just a straight line

This is how the Aleph looks in the four cases

end middle beginning of a word by itself

Notice that the Aleph cannot connect to the letter after it

There will be a small gap between the Aleph and the next letter

All the letters in a word must be closely connected

The only spaces between letters are the spaces between the last letter of one
word and the first letter of the next word
So dont confuse the small gap after the Aleph with a space between words

Aleph is one of 6 letters that cannot connect to the following letter

The other 5 will be discussed later

There are 4 other letters that include a straight line

Lets look at these letters briefly so we dont confuse them with Aleph

Its easy to tell Aleph apart from the first 3 letters because they have very
distinct shapes. The first two look like a golf club, and the third one has a
special squiggle on top
The last one is more difficult, though. Lets look at the 4 forms for the last one
and compare with the Aleph

end middle
beginning of a
word
by itself

Look carefully. You can tell the difference between Aleph and this letter when
its in the beginning or middle of a word because Aleph doesnt connect with
the following letter, but this one does
And you can tell the difference when its at the end because Aleph is just a
straight line and this letter has a curve like the English letter J

Exercise: scan the following texts and identify all instances of Aleph

Answers: [2, 0, 1, 7]

Notice that when Aleph comes after the letter
, it looks like this:

The Aleph curves in to the left a little

Writing

When you write the Aleph and it doesnt connect to the letter on the right,
start from the top and draw a line downward

When you write the Aleph and it does connect to the letter on the right,
come in from the right and draw a line upward

Exercise: practice writing Aleph by copying the table below several times

end middle beginning of a word by itself

The Letters Baa, Taa & THaa

The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Baa, Taa and THaa

We are grouping these letters together because the basic shape of the letters
looks the same; only the dots are different

Baa (
) corresponds to the English B

Taa (
) corresponds somewhat to the English T

Thaa (
) corresponds somewhat to the combination TH


Baa is easy to pronounce and detect because its identical to the English B
Taa is like the letter T, except is sounds softer
THaa sounds like the TH part in the word bath

Use the following rule to help you link the Arabic letter shape with the sound:
The word two is spelled with a T and Taa has two dots
The word three is spelled with a TH and THaa has three dots

bat

bat

bath

Exercise: repeat the words you hear in each of the following exercises
Try to find all instances of Baa, Taa and THaa

Answer [1 Taa]

Answer [1 Taa, 1 THaa]

Answer [1 Baa, 2 Taa, 1 THaa]


Answer [2 Baa]


Reading

There are only 2 letters with 1 dot underneath the body: Baa (
) and Jeem
(
)
But the shape of Jeem is completely different from Baa
Jeem has an angle

Baa ()
Jeem ()

There are only 2 letters with 2 dots anywhere: Taa (
) and Qaaf (
)
Theyre on top in both letters
But the bodies of Taa and Qaaf are completely different
Qaaf has a loop

Taa ()
Qaaf ()

There are only 2 letters with 3 dots anywhere: THaa (
) and SHeen (
)
Theyre on top in both letters
But the bodies of THaa and SHeen are completely different
SHeen has little groves and a hook at the end

THaa ()
SHeen ()

Exercise: scan the following lines for instances of Baa, Taa and THaa; how
many do you see of each?

Answers [3 Baa, 2 Taa, 0 Thaa], [1 Baa, 3 Taa, 0 Thaa],

[0 Baa, 1 Taa, 0 Thaa], [1 Baa, 0 Taa, 2 Thaa]

Writing

Baa, Taa and THaa are all written with the same body
The body is a long, horizontal curve

The 4 forms of these letters are the same; the only difference is the number
and position of dots


Exercise: copy the Baa-Taa-THaa body 20 times in all 4 forms

Exercise: copy the following word 20 times

The Arabic Vowel Fatha

The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters

These are mostly consonants

Vowels are NOT part of the alphabet

They are little symbols placed on top or underneath each letter

If a consonant has a vowel on top of it or underneath it, it means the vowel

comes after the consonant

You will almost never see vowels written on paper

You pronounce them, of course (because you cant talk without vowels), but
you dont write them

These are the only places youll see vowels written:

0. childrens books
1. religious texts
2. poetry

But if we ask you to read Arabic on this website, we will include the vowels
Thats because you need to know Arabic grammar before you can read
without seeing the vowels

Arabic has only 3 vowels

Lets look at the first one in this lesson

The Fatha Vowel

The first vowel is called Fat-ha

It looks like a sloped tick and it goes right on top of a letter

Fatha is the A vowel in Arabic

Actually, Fatha sounds like a short U (like in the word cup)

What do you think the following words will sound like?

Click on the words to hear them

Remember that the letter Aleph is used to stretch the A sound

Actually, Aleph is used to stretch the Fatha vowel and make it into a long
vowel

Arabic has 3 short vowels and 3 long vowels

Fatha is the first short vowel and Aleph is the first long vowel
Each long vowel corresponds to a short vowel (it makes the short one longer)
Aleph makes Fatha longer

Exercise: how many Fathas do you hear in the following?

And how many Alephs?

Answer [3 Fatha, 2 Fatha 1 Aleph, 2 Fatha
1 Aleph]

Answer [2 Fatha]

Answer [1 Fatha]

Answer [5 Fatha 2 Aleph]

Exercise: how many Fathas do you see in the following?

Answers: [7, 8]

Some pointers
o
You will never see a vowel on top or underneath an Aleph because
Aleph is not a consonant; it is a long vowel
o
The letter before an Aleph MUST have a Fatha because Aleph is a long
vowel for Fatha

Exercise: copy the words below and put a Fatha on each letter

Review 1

Arabic is read from right to left
The alphabet has 29 letters
Basically all the letters are consonants

TH like in bath soft T B

Vowels are not written, but they are pronounced of course
There are 3 of them and they are little ticks on top or underneath a letter
If a letter has a vowel on top / underneath it, it means the vowel come after
that letter

BA

Arabic also has 3 long vowels
These ARE part of the alphabet
Each long vowel matches a short vowel and makes it sound longer (about
twice the length of the short version)

BAA

Words are made up of a group of letters connected to each other
Some letters, though, cant connect to the following letter
So there will be a very small space between that letter and the next one
Each letter is made of a body and maybe some dots
The body of each letter has 4 forms

0. when its by itself
1. when its in the beginning of a word
2. when its in the middle of a word
3. when its at the end of a word

End Middle Beginning

The connection lines you see in the table above are exaggerated
Connection lines are usually extremely tiny
Letters are usually recognized by the number and position (above/below) of

the dots, and certain qualities of the body (like loops, angles, lines)

Practice

How many letters and vowels do you recognize in the following recordings?
You might need to listen to each a dozen times or more

Answer [2 Baa, 2 Taa, 1 THaa, 7 Aleph, 4 Fatha (+1 hard to
notice)]

Answer [2 Baa, 6 Taa (+1 doubled), 0 THaa, 4 Aleph, 13
Fatha]

Answer [0 Baa, 0 Taa, 0 THaa, 6 Aleph, 9 Fatha (+1 hard to
notice)]

How many letters and vowels do you recognize in the following texts?

Answer [10 Aleph, 0 Baa, 3 Taa, 0 THaa, 8 Fatha]

Answer [3 Aleph, 2 Baa, 3 Taa, 1 THaa, 13 Fatha]

Copy each of the below and try to pronounce them

The Letters Jeem, Haa, KHaa

The next letters are Jeem, Haa and KHaa

We are grouping these letters together because their bodies are the same; only the dots are
different

Jeem corresponds to the English J

Haa corresponds somewhat to the English H
KHaa corresponds somewhat to the combination KH


Jeem corresponds exactly to the English J, like in the word Jet

Haa is like H except it sounds very deep and it comes from the middle of the throat
In English, when you pronounce H, your breath starts from the middle of your mouth
But in Arabic, your breath starts from the middle of your throat which makes it sound very deep
and throaty
In the diagram below, the Haa comes from below the vocal chords, near the area labelled Trachea

Source: http://www.doctorspiller.com/oral%20anatomy.htm

The letter KHaa doesnt really have an equivalent sound in English

But when we need to represent this sound from other languages, we use the combination KH or
CH
Like the German name Johann Sebastian Bach
In the diagram above, KHaa comes from above the vocal chords, near the area labelled Larynx

jet

Bach

Exercise: repeat the words you hear in the following recordings

Try to identify all instances of Jeem, Haa and KHaa

Answer [1 Jeem, 1 Haa]

Answer [1 KHaa]

Answer [1 Haa]

Answer [1 Jeem, 1 KHaa]

Answer [1 Jeem, 1 Haa]

Reading

Jeem, Haa and KHaa each have the same body

Their body is quite unique so we dont need to compare it to other letters, really
Its an angle on top of a big loop


Jeem has one dot underneath its body

Haa has no dots at all
and KHaa has one dot on top of the body

Careful not to confuse the with the ; they both have one dot underneath the body

Careful not to confuse the with other letters; many, many letters have one dot on top of their
body

Use the shape of the body (an angle) to identify these three letters

Exercise: how many Jeem, Haa and KHaa do you see in the following sentences?

Answer [
4 Jeem, 0 Haa, 0 KHaa
]

Answer [
]

Answer [
]

Writing

Exercise: copy the following words 3 times each

Improve Your Reading & Writing

Now you know how to identify and write the first 7 letters
But, depending on which other letters these 7 connect to, the script can look
slightly different, as you may have noticed from some exercises

So lets take a look at a few examples and try to figure out what letters were
looking at and how to figure it out

Sometimes the Aleph is curved like you see twice in the example above
This happens when the letter
(Laam; English L) comes before it

Here is the Aleph with each letter of the alphabet coming before it
Notice that not all letters connect to the letter following
There will be a small gap; notice the size of the gap

Also notice that two letters (
and
) already have a line as part of their body

Careful not to confuse this for an Aleph

The bodies of Baa, Taa and THaa are sometimes written like a semicircle
Notice the THaa in the first word above
The second word is exactly the same except that the THaa has been written
normally (we exaggerated the connection a bit, though)

The same goes for Baa and Taa

This semicircle style is optional
It looks nice, though
And it only happens when the following letter is
(Meem; English M)

Notice the last letter in the word above

Its a Taa! Notice the two dots on top!
Taa is one of only 2 letters with 2 dots on top
The other letter is
(Qaaf; English Q) and this is NOT a Qaaf

This is actually kind of complicated

This letter is both a Taa and a Haa (not the Haa we learned about in this
lesson; another Haa)

Sometimes you pronounce it like Taa, and sometimes like Haa

Well talk more about this when we talk about Haa

But basically, a Taa can look like this
This only happens at the end of words
Youll never see this in the beginning or middle of a word, guaranteed

Notice the beginnings of both of the above words

In the first one, everything looks normal
But in the second one, the Baa is stacked on top of the first Jeem

This can only happen with the letters Jeem, Haa, and KHaa
It happens when any letter comes before them in the beginning of a word

Lets say we have a Haa as the first letter

Then we have a Jeem
You are allowed to stack the Haa on top of the Jeem

And if after the Jeem theres another Jeem, for example

then you can even stack the first Jeem on the second one
to get 3 levels of stacking

This often looks nice

But usually one level is more than enough
And most Arabic computer fonts wont let you do more than one level
And they only do stacking with certain letters before the Jeem, Haa or KHaa

In the example above, the dot of the stacked Baa is in the same line as the
other dots in the word, roughly
But you are allowed to move the dot of this Baa up so its under the body of
the Baa

Heres another example with a
(Meem; English M)

This has been an overview of stacking

Theres not much more to it, actually
But there are some small rules that we didnt cover here
But nobody follows them anyways

Stacking is taught in grade 8 in many Arab countries

The Letters Daal & Dhaal

The next letters of the alphabet are Daal and Dhaal

Daal and Dhaal look very similar except that Daal has no dots and Dhaal has one dot on top

Daal sounds somewhat like the letter D in English

Dhaal sounds kind of like the letter Z in English, but not really


Daal sounds like D except it is much softer

Pronounce D and check where your tongue hits the top of your mouth
Now, instead of hitting it there, hit your tongue closer to your teeth

Some people pronounce the word December with a soft D that sounds like a Daal

Dhaal sounds like Z except it is much softer

Dhaal sounds like the TH in words like "This" and "That"

Source:
http://www.gtchild.co.uk/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=39&Itemid=66

This is how you pronounce Dhaal:

Put the tip of your tongue below your top central incisors
Now breathe out with force
Your tongue should shiver against your teeth

Dhaal sounds very similar to THaa

To compare THaa and Dhaal, compare the words "Bath" and "That"

Click on each of the words below to hear the Daal and Dhaal in them

Exercise: repeat the words you hear

Answer [2 Dhaal]

Answer [1 Dhaal]

Answer [1 Daal pronounced twice]

Reading & Writing

Daal and Dhaal have the same body

Daal has no dot
But Dhaal has one dot on top

Daal and Dhaal do NOT connect to the following letter

But the space between them and the next letter is really small most of the time


When theres no letter before them, Daal and Dhaal are a simple angle

When there is a letter before them, Daal and Dhaal look like the letter U in English except with the
left side cut off
(The dot of the Dhaal goes on top of the right side of the U)

Exercise: how many Daal and Dhaal do you see in the following texts?

Answer [
1 Daal, 1 Dhaal
]

Answer [
2 Daal, 3 Dhaal
]

Daal/Dhaal and Jeem/Haa/KHaa are not hard to differentiate

But lets compare them just to be safe

/
//

Exercise: copy the following words

The Letters Raa & Zeiy

The next letters of the alphabet are Raa and Zeiy

Raa and Zeiy look very similar except that Raa has no dots and Zeiy has one
dot on top

Raa sounds mostly like the letter R in English

Zeiy sounds pretty much like the letter Z in English

The name of the letter Zeiy is sometimes pronounced Zeiy (Zaa-ee)

And other times its pronounced Zaa
Zeiy is more popular in modern Arabic


Raa sounds mostly like R; heres how you pronounce it:

Pronounce R and check where your tongue is while pronouncing
Just bring your tongue a little bit forward (towards your teeth)

Zeiy sounds like Z; theres really no difference


Answer [2 Zeiy]

Answer [1 Raa, 1
Zeiy]

Answer [1 Raa]

Reading & Writing

Raa and Zeiy have the same body

Raa has no dot
But Zeiy has one dot on top

Raa and Zeiy do NOT connect to the following letter

But the space between them and the next letter is really small most of the
time


Exercise: how many Raa and Zeiy do you see in the following texts?

Answer [4 Raa, 0 Zeiy]

Answer [4 Raa, 2 Zeiy]

Raa/Zeiy and Daal/Dhaal are not hard to differentiate

The Daal/Dhaal body has an angle
But the Raa/Zeiy body is a big, downwards curve

Lets compare them

/
/


Improve Your Pronunciation

Lets recall the letters weve seen so far


Does NOT
connect

connects

Does NOT
connect

Aleph stretches the Fatha vowel and creates a long A sound like in the word Father

Baa is exactly like the letter B

Source:

Taa is like the letter T except softer

You pronounce it by placing the tip of your tongue behind your central incisors

THaa is like the combination TH like in the word Bath

You pronounce it by placing the tip of your tongue beneath your central incisors and then
breathing softly

Jeem is like the letter J


Haa is like the letter H except its much more guttural (throaty)
You pronounce it by bringing the air out from the middle of your throat (near the trachea)

KHaa is like the sound in the German name Bach

There is no English equivalent
You pronounce it by bringing the air out from the top of your throat (near the larynx)

Source:

Daal is like the letter D except softer

You pronounce it very similarly to the letter Taa
Except more of your tongue touches the top of your mouth
With Taa, the tip of your tongue touches the part of your mouth where the skin meets the roots of
the central incisors
With Daal, the tip plus more of your tongue touches that part

Dhaal is a bit like the English Z

It actually sounds more like the TH in the word This or That
You pronounce it like you pronounce THaa except a bit more of your tongue touches the bottom of
your central incisors
Also, theres a bit of a shiver in your tongue

Raa is like the letter R

Except your tongue is a bit closer to the opening of your mouth when you pronounce it

Zeiy is almost exactly like the letter Z

The Letters Seen and SHeen

The next letters of the alphabet are Seen and SHeen

Seen and SHeen look very similar except that Seen has no dots and SHeen has
3 dots on top

Seen is equivalent to the letter S

SHeen is equivalent to the combination SH


Careful not to confuse Seen and THaa

THaa sounds like the TH in Bath
Seen sounds like the S in Bass

bath-tha

bas-sa


Answer [1 Seen]

Answer [1 SHeen]

Answer [1 SHeen]

Reading

Seen and SHeen have the same body

Seen has no dots
But SHeen has 3 dots on top


The body of Seen/SHeen is 3 cusps followed by a big loop

You dont see the loop when there is a letter coming after

What other letters have a loop that you dont see when theres a letter after?


Make sure not to confuse the cusps of the Seen/SHeen body with the bumps
in letters Baa, Taa and THaa

Can you see the separate letters in the examples below?

Use the dots of Baa, Taa, THaa to help you

Make sure not to confuse Seen and THaa

They both have 3 dots on top

Can you tell the difference between Seen and THaa in the examples below?

Exercise: read the following to the best of your ability

Writing

Exercise: copy the following words once each

Remember that when Baa, Taa and THaa come before the letter
(Meem;
English M) that the body of the Baa/Taa/THaa becomes a semicircle

Well this happens with Seen and SHeen also

But, like Baa/Taa/THaa
0. it looks nice but its optional
1. the
must have a letter connected after it as well


The Letters Saad and Daad

The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Saad and Daad

Saad and Daad look very similar except that Saad has no dots and Daad has one dot on top

Saad sounds kind of like the letter S

Daad sounds kind of like the letter D


Saad sounds like S (so like )

But it has a whistle to it
It can be difficult for a beginner to tell the difference between and

Some differences between and

0. has a slight whistle and does not
1. sounds very fat and its pronounced with a full mouth and is not
2. when you pronounce your lips become round and pouted a bit, but when you
pronounce they flatten out into a small smile
3. when you pronounce your tongue curves width-wise a bit, but when you pronounce
it stays pretty flat


Answer [2 Saad]

Answer [1 Saad]

Answer [1 Seen, 1 Saad]

Daad sounds like a soft D (so like )

But it sounds much fatter / thicker

Source:

Theres a real way to pronounce Daad, and then theres a way everyone does it in modern Arabic
because the real way is difficult

The real way of pronouncing Daad is so unique, in fact, that Arabic is called The Language of
Daad

This is how you pronounce Daad the non-real way:

When you pronounce Daal the tip of your tongue touches the part where your top central incisors
meet your gums
Move the tip of your tongue a little further back and pronounce Daal again
The resulting sound is much thicker
This is Daad

Lets not worry about how to do the real pronunciation

No one will notice the difference anyways


Answer [1 Daad]

Answer [2 Daad]

Answer [1 Daad, 1 Daal]

Exercise: each of the following recordings have two words

Which word has the and which word has the ?

Answer [Saad first]

Answer [Seen first]

Answer [2 Seen + 1 THaa, then 1 Saad]

Exercise: each of the following recordings have two words

Which word has the and which word has the ?

Answer [Daal first]

Answer [Daad first]

Answer [Daal first]

Reading & Writing

The Saad/Daad body is a loop, followed by a cusp, followed by a loop at the end


To write the Saad/Daad body:

Start from a point
Make a loop by going up and to the right
Complete the loop by coming down and to the left
Continue after the loop to create a small cusp

What other letter bodies have a loop (at the end)?



The Vowels Kasra and Damma

Remember that vowels are not part of the Arabic alphabet

They are little symbols on top or underneath letters

And you wont see the vowels written down in normal texts
Only in holy texts, poetry and when youre learning the language

If a letter has a vowel on top or underneath it, it means the vowel comes
after that letter

BA = B + A

There are 3 vowels in Arabic

We already learned about Fat-ha, which is equivalent to A

The other two are Kasra and Damma

Kasra looks the same as Fatha except it goes under the letter
And Damma looks like a little ribbon and it goes on top of a letter

Kasra sounds like the vowel E or I

And Damma sounds like the vowel O or U

Practice

Exercise: read the following words then copy them down

Click on the words to hear them


1

2

3

The Letters Taa and Zaa

The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Taa and Zaa

They have the same body except Zaa has a dot on top of the loop, to right of the line

Taa is NOT the Taa we know from Baa Taa THaa

The sound is similar but this one is much deeper

Zaa sounds a lot like Zaal and Zeiy

But Zaa is much deeper than either of those two
Well talk about the differences shortly


is a much deeper and thicker version of

Lets compare the two sounds:

and
is pronounced the same way as

Your tongue touches the part where your top central incisors meet your gums
Source:

But there are some subtle differences

0. When you pronounce your tongue stays almost flat, but when you pronounce the
center of your tongue sinks down


Answer [1 Taa]

Answer [1 Taa]

Answer [1 Taa (doubled)]

Exercise: read the words below

...
Zaa is a much deeper version of Zaal

Lets compare the two:

and

Source:

Zaa and Zaal are pronounced pretty much the same

The tip of your tongue touches the bottom of your top central incisors

But there are some differences

0. When you pronounce Zaa the center of your tongue sinks down, but when you pronounce
Zaal it does not sink that much (or at all)


Answer [1 Zaa]

Answer [1 Zaa]

Answer [1 Zaa]

Exercise: repeat the words below

Exercise: which recording in the pair has the and which has the ?

1

Answer []

Answer []

2

Answer []

Answer []

3

Answer []

Answer []

Exercise: which recording has the Zaal, which has the Zeiy and which has the Zaa?

1

Answer []

Answer []

Answer []

2

Answer []

Answer []

Answer []

3

Answer []

Answer []

Answer []

Reading & Writing

The Taa/Zaa body is a loop followed by a vertical line

The loop is a lot like the loop of and , but theres no cusp


To write the Taa/Zaa body:

Start from a point
Make a loop by going up and to the right
Then complete the loop
When the loop is done, lift your pen and draw the vertical line from top to bottom

The line of Taa/Zaa is like crossing Ts and dotting Is in English

You usually do it when youre done writing the whole word
And the same goes for dots in Arabic

When people write by hand, they sometimes end up putting the line of the Taa/Zaa body very
close to the loop, or even on top of it
Thats okay

Exercise: copy the following words to the best of your ability

Careful not to confuse the line of Taa/Zaa with an Aleph

The line of Taa/Zaa will always have the Taa/Zaa loop before it

Exercise: do you see an Aleph in the following words?

Answer [
YES
]

Answer [
YES
]

The Letters Ein and GHein

The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Ein and GHein

Ein and GHein look very similar except that Ein has no dots and GHein has one dot on top

Ein has no equivalent in English that we can compare it to

Well talk more about it later

GHein sounds like the combination GH


Ein is a very throaty letter

It comes from the middle of the throat near the area labelled Trachea


Exercise: Ein is very easy to identify. Listen to the recordings below and repeat what you hear
Be careful if this is the first time youre pronouncing Ein; do not hurt your throat

1

2

3

4

5

GHein is represented with the combination GH

It sounds like the noise you make when you gargle your throat

GHein comes from the top of the throat near the area labelled Larynx



1

2

3

4

5

Reading & Writing

The Ein/GHein body is a loop, followed by a cusp, followed by a loop at the end


To write the Ein/GHein body by itself or in the beginning

0. start from the top and create the first semi circle which is slightly tilted upwards
1. it will look like the top of a wrench
2. then continue by drawing the big semi circle underneath if the letter is by itself, otherwise
continue on to the next letter

To write the Ein/GHein body in the middle or end of a word

0. continue from the previous letter
1. draw a diagonal line from the bottom right to the top left
2. continue by drawing a horizontal line from the left to the right
3. continue by drawing another diagonal line from the top right to the bottom left
4. youll end up with an X with a line on top
5. you can fill in the space between the X and the line on top with your pen later if you want
6. this is one of the ways to write Ein/GHein


Although they look pretty different, you might confuse the Jeem/Haa/KHaa body with the
Ein/GHein body
In particular, when they occur at the end of a sequence
Lets compare the two


Exercise: read the following to the best of your ability

Arabic Syllables

A syllable is an uninterrupted flow of speech

For example, in the word habitat, the syllables are broken up like this:
ha-bi-tat

There can be different types of syllables depending on how you group the
consonants and vowels to make the syllable

Arabic has 6 types of syllables

3 are common and 3 are rare

Lets use the letter C to represent a consonant, V to represent a vowel and L

to represent a long vowel (like Aleph)

Below are the 6 types of syllables in Arabic

Syllable Structure Examples

common
1 CV

2 CL

3 CVC

rare
4 CVCC

5 CLC

6 CLCC

(double )

Syllable Type 1

1 CV

The first syllable is where you have a consonant then a vowel

This would be like the word hi in English

In English, you can also have a vowel THEN a consonant, like the word it
But in Arabic, syllables NEVER begin with vowels

In English, you can also have more than one consonant and then a syllable
Like tra in the word ex-tra
But you can NEVER have two or more consecutive consonants in one Arabic
syllable

The only way to have Syllable Type 1 in Arabic is to have a consonant then a
(short) vowel
And there are only 3 (short) vowels in Arabic
So the 3 examples

and

cover all ways to have Syllable Type 1 in Arabic

Syllable Type 2

2 CL

Syllable Type 2 is a consonant then a long vowel

Remember, syllables can never begin with vowels

So you can NEVER have a long vowel THEN a consonant make up a syllable

Right now, we only have one example for this type of syllable
There are two others we should give
But we didnt study those long vowels yet

Remember: there are 3 short vowels and 3 longs vowels in Arabic

The long vowels correspond to the short ones by making them longer
We know that Aleph makes the Fatha sound longer

Well talk about how to make the Kasra and Damma sounds longer in a future
lesson

Syllable Type 3 and the Sukoon Symbol

3 CVC
Syllable Type 3 is where you have a consonant and a vowel (like Syllable Type
1), but then another consonant

This is like the word hit in English

In English, you can have more than one consonant after the vowel
Like the sm in the word chasm

But remember: in Arabic, you can NEVER have two or more consecutive
consonants in a single syllable

Okay, so when you have a Syllable Type 3, the consonant at the end of the
syllable wont have any vowel after it
So there will be no Fatha, Kasra or Damma on top / underneath it

When this happens, some people might leave the letter blank with no vowel

But it is even more common (when youre actually writing down the vowels)
to write a small circle on top of the letter

This circle is called a Sukoon and the letter is called Saakin (meaning, without
vowel)

Click on the words below to hear them

Can a syllable ever begin with a Sukoon?

No. A Saakin letter always signifies the end of a syllable

Exercise: copy the words below and stretch the connections between
syllables

Example:

Answer [

Answer [

Answer [

Answer [

Answer [

Answer [
]

More on Syllable Type 3
And the Shadda Symbol

Lets consider a special case:

You have a Syllable Type 3 that ends in a particular consonant
And the very next syllable (no matter what it is) starts with that same
consonant

In the example below, we have a Syllable Type 3 followed by a Syllable Type 1

The Type 3 ends with a Jeem and the Type 1 starts with a Jeem

When this happens, we write the Jeem only once and place a symbol on top
of it

This symbol is called a Shadda

It looks like a small W

Notes:
o
Shadda indicates the end of a Syllable Type 3 and the beginning of
some other syllable
o
therefore, you will never see it in the middle of a syllable... always
between two syllables
o
if a letter has a Shadda, it means there are actually 2 of that letter
o
a letter will always have both a Shadda and some vowel on top /
underneath
you will NEVER see a letter with just a Shadda, or a Shadda and a
Sukoon
o
sometimes the vowel is written on top / underneath the Shadda, not
the letter
in fact, thats more common and thats how well do it

Exercise: read the following words

Click on them to hear the answer

Exercise: copy the following

Exercise: write down the word you hear

Answer [
]

Answer [
]

Answer [
]
also accepted [
]

Answer [
]

Answer [
What if a Syllable Type 3 ends in a consonant and the next syllable begins
with a consonant... the two consonants arent the same, but they sound
similar like
and
or like
and
Pronouncing each letter separately is really hard!

So you have to merge the two letters and make both sound the same
So, in the example above, both
and
will sound like

You use the sound of the first letter
Some people might use the sound of the second letter
People with experience try to pronounce both letters separately

But no Shadda will be written or anything like that

This phenomenon happens rarely, and its usually between
and

It happens because some letters are hard to pronounce right after others

Exercise: pronounce the following word

Rare Syllable Types

The last three syllable types are rare

Thats because they involve two consecutive consonants in a single syllable

And remember that thats not allowed in Arabic

It happens very rarely and usually at the end of a word

Some examples are given below

CVCC

CLCC

CLC, CV

The Letters Faa, Qaaf and Kaaf

The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Faa, Qaaf and Kaaf

These letters dont really look the same

And only two of them sound the same
But they are typically grouped together anyways

Faa is equivalent to the English letter F

Qaaf is represented by the letter Q; it sounds like K except its deeper
Kaaf is equivalent to the English letter K or C


Faa sounds exactly like F

Exercise: do you hear a Faa in the following recordings?

Answer [NO]

Answer [1]

Answer [2]

The sound of Qaaf is close to the sound of K

But heres how you really pronounce it:
Make the K sound
Note which part of your tongue hits the roof of your mouth
Dont use this part; use a part of your tongue further back than this
The back of your tongue should be hitting the opening of your throat


Kaaf sounds exactly like K

The same part of your tongue hits the same area on the roof of your mouth
as when you pronounce K

Exercise: which recording in each pair has the Qaaf, and which has the Kaaf?

1

Answer [3 Qaaf]

Answer [1 Kaaf]

2

Answer [1 Qaaf]

Answer [2 Kaaf]

3

Answer [2 Qaaf]

Answer [2 Kaaf]

Reading & Writing


Faa and Qaaf look the same in 2 of the 4 cases (a small loop)
But remember, sometimes you differentiate letters by the body, and
sometimes you differentiate them by the number and position of the dots
Faa has 1 dot and Qaaf has 2 dots

Plus, when the letter is by itself or at the end, the Faa tail is long and the Qaaf
tail is round

Kaaf is like a backwards L

Kaaf has a special squiggle instead of a dot

This squiggle goes away when its in the middle or beginning of a sequence

When Kaaf is in the middle or beginning, the body kind of changes

It looks like a giant < (less than) sign
Or kind of like an S

Exercise: read the following words to the best of your ability

Some letters will be new
Learn to recognize what youve seen and what you havent

Exercise: write the word you hear

Answer [
]

Answer [
]

Answer [
]

Answer [
]

Answer [
]
The Letters Laam, Meem and Noon

The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Laam, Meem and Noon

Laam, Meem and Noon are really nothing alike

But we group them together anyways

Laam is pretty much like L

Meem is equivalent to M
Noon is equivalent to N


Laam sounds pretty much like L

But its just a bit different

Heres how you pronounce Laam:

Pronounce the L sound
Notice that the tip of your tongue (and maybe a bit more) touches the roof of
your mouth (close to your teeth)
Now make a bit more of your tongue touch your mouth
In other words, make your tongue a bit flatter against the roof of your mouth

Compare L and Laam in the recordings below

L using both pronunciations

Laam using both pronunciations

Theres nothing much to say about Meem and Noon


Exercise: repeat what you hear

Reading & Writing


Remember that Aleph and Laam look similar

But Aleph does NOT connect to the next letter
Thats enough to tell them apart


Also, when Aleph comes after Laam, Aleph becomes slightly curved

Meem has a tiny loop


The loop of the Meem is smaller

And you write the loop of the Meem starting from the bottom
You can tell its written starting from the bottom
But the loop of Faa and Qaaf is very round

Remember that you write the loop of Saad/Daad starting from the top
But the loop of Meem starts from the bottom

end middle beginning

Note that when Noon is by itself or at the end, the body is a deep curve
But when its in the beginning or middle, the body is identical to
Baa/Taa/THaa


You can think of the Noon body (by itself or at the end) as a deep curve
Or as the loop at the end of the Saad/Daad body with a dot on top

Or as a Zaal with the body rotated almost 90 degrees

Use the single-dot of Noon to differentiate between it and Baa, Taa and THaa


(Optional) try to read the ones you can

Exercise: beside each word below, put the letter of the recording that
matches it

F

A

C

B

H

C

B

D

D

E

A

F

G

G

E

H

The Last 4 Letters of the Alphabet

The last 4 letters of the alphabet are as follows

W

H

A

Y

Waw is equivalent to W

Haa is kind of like H, and its different from the Haa we learned in Jeem, Haa, KHaa

Hamza is like the letter A, except its not a vowel

Well explain this in detail in the lesson
Hamza is the only letter whose name doesnt reflect how it sounds

Yaa is equivalent to Y

Waw and Yaa can also be used as long vowels like Aleph
Well talk about this in the lesson

Lets learn these letters in a different order for convenience

Haa

This Haa is different from the Haa we learned in Jeem, Haa, KHaa
That one was really throaty
This one sounds like the noise you make when you say Ugh when youre annoyed

See the difference between and by comparing these two words

In English H, your breath starts from the center of your mouth (try it)
In Arabic , your breath starts from the middle of your throat (near the area labelled Larynx)
In Arabic , your breath starts from the bottom of your throat (near the area labelled Trachea)


Exercise: how many and how many do you hear in these recordings

Answer [0 and 4]

Answer [1 and 1]

Answer [2 and 4]

Exercise: repeat the following

is written a follows


To write the Haa in the beginning of a sequence:

Start from the top and draw a curve like youre drawing a Daal
When youre about to finish drawing the Daal, go into a loop
The top of the loop should touch the point where the Daal started

Try to look at the Haa (beginning version) and see if you can tell that the Haa was drawn like you
just learned

Looking at a big version might help:

Look at the Haa (middle version)
This is how youll see it most of the time when its printed by computer
But when you write it by hand, you usually only draw the bottom half
It will kind of look like the letter V written below the line


Exercise: copy the words you hear

Answer [ ]

Answer [
]

Answer [
Remember: the letter Taa (from Baa, Taa, THaa) is sometimes written like this Haa. Below are
some examples

What do I call this letter?

Its a Taa, not a Haa

When is Taa written like this?

This only happens at the end of a word (not necessarily the end of a sequence)

How do I know where the end of a word is?

You dont. You need to know Arabic to figure that out
But if you see this , you know youre at the end of a word

So if a Taa is at the end of a word, it will always be written like this?

No. Sometimes its written like normal, and sometimes like this

Why? Is it a choice?
No. It has to do with grammatical gender; its NOT a choice
The following words are two different words

How do I write it?

The body looks like Haa but there are 2 dots on top


I pronounce it exactly like Taa, right?

Not exactly. If this Taa has a vowel on it, it will sound like Taa
If it is Saakin, though, it will sound like Haa

In Arabic, when youre finishing a sentence (or a flow of speech), you typically dont pronounce the
vowel on the last letter; you make it Saakin in pronunciation

So if the last letter in a sentence is this Taa, you will probably want to make it sound Saakin
So it will be pronounced like a Haa

Okay wait. If someone finishes a sentence with this Haa sound, how do I know if it was a Taa (that
they chose to make Saakin), or actually a Haa?
You dont. You will be able to tell once you study Arabic grammar, though

Click on the following words to hear them

Notice: its kind of hard to hear the Taa when you pronounce it like a Haa

Side note:
Notice in that the Daal and Taa kind of sound the same
This is one of those cases like and where you mix the letters because they sound the same

We suggest taking a break now before continuing with the lesson

Waw & Yaa

Waw sounds like W and Yaa sounds like Y

But Waw and Yaa can be used in 3 different ways:

1. The first way to use Waw and Yaa is as consonants
This happens when they have vowels on top / underneath them


2. The second way to use Waw and Yaa is as long vowels
This happens when:
a. They are Saakin
b. And the (short) vowel on the letter before them matches them
In other words, a Waw is Saakin and it has a Damma before it, or a Yaa is Saakin and it has
a Kasra before it
In this case, the Waw will stretch the Damma and the Yaa will stretch the Kasra

This is how Alpeh stretches the Fatha before it


3. The third way to use Waw and Yaa is as diphthongs
This happens when:
a. They are Saakin
b. And the (short) vowel on the letter before them is a Fatha
In this case, the Waw will sound like the ou in out and the Yaa will sound like the ei in the
name Hussein


So now we know all the short vowels (Fatha, Damma, Kasra)

And all the long vowels that stretch these (Aleph, Waw, Yaa)

We also learned that Arabic has 2 diphthongs (or you can call them semi-vowels)

Arabic does NOT have the other two diphthongs (listed below)

Waw and Yaa are written like this:


Note: Waw does not connect to the letter following it

Waw looks like a Raa except that it has a tiny loop at the top

Yaa has the same body as Baa/Taa/THaa/Noon

But it has 2 dots underneath


The similarity between these letters is in the beginning and middle of a sequence

Use the number and position of the dots to help you

Yaa is like an S with a very long tail

Notice that the entire letter goes underneath the line when the Yaa is at the end of a sequence

Sometimes Yaa is written without its 2 dots

This only happens at the end of word


This is actually NOT a Yaa

Its an Aleph

This might seem confusing

But, in Arabic grammar, its really, really convenient
How is that convenient? To find out, learn some Arabic

Exercise: read the following

We suggest taking a break now before continuing with the lesson

Hamza

Hamza sounds like the letter A

But its not a vowel

(Fatha is the A vowel in Arabic)

Hamza is just a consonant

There is no equivalent consonant in English
It sounds like the AAAA sound you make when youre thinking

If you want this sound in English, you just use the vowel A
Like in the word Apple

In Arabic, if we pronounce the word Apple, we dont say were starting with a Fatha vowel
We say were starting with a Hamza and the Hamza has a Fatha after it

So, in Arabic, the sound A as in Apple is really a combination of a Hamza consonant followed by a
Fatha vowel
In English, the whole sequence is considered a vowel

Exercise: do you hear a Hamza in these recordings?

Answer [YES]

Answer [YES]

Answer [YES]

When a Hamza is Saakin, it sounds like an abrupt jerking noise

Exercise: do you hear a Hamza in these recordings?

Answer [NO]

Answer [YES; 4]

Answer [YES; 4]

Writing Hamza is a complicated issue

Well discuss it in an advanced lesson

But these are the forms it can take

o
By itself
o
On top of an Aleph
o
Underneath an Aleph
o
On top of a Waw
o
On top of a Yaa (the Yaa wont have dots)

Just look for the Hamza symbol to figure it out when youre reading


Notice that when a Hamza is written on its own, it does not connect to the following letter

Now weve seen all the letters that do not connect to the following letter

,

(and in some cases)

Review & Practice

How many letters does the Arabic alphabet have?
Answer:

Sometimes letters have the exact same body. So how do you tell them apart?
Answer:

Can you group the letters that have the same body?
Answer:

How can you tell the difference between
and
?
Answer:

Aleph is just a straight line. What other letters have straight lines as part of their
body?
Answer:

There are 5 letters that look exactly the same except for their dots. But they look
the same only in the beginning and middle of a sequence. What are these 5 letters?
Answer:

What is the only letter that has a squiggle instead of dots?
Answer:

Which letters dont connect to the letter that follows them? You MUST lift your pen
even if its in the same word.
Answer:

Is Arabic script more like handwriting / cursive or more like printing?
Answer:

Why are there 4 forms for each letter?
Answer:

Are there different ways of writing each letter? Like different scripts or something?
Answer:

What are some letters that dont look exactly the same but might still be confusing
to differentiate when reading?
Answer:

Which letters have bumps in their body that you might confuse for the bumps of

?
Answer:

How many vowels does Arabic have?
Answer:

How do you represent vowels in writing?
Answer:

Can an Arabic word ever start with a Saakin letter?
Answer:
Syllable Structure Examples

common
1 CV

2 CL

3 CVC

rare
4 CVCC

5 CLC

6 CLCC

(double )

What are long vowels in Arabic?
Answer:

Are Aleph, Waw and Yaa used as consonants and long vowels, and nothing else?
Answer:

How do you know which function a Waw or Yaa is performing?
Answer:

What are the different ways a Hamza can be written?
Answer:

When a Yaa has no dots, what could this mean?
Answer:

What is this letter: ?
Answer:

How many letters are in the word ?
Answer:

What vowel is on the Baa in the word ?
Answer:

When you write the letter or , where does your pen start from?
Answer:

When you write the letter , where does your pen start from?
Answer:

Can you write the letter without lifting your pen?
Answer:

Dictation:
1

6

11

16

2

7

12

17

3

8

13

18

4

9

14

19

5

10

15

20

Answers:
1
15
16

10

17

11

18

12

19

13

20

14

Reading:

Double Vowels

Recall that Arabic has 3 short vowels

These are symbols placed on top or underneath letters

And Arabic has 3 long vowels

These are letters of the alphabet that have the potential to be used as vowels
Long vowels correspond to the short vowels and they stretch their sound

Arabic also has 2 semi-vowels or diphthongs

These are vowel-like sounds

Now, you can actually double the short vowels

So we have 3 new vowels
0. the doubled Damma
1. the doubled Fatha
2. and the doubled Kasra
What do they look like?

A doubled Damma looks like 2 Dammas written beside each other
But sometimes it just looks like 1 Damma with a squiggle after it
A doubled Fatha looks like 2 Fathas on top of each other
A doubled Kasra looks like 2 Kasras on top of each other

What are they called?

A double vowel is called a Tanween; it doesnt matter which of 3 it is
You say This letter has a Tanween
Or, to be more specific, you can say This letter has 2 Dammas / 2 Fathas / 2 Kasras

What do they sound like?

If a letter has a Tanween, you will pronounce the single vowel and follow it with an N sound

=

=
Whats the purpose of these?

Thats a question we cant answer here
For details on this topic, please sign up for some online Arabic classes
But we can say one thing: you will never see a Tanween in the beginning or middle of a word
Tanweens only come at the end of a word. Period
But not all words have Tanween
One last point: if a word has a Tanween at the end, and that Tanween is two Fathas, there will be a
silent Aleph at the end of the word
o
Exception: there will be no Aleph if the last letter is a Hamza
o
Exception: there will be no Aleph if the last letter is a (Taa)


By the way: how do I know if the word I hear has a Tanween at the end or a real Noon?
In general, you don't know. But if you know Arabic you can figure it out almost all the time
Reading Arabic Sentences
Lets start with a little practice and work our way up
Identify all instances of Taa (as in Baa-Taa-THaa) in the following

Answer: [][][ ][]
Identify all instances of Aleph in the following

Answer: [ ][ ][ ][ ]
Read the following string of words

Try to divide the following sentence into words based on how far the letters are from each other

Answer: [ [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ]
Which portion of the following sentence do you hear in the recording?

Answer: [ ] []

Missing Letters & Silent Letters

1. Missing Letters

Sometimes a letter is supposed to be in a word, but its not written
You just have to know its there

You pronounce it but you dont write it
For example, in the word , the first Haa is supposed to have an Aleph after it but you will
never see it written
This is somewhat like the word Pizza, where some people pronounce it with a T (peet-za) even
though its not written
But dont worry; this is extremely rare in Arabic; it only happens in a few words
And those words are really popular, so youll pick it up quickly
Only the letters Aleph and Waw can be missing

All other letters must be written if they are pronounced

2. Silent Letters

Sometimes a letter is NOT supposed to be in a word, but it is written anyways
You have to know not to pronounce it
You write it but you dont pronounce it

For example, the Waw in the word
is silent
The word is pronounced
There are two types of silent letters in Arabic

1. Those that occur in certain words and are always silent
Like the Waw in
is always silent
These are like the silent letters in English
But they are extraordinarily rare in Arabic

2. Those that occur in certain situations
Like the Aleph (which is actually a Hamza) in

Its silent right now, but if we remove the Waw from the beginning, it will no longer be silent:

It depends on the letters and the grammar and other things, not the specific word
This type of silent letter is NOT rare; it is very, very common

Several letters have the potential to be silent
You can have several silent letters in a row
If youre not a beginner, you just have to know which letters are silent and which are not
But its actually really easy and a really basic skill
If youre a true beginner, though, you will have the vowels written for you
And most silent letters wont have vowels on them
But some will, so youll use your knowledge of Arabic syllables to help figure out if a vowelled
letter is silent or not
o
Use the fact that you cant have two Saakin letters in a row
For example:

This is pronounced fish-sha-baa-bee-key
Notice that we didnt pronounce the Yaa, the Aleph, or the Laam!
We went straight from the Faa to the SHeen

Why? First of all, the Aleph and Laam dont have vowels on them
Furthermore, the Yaa has a Sukoon and the SHeen has a Shadda (i.e. a SHeen with a Sukoon
followed by another SHeen)
And remember, two Saakin letters following each other is not allowed
So the first Saakin letter gets sacrificed (in pronunciation)
It seems a little complicated, but just do the best you can for now
You dont have to master this right away

Reading Arabic!
Read the following

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Dab4agZDQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwjPhXXX ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBYPpmQS ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX057TnV ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRSVUQdI ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvHnSUUY ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO04g3kC ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_H3Mimi ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRdPL4XD ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFN2PZo ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_0XMhlu ... re=related

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Arabic is read from right to left

There are 29 letters in the Arabic alphabet

There is no such thing as capital letters versus small letters

Basically, all 28 letters are consonants

The first letter of the Arabic alphabet is Aleph

Remember that all 29 letters in the alphabet are consonants

Exercise (easy): how many Alephs do you hear in the following?

Exercise (medium): how many Alephs do you hear in the following?

Exercise (hard): how many Alephs do you hear in the following?

Writing the Aleph is easy; its just a straight line

Notice that the Aleph cannot connect to the letter after it

All the letters in a word must be closely connected

Aleph is one of 6 letters that cannot connect to the following letter

There are 4 other letters that include a straight line

Notice that when Aleph comes after the letter

, it looks like this:

) corresponds to the English B

) corresponds somewhat to the English T

) corresponds somewhat to the combination TH

There are only 2 letters with 2 dots anywhere: Taa (

There are only 2 letters with 3 dots anywhere: THaa (

Answers [3 Baa, 2 Taa, 0 Thaa], [1 Baa, 3 Taa, 0 Thaa],

Exercise: copy the Baa-Taa-THaa body 20 times in all 4 forms

Exercise: copy the following word 20 times

The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters

Vowels are NOT part of the alphabet

If a consonant has a vowel on top of it or underneath it, it means the vowel

You will almost never see vowels written on paper

These are the only places youll see vowels written:

Arabic has only 3 vowels

The first vowel is called Fat-ha

Fatha is the A vowel in Arabic

What do you think the following words will sound like?

Remember that the letter Aleph is used to stretch the A sound

Arabic has 3 short vowels and 3 long vowels

Exercise: how many Fathas do you hear in the following?

Exercise: how many Fathas do you see in the following?

Arabic is read from right to left

The alphabet has 29 letters

Basically all the letters are consonants

Vowels are not written, but they are pronounced of course

Arabic also has 3 long vowels

These ARE part of the alphabet

Words are made up of a group of letters connected to each other

Some letters, though, cant connect to the following letter

Each letter is made of a body and maybe some dots

The body of each letter has 4 forms

Connection lines are usually extremely tiny

Letters are usually recognized by the number and position (above/below) of

Copy each of the below and try to pronounce them

The next letters are Jeem, Haa and KHaa

Jeem corresponds to the English J

Jeem corresponds exactly to the English J, like in the word Jet

The letter KHaa doesnt really have an equivalent sound in English

Exercise: repeat the words you hear in the following recordings

Jeem, Haa and KHaa each have the same body

Jeem has one dot underneath its body

Exercise: copy the following words 3 times each

(Laam; English L) comes before it

Also notice that two letters (

) already have a line as part of their body