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Part 3: The Arabic Alphabets part-2
How the The Letters are written ?
• 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 doesn’t have its own sound; it is used to stretch the short A vowel to form the long AA vowel.
• This is how the Aleph looks in the four cases:
end middle beginning by itself
ا ا ـ ـا ـ ـا
• Notice that the Aleph cannot connect to the letter after it. There will be a small gap between the
Aleph and the next letter
• Aleph is one of 6 letters that cannot connect to the following letter. The other 5 will be
discussed later
• 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 to the English T, but it’s softer
• Thaa corresponds to the combination TH, as in “thank”
• The 4 forms of these letters are the same; the only difference is the number and position of dots
end middle beginning by itself
ب بـ ـبـ ـب
ت تـ ـتـ ـت
ث ثـ ـثـ ـث
• The next letters are Jeem, Haa and Khaa
• Jeem corresponds to the English J
• Haa corresponds to the English H, but it’s much more throaty
• Khaa corresponds to the combination KH
• In writing, Jeem, Haa and Khaa each have the same body, as follows:
end middle beginning by itself
ج جـ ـجـ ـج
ح حـ ـحـ ـح
خ خـ ـخـ ـخ
The next letters of the alphabet are Daal and Dhaal
• Daal sounds like the letter D in English, but softer
• Dhaal sounds like the combination TH, as in “that”
• This is how these two letters look in their 4 forms.
• Notice that Daal and Dhaal do NOT connect to the following letter:
end middle beginning by itself
د د ـ ـد ـ ـد
ذ ذ ـ ـذ ـ ـذ
The next letters of the alphabet are Raa and Zeiy
Raa sounds somewhat like the letter R in English
• Zeiy sounds like the letter Z in English
• The name of the letter Zeiy is sometimes pronounced Zeiy (“Zaa-ee”) or even Zayen (“Zaa-yen”)
• Raa and Zeiy have the same body
• Raa and Zeiy do NOT connect to the following letter:
end middle beginning by itself
ر ر ـ ـر ـ ـر
ز ز ـ ـز ـ ـز
The next letters of the alphabet are Seen and Sheen
• Seen is equivalent to the letter S
• Sheen is equivalent to the combination SH
• Seen and Sheen look very similar except that Seen has no dots and Sheen has 3 dots on top:
end middle beginning by itself
س سـ ـسـ ـس
ش شـ ـشـ ـش
The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Saad and Daad
• Saad sounds like the letter S, but it has more of a whistle
• Daad sounds like the letter D, but much, much thicker and deeper sounding
• Saad and Daad look very similar except that Saad has no dots and Daad has one dot on top:
end middle beginning by itself
ص صـ ـصـ ـص
ض ضـ ـضـ ـض
The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Taa and Zaa
• Taa is not the same as the one we saw earlier
• It sounds like the letter T, but it is much, much thicker sounding
• Zaa is not the same as the one we saw earlier
• It sounds like the letter Z, but it is much, much thicker sounding
• Taa and Zaa look very similar except that Taa has no dots and Zaa has one dot on top:
end middle beginning by itself
ط طـ ـطـ ـط
ظ ظـ ـظـ ـظ
The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Ein and Ghein
• Ein doesn’t have an English equivalent; it is a very throat sound
• Ghein sounds like the combination GH, like the noise when you gargle
• Ein and Ghein look very similar except that Ein has no dots and Ghein has one dot on top:
end middle beginning by itself
ع عـ ـعـ ـع
غ غـ ـغـ ـغ
The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Faa, Qaaf and Kaaf
• Faa is equivalent to the English letter F
• Qaaf is represented by the letter Q; it sounds like K except it’s more throaty
• Kaaf is equivalent to the English letter K
• This is what these letters look like in all 4 forms:
end middle beginning by itself
ف فـ ـفـ ـف
ق قـ ـقـ ـق
ك كـ ـكـ ـك
The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Laam, Meem and Noon
• Laam is equivalent to the English letter L
• Meem is equivalent to the English letter M
• Noon is equivalent to the English letter N
• This is what these letters look like in all 4 forms:
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ل لـ ـلـ ـل
م مـ ـمـ ـم
ن نـ ـنـ ـن
When Laam is followed by Aleph, the Aleph curves a bit, like this
لا
• Another speciality is the word Allah… which is written very uniquely, as follows
Aleph, Laam, Laam, Aleph, Haa (which we haven’t seen yet)
الله
• The rest of the letters of the Arabic alphabet are Waw, Haa, Hamza and Yaa
• Waw is equivalent to the English letter W
• Haa is equivalent to the English letter H, not to be confused with the Haa we saw earlier
• Hamza is equivalent to the English letter A, as in “apple” (not considered a vowel, though)
• Yaa is equivalent to the English letter Y
• This is what these letters look like in all 4 forms:
end middle beginning by itself
و و ـ ـوـ ـو
ه هـ ـهـ ـه
ء أ إ ؤ ئ
ي يـ ـيـ ـي
Sometimes Haa is written with 2 dots on top; this is actually the letter Taa
• This can only happen at the end of a word:
end middle beginning by itself
ة ـة
Writing Hamza is very complicated, so we’ll leave it for now
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