The Arabic Alphabet and Vowel Guide

[Muhaba]

The Arabic Alphabet and Vowel Guide

The Arabic alphabets:
ا – alif, it is pronounced as A

ب – ba – it is the equivalent of B

ت –ta – it’s sound is similar to the Th in thing.

ث - tha – its sound is similar to S.

ج – jeem – it is equivalent to J.

ح – ha – Although this letter is translated as H, it’s sound is more the like the “ha” sound that cats make when threatened. Because its sound is not like the letter H in the word “Ham” therefore it’s necessary to learn the exact sound.

خ – kha – this letter doesn’t have an equivalent in English but is similar to k.

د – da – although translated to D, it’s sound is slightly different from D.

ذ – dhal – this letter has a sound similar to the letter Z, (although the sound is slightly different from Z. You can try to pronounce the proper sound by placing the tongue on the inside of the upper front teeth and then saying the letter z (zee).

ر – ra – it is equivalent to the English letter R.

ز – za – it is equivalent to the letter Z.

س – seen – it is equivalent to the letter S.

ش – sheen – it is equivalent to SH.

ص – saad – it is similar to S although the exact sound is slightly different.

ض – Daad – it is similar to the letter د sound (D) but is slightly different from د

ط – Ta – it is similar to the letter T.

ظ – Dha – it is similar to Z.

ع – ‘ain – it is a glottal sound (which comes from the depth of the mouth). It is like the letter A.

غ – ghain – although similar to the letter G and usually translated to G, this letter’s sound doesn’t exist in English.

ف – fa – it is the equivalent of the letter F.

ق – Qaf – it is equivalent to the letter Q.

ك – kaf – it is equivalent to the letter K.

ل – laam – it is the equivalent of the letter L.

م – meem – it is the equivalent of the letter M.

ن – nun – it is the equivalent of the letter N.

و – waw – it has the sound of the letter W when used as a letter.

ه – ha – it is the equivalent of the letter H.

ء – hamza – it is the equivalent of the letter A.

ي – ya – when used as a letter it has the sound of the letter Y.


Vowels
In Arabic, the vowels are small symbols written on or under letters. Unlike English, in Arabic most words are made of just consonant letters, with vowels on top of or under the letters. (Advanced Arabic readers don’t need the vowels for pronunciation so many books don’t contain them. You will find many words seemingly made of just consonants, for example the following three letter past tense verb meaning “he studied”: درس - the apparent letters of this word are the following consonants: D, R, S however, the word is pronounced darasa. With vowels the word will be written as: دَرَسَ . The small symbols on top of the letters are the fathha vowel which is the equivalent of the English “A”.

The vowels symbols are as follows:
َ this is the fathha فتحة vowel which is equivalent to A. It is placed on top of the letter. For example: لَ (This letter with the fathha vowel is pronounced as “La.”)

ُ this is the dammaضمة vowel. It is equivalent to the English O and is placed on top of the letter. For example: لُ . This letter with the damma vowel is pronounced: “lo” as in look

ِ This is the kasraكسرة vowel. It is placed under the letter. It is equivalent to the English “I.” For example: ل ِ . This letter with the kasra vowel is pronounced: “Li” as in little.

The above vowels are short vowels.

Other signs:
ْ - this is the sukun . it means that the letter has no vowel sound. For example: إنْ pronounced “in.” the nun ن is sakin meaning it has no vowel sound.

ّ - this is the shadda. It doubles the letter’s sound. Which means that there are two letters, the first one with a sukun and the second one with a vowel sound. For example in the word ظنَّ – zanna (meaning “he assumed”) – the shadda on the nun means that there are two letter nuns. The first nun is sakin (has a sukun on it, meaning no vowel sound) and the second nun has a vowel sound. Here the vowel is the fathha. As you can see, the nun sound has been doubled even though there is just one nun. (ظنَّ is equivalent to ظنْ + نَ ).

In addition to these vowels, there are also vowel letters which give the long vowel sound. The vowel letters are used both as letters with a sound of their own and as vowels, lengthening the previous letter’s vowel sound.

The vowel letters are:
ا – this is the alif letter. it has a AA sound. It is used to lengthen the previous letter’s fathha vowel ( َ ) sound.

أ – this is the hamza letter. it has the A sound. It is a letter with a sound of its own. That is, it doesn’t affect the previous letter’s vowel sound.

و – this is the letter waw. When used as a vowel, it prolongs the previous letter’s vowel sound. If the previous letter has a fathha vowel, the waw after it changes the sound to “ow,” like in the word لَوْلا – pronounced lowla (meaning “if not”). If the previous letter has a damma on it, the waw after it makes the damma sound into an OO sound (like in the word يُوْنس (Yoonus).

ي – this is the Ya letter. When used as a vowel, it has the ee sound if the previous letter contains a kasra, and an ai sound if the previous letter has a fathha on it. For example: مُعَلَمِيْن (mo’alameen – instructors) and مُعَلَمَيْن ِ (mo’alamain – two instructors).

Some more examples of the above vowels:
سَمَاء - samaa (sky). As you can see, the alif made the sound of the vowel on meem م longer.

أنا – ana (I) (the أ is pronounced like the a in America)

إنَّ – inna (certainly) – here the letter is the hamza with kasra. Note the shadda ّ on the nun. It means that there are two letters ن, the first with a sukun and the second with a vowel sound. Here the second vowel is the fathha, which is visible on top of the shadda.

نَوْم – nowm (sleep) - here the waw sakin وْ changes the previous letter’s fathha sound to a “ow” sound.

يُوْلَد – yoolud (born) – here the waw و is used as a long vowel, increasing the damma sound of the previous letter’s vowel and giving a double O sound.

وَلد –walud (boy) - here the waw و is used as a letter (with a w sound).

سَمِيْع – samee’ (the one who is able to hear) – here the ya is used as a long vowel, increasing the kasra sound of the previous letter’s vowel.

يَوْمَيْن – yowmain (two days) – here the ya sakinيْ changes the previous letter’s fathha sound to a “ai” sound.

يَنام – yanaam (to sleep) – here the ya is used as a letter with a sound of its own. It has a y sound.

Tanwin:
Some words contain tanwin (double vowel) on the last letter. The following are the tanwin vowels:
Tanwin fathha: ً
Tanwin Damma: ٌ
Tanwin Kasra: ٍ
As you can see, the tanwin looks like two vowels together (one on top of the other).
The tanwin vowels can only be on the last letter of a word and they give a nun sound (as if there is a nun at the end of the letter.)

Example: the word وَرْدَة warda (meaning “rose”):
وردة ٌ – wardatun – the word contains a damma tanwin
وردة ً – wardatan (meaning a rose) – the word contains a fathha tanwin
وردةٍ – wardatin – the word contains a kasra tanwin

A noun will have a tanwin only if it doesn’t have the proper article ال (which means the). If the proper article is attached to the noun, the tanwin is removed and only the single vowel remains.

For example if the above word contains the proper article, then it will be as follows:
الوردة ُ – alwardato - the word contains a damma on the last letter
الوردة َ – alwardata (meaning the rose) – the word contains a fathha on the last letter.
الوردة ِ – alwardati - the word contains a kasra beneath the last letter

The tanwin (as well as any other vowel at the end of a word) is only pronounced if you don’t stop. If you stop, then the vowel isn’t pronounced.

For example, if you stop after saying the above word, it will be pronounced as:
وردة ٌ – warda and not wardatun
الوردة ُ – alwarda and not alwardatu

If you don’t stop after saying the above word, that is, you continue your statement, it will be pronounced as:
وردة ٌ - wardatun
الوردة ُ – alwardatu

You may wonder why the same word has the three different vowels (fathha, damma, kasra) and whether they mean anything. The vowels at the end of the word change depending on their position in the word, that is, whether the word is the subject, object or follows a preposition. They are also affected by some words if preceded by them, changing their normal vowel ending. You will learn more about this later in the course.

Note about words that end in tanwin fathhaWords that end in tanwin fathha have an added alif at the end which contains the tanwin. So the tanwin isn’t on the last letter of the noun but on the alif. This is true for all words containing tanwin fathha except those ending in the feminine t ة . Words that end in the feminine ة have the tanwin on the ة .

Examples:
ولدا ً – boy – here the word doesn’t end in the feminine ة so the tanwin fathha is on the alif.
وردة ً – rose – here the word ends in the feminine ة so there is no alif at the end. The tanwin fathha is on the ة .


Alif and HamzaIn Arabic, the letter alif ا is used only as a long vowel (elongating the previous letter’s vowel sound). On the other hand the hamza إ – أ is used as a letter with a sound of its own. The hamza symbol (ء) on the alif is on top when the hamza has a fathha َ or damma ُ . When the hamza إ has a kasra, the ء is under it.
The hamza always has the ء if the hamza is in the middle or end of the word. However, if it is at the beginning of the word, it may or may not have this sign. If the hamza is hamza-tul qatta (pronounced at all times), it will have the ء . If the hamza is hamza –tul-wasl (pronounced only at the beginning of a statement but not if the word comes in the middle of a statement), then it doesn’t have the ء sign. You will learn more about hamza tul qatta and hamza tul wasl in the supplement lesson …..

Letter revision:
Below are the Arabic letters along with their closest English equivalent.
A ا
B ب
T ت
TH (S) ث
Jج
Hح
KH خ

Dد
DH (Z)ذ
Rر
Zز
Sس
SHش
Sص
Dض

Tط
Zظ
‘Aع
GHغ
Fف
Qق
Kك

Lل
Mم
Nن
Hه
Wو
Aء
Yي

List of vowel signs:
Vowel: َ ُ ِ ْ ّ
Name: Fathha Damma Kasra Sukun Shadda
Sound: A O I No vowel sound Double letter sound

Hint: Print this list out and revise frequently.

[arabic alphabet]

Did you hear of a 500 year old method of teaching the Arabic script in Europe?

[Muhaba]

i did not hear of it. but would like to.

in any case, the letter د is pronounced like the th in the and this.