Arabic Alphabet

The letter ----- Equivalent in English----- Letter Separate

alif---------------------- A ------------------------ ا
beh ----------------------B ----------------------- ب
Teh --------------------- T ----------------------- ت
Theh -------------------Th ---------------------- ث
Geem-------------------G ------------------------ ج
Hah---------------------H------------------------ ح
Khah------------------- Kh ---------------------- خ
Daal-------------------- D------------------------ د
Thaal------------------- Z------------------------ ذ
Reh--------------------- R------------------------ ر
Zein--------------------- Z------------------------ ز
Seen-------------------- S ----------------------- س
Sheen------------------ Sh ---------------------- ش
Saud ------------------- S ----------------------- ص
Daud ------------------- S----------------------- ض
Tah -------------------- T ----------------------- ط
Thah ------------------ Th ---------------------- ظ
Ein -------------------- -------------------------- ع
Ghein ----------------- Gh ---------------------- غ
Feh -------------------- F ----------------------- ف
Qaaf ------------------ Q ------------------------ ق
Kaaf ------------------ K ------------------------ ك
Laam ----------------- L ------------------------ ل
Meem ---------------- M ------------------------ م
Noon ----------- ------N ------------------------ ن
Heh ------------------- H ------------------------ ه
Wow -------------- W.O.U ---------------------- و
Yeh --------- ------ -Y.I.E -----------------------ي

Introduction to The Alphabet

1- Arabic is written from right to left.

2- It has 28 letters.

3- Only 3 of them are long vowels: ي, و, ا.

4- only insonants & long vowels are written.

5- Doubled consonants are only written once.

6- There are 6 diacritical signs which are not written, they are symbols attached to the letters to show the sound or the pronunciation of the letter, they are called تشكيل (tashkeel) and are as follows;

a.( َ ) فتحة (fatha), written above the letter & gives the sound of (a) or (ae): بَصَل (basal) "onion".

b.( ِ ) كسرة (kasra), written under the letter & gives the sound of (i) or (e): نِسر (nesr) "eagle".

c.( ُ ) ضمة (damma), written above the letter & gives the sound of (u) or (o): بُرتُقان (bortu'aan) "orange".

d.( ْ ) سكون (sukuun), a small circle written above the letter & shows that the letter has no vowel or sound (shown in English by writing 2 consonants follow each other): نِمْر (nemr) "tiger".

e.( ّ ) شدة (shadda), written above the letter to stress it, the letter is written only once but with the (shadda) over it. (In English it is written by duplicating the letter): بَطَّة (battah) "duck".

* Note 1: the other symbols can be attached with the ( ّ ) شدة to show the sound of the letter.

* Note 2: when attaching the (kasra) with the (shadda), the (kasra) will be written above the letter but under the (shadda): يِتْكَلِّم (yetkallem) “to speak”.

f.( ً )تنوين (tanween), usually written above the ا (alef) to gives the sound of (an), but it is rarely used in colloquial Arabic: أهلاً و سهلاً (ahlan w sahlan) "welcome".

7- The Arabic letters are all connected with each other to form a word, only six of them are not connected with the letter that follows them: و, ز, ر, ذ, د, ا.

8- The hamza ( ء) is a glottal stop & usually written above or under the Alef (ا) and/ or separate. أسد (asad) “Lion”. أسماء (asmaa’) “Names”.

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