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2 The Arabic script

2.1 The Arabic alphabet

The alphabet consists of both consonants and vowels. In the English word “banana”, “a” is a vowel, and “b” and “n” are called consonants. The Arabic alphabet traditionally has 28 letters, shown in the table below.

No.	Arabic letter	Tran-scrip-tion	Name	Description
1	ا	ā	أَلِف alif	A vowel like in English “man”. But after these letters (خ،ر،ص،ض،غ،ق) it sounds like “awe” in English “awesome”.
2	ب	b	بَاء bāʾ	Equivalent to English “b” in “boy”.
3	ت	t	تَاء tāʾ	Similar to English “t” in “tall” but softer. Touch the tongue against the back of the top front teeth instead of just the gum.
4	ث	t͡h	ثَاء t͡hāʾ	Similar to to English “th” in “think” but softer. Have your lips and cheek in a wide grin. Loosely bite the tip of your tongue between your front teeth and then force air out trying to hiss “ssss”. Keep your tongue touching the top and bottom teeth and the hiss should come out like a “th” sound.
5	ج	j	جِيم jīm	Equivalent to English “j” in “just”.
6	ح	ḥ	حَاء ḥāʾ	Similar to English “h” in “hat” but pronounced from the bottom of the throat. Take care there is no scraping as with خ.
7	خ	k͡h	خَاء k͡hāʾ	Similar to “ch” in Scottish “loch”. Try saying “kh” but with a scraping sound.
8	د	d	دَال dāl	Similar to to English “d” in “dog” but softer. Just like with ت, touch the tongue against the back of the top front teeth instead of just the gum.
9	ذ	d͡h	ذَال d͡hāl	Place your tongue as in ث and force air out. But this time instead of trying to hiss “ssss” try to buzz “zzzz” and again keep your tongue touching the top and bottom teeth.
10	ر	r	رَاء rāʾ	Equivalent to English “r” in “rat”.
11	ز	z	زَاء zāʾ	Equivalent to English “z” in “zoo”.
12	س	s	سِين sīn	Equivalent to English “s” in “see”.
13	ش	s͡h	شِين s͡hīn	Equivalent to English “sh” in “show”.
14	ص	ṣ	صَاد ṣād	An emphatic س that will be described later.
15	ض	ḍ	ضَاد ḍād	An sound unique to Arabic that will be described later.
16	ط	ṭ	طَاء ṭāʾ	An emphatic ت that will be described later.
17	ظ	ḍ͡h	ظَاء ḍ͡hāʾ	An emphatic ذ that will be described later.
18	ع	ɛ	عَيْن ɛayn	A sound like “a” from the throat.
19	غ	g͡h	غَيْن g͡hayn	Somewhat like a “gh” sound but much softer. Try pronouncing خ but without any scraping.
20	ف	f	فَاء fāʾ	Equivalent to English “f” in “fox”.
21	ق	q	قَاف qāf	Similar to English “k” in “kite” but further back in the throat.
22	ک	k	کَاف kāf	Equivalent to English “k” in “kite”.
23	ل	l	لَام lām	Equivalent to English “l” in “light”.
24	م	m	مِيم mīm	Equivalent to English “m” in “man”.
25	ن	n	نُون nūn	Equivalent to English “n” in “nut”.
26	ه	h	هَاء hāʾ	Equivalent to English “h” in “hat”. Much softer than ح
27	و	w/ū	وَاو wāw	As a consonant it is equivalent to English “w” in “water”. It is also a vowel equivalent to English “oo” in “moon”.
28	ي	y/ī	يَاء yāʾ	As a consonant it is equivalent to English “y” in “yellow”. It is also a vowel equivalent to English “ee” in “meek”.

Note that the letters و (wāw) and ي (yāʾ) are both vowels and consonants. But that أَلِف (alif) is only a vowel. The consonant corresponding to أَلِف is ء (hamzah). Although ء (hamzah) ought to be considered a letter in its own right, it was originally only pronounced and not written. So it is not traditionally considered part of the 28-letter script.

No.	Arabic letter	Tran-scrip-tion	Name	Description
–	ء	ʾ	هَمْزَة hamzah	Technically called a glottal stop, it is the sound of the breath stopping in the beginning of, and between the syllables in, the utterance “oh-oh”.

2.1.1 Alternative order of letters

The above order of the letters in alphabetical sequence is currently used today. There is an alternative order that was more used in the past (from right to left):

ا ب ج د ه و ز ح ط ي ک ل م ن س ع ف ص ق ر ش ت ث خ ذ ض ظ غ

This alternative order is discussed more in appendix ??. (TODO: add appendix for أبجد order, discuss its use in lists and numerical value.)

2.1.2 Pronunciation notes

Some of the sounds are similar to sounds in English but others are very different. Here we will attempt to describe the sounds but we recommend that you learn the correct pronunciation from an experienced Arabic or Qurʾān teacher. Online videos may also help in practicing the sounds.

2.1.2.1 ص ṣād, ط ṭāʾ, and ظ ḍ͡hāʾ

The letters س sīn, ت tāʾ, and ذ d͡hāl are pronounced with the mouth and lips in a wide grin. Now try pronouncing them, in turn, with the lips round forming a small circle. The sounds will be emphatic and will be ص ṣād, ط ṭāʾ, and ظ ḍ͡hāʾ respectively.

2.1.2.2 ض ḍād

ض ḍād is thought to be unique to Arabic. There are two ways to pronounce it. The first is similar to an emphatic د. The second is almost similar to ظ. We reiterate that it is best to use audio training to help with pronouncing these sounds.

2.2 Writing Arabic words

2.2.1 Letters in different positions

Arabic is written right-to-left, unlike English and most other languages which are written left-to-right. When writing, the letters in a word are generally joined to each other, except for six out of the 28 letters, which join only to the letter preceding them but not to the letter following them. These six partially-joining letters are ا، د، ذ، ر، ز، و.

When joining the letters, letters are modified in order to join to the preceding and following letter. The fully-joining letters can be in four positions:

by itself (isolated),
in the beginning of a group of joined letters,
in the middle of a group of joined letters,
in the end of a group of joined letters.

As we just mentioned, six of the letters (ا، د، ذ، ر، ز، و) don’t join to the following letter. So these letters can only occur only in the end of a group of joined letters, or isolated by themselves.

In this book we will show a “Simplified Arabic” writing style where, in each of the four positions, the letter maintains its basic shape and is usually only slightly modified to join to the previous and following letter with horizontal lines.

To explain the method of modifying the letters when joining them, we will take ب as an example and start with the isolated form:

Isolated form: ب

To modify this into the end form, we simply join a horizontal line to the right of the letter:

End form: ـب.

To get the middle form, we take the end form ـب and cut off its tail which is at its left, and replace it with a horizontal line. We also move the dot slightly to get:

Middle form: ـبـ

And finally, to get the beginning form, we take the middle form ـبـ and remove the horizontal line at the right:

Beginning form: بـ

Now most of the letters follow this common technique but a few of them are modified a little further in each form. These, more complicated, letters are ع، غ، ک، ه، ي and you can study them and the rest of the letters in the table below:

No.	Isolated	End	Middle	Beginning
1	ا	ـا	none	none
2	ب	ـب	ـبـ	بـ
3	ت	ـت	ـتـ	تـ
4	ث	ـث	ـثـ	ثـ
5	ج	ـج	ـجـ	جـ
6	ح	ـح	ـحـ	حـ
7	خ	ـخ	ـخـ	خـ
8	د	ـد	none	none
9	ذ	ـذ	none	none
10	ر	ـر	none	none
11	ز	ـز	none	none
12	س	ـس	ـسـ	سـ
13	ش	ـش	ـشـ	شـ
14	ص	ـص	ـصـ	صـ
15	ض	ـض	ـضـ	ضـ
16	ط	ـط	ـطـ	طـ
17	ظ	ـظ	ـظـ	ظـ
18	ع	ـع	ـعـ	عـ
19	غ	ـغ	ـغـ	غـ
20	ف	ـف	ـفـ	فـ
21	ق	ـق	ـقـ	قـ
22	ک	ـک	ـکـ	کـ
23	ل	ـل	ـلـ	لـ
24	م	ـم	ـمـ	مـ
25	ن	ـن	ـنـ	نـ
26	ه	ـه	ـهـ	هـ
27	و	ـو	none	none
28	ي	ـي	ـيـ	يـ

You can see that each letter maintains a basic shape and is modified for each of the four positions.

2.2.2 Joining the different forms to make a word

Notice that when we modified the isolated form to get to the beginning, middle, and end forms, we added a horizontal line to each or both sides. It is this horizontal line which joines to the horizontal line of the neighboring letter.

As an example, we would like to join the following letters (starting from the right): م-ع-ش-ر into one word. The first letter is م so we modify it to its beginning form مـ. The next two letters are converted to their middle forms ـعـ، ـشـ. And the last letter ر is converted to its end form ـر. Then we join the horizontal lines together and get مــعــشــر. Usually, when we join letters like this we shorten the horizontal lines so you will generally see the word like this معشر.

In this example, we needed the beginning, middle, and end forms of the letters. Isolated forms are used in a word when there is a partially-joining letter present that won’t join to the following letter. The letter after a partially-joining letter will be in its beginning form even though it is in the middle of a word. But if it too is a partially-joining letter, or it is the last letter in the word then it will take its isolated form.

Let’s take a look at some examples where a group of disjoint letters are joined to form a word:

Disjoint	Joined
ذ-ل-ک	ذلک
ا-ح-م-د	احمد
ر-س-و-ل	رسول
و-ز-ي-ر	وزير
ر-ا-ز-ق	رازق

Notice that in the last example, all the letters were in the isolated form.

2.2.2.1 Simplified and Traditional writing styles

We have just shown how letters join to each other with a horizontal line in the Simplified Arabic writing style. Traditional Arabic writing styles are a little more complex than Simplified Arabic: some letters join almost vertically instead of horizontally. But when you get familiar with the Simplified Arabic writing style, if Allah wills, it will not be too difficult for you to read the Traditional Arabic writing style as well.

Here are some comparisions of letters joining to each other in the Simplified Arabic and Traditional Arabic writing styles.

Disjoint	Joined (simplified)	Joined (traditional)
ت-م-ر	تمر	تمر
ا-ل-ح-ج-ج	الحجج	الحجج
ا-ل-م-ا-س	الماس	الماس
ل-م-ح-ة	لمحة	لمحة
س-ح-ر	سحر	سحر
ب-ح-ي-ر-ة	بحيرة	بحيرة
ف-ي	في	في
ب-ت-ث-ب-ي-ت-ت-ي-ن	بتثبيتتين	بتثبيتتين

2.2.3 ة (rounded tāʾ)

ة is a special letter which is merged from two letters of the alphabet. It is a ت but it is written as a ه with two dots above it. ة is pronounced exactly as a ت, except when it is at the end of a sentence in which case it is pronounced as a ه as we’ll explain later, if Allāh wills. ة occurs only at the end of a word so it has only an end form and an isolated form (used when the letter before it is a partially-joining letter).

Examples:

فاطمة
شجرة
فتاة

ة is called rounded tāʾ because it appears as if have taken ت and squeezed its shape until it became round. In contrast, ت is called straightened tāʾ when needed to differentiate it from ة.

2.2.4 Writing hamzah

We have mentioned that hamzah was a later addition to the Arabic alphabet and originally it was only sounded and not written. Hamzah can be written in a number of different ways:

“Seated” above (or below) a vowel letter: Hamzah can be written above the vowel letters thus: أ ؤ ئ. When written over ي, the ي will not have any dots, thus: ئـ، ـئـ، ـئ. It may also be written under an alif thus: إ. Examples: أفعال, سؤلک, فئة, إن.
“Unseated” after a letter. This has two sub cases:
1. Standalone, after a partially-joining letter or at the end of a word. Examples: تساءل, توءم, عبء.
2. Inline, in the middle of a word after a fully-joining letter. In this case hamzah is written above the horizontal line that joins the letters. Examples: خطيـٔة, شيـٔا, بريـٔين.

In all cases it is pronounced the same. There are actually a set of fairly complicated rules that determine which of the above ways to choose when writing hamzah. We present these rules in Appendix A. We recommend that for now, you memorize the spelling of each word that we present that contains a hamzah. When you are sufficiently advanced, and curious enough, you may refer to Appendix A to learn the full set of rules.

2.2.5 Disambiguating letters that look similar

Some letters are very similar to each other and only differ in their dots or other slight differences. You should take care to distinguish between these letters. We will describe their similarities and differences here.

The letters ب, ت, and ث differ only in their dots and are otherwise identical in all positions. ن and ي are similar in initial and middle positions to ب, ت, and ث but differ from them and from each other in isolated and final positions. Compare all five in the table below:

Isolated	End	Middle	Beginnning
ب	ـب	ـبـ	بـ
ت	ـت	ـتـ	تـ
ث	ـث	ـثـ	ثـ
ن	ـن	ـنـ	نـ
ي	ـي	ـيـ	يـ

These groups of letters differ too, only in their dots:

ج, ح, and خ
د and ذ
ر and ز
س and ش
ص and ض
ط and ظ
ع and غ

The letters ف and ق are similar in the initial and middle positions except for the dots. But in the isolated and final positions, the tail of ق goes lower than that of ف.

Isolated	End	Middle	Beginnning
ف	ـف	ـفـ	فـ
ق	ـق	ـقـ	قـ

Be careful also not to confuse غ and ف in their middle forms. The loop for ف is round where it is triangular and flat-topped for غ (as it is for ع). Compare their middle forms in the table below:

Isolated	Middle
غ	ـغـ
ف	ـفـ

The letters alif ا and lām ل could also be confused for each other. Their forms are shown here again for easy comparison:

Isolated	End	Middle	Beginnning
ا	ـا	none	none
ل	ـل	ـلـ	لـ

2.2.6 Joining alif after lām

When the letter alif follows lām we would expect them to be joined like this ل+ا → لـا. But actually, they are joined in a special way

ل+ا → لا

When the combination occurs at the end of a group of joined letters, it will appear thus:

ـلا

Examples:

ألا
الإيمان
الصلاة

2.3 Vowels and pronunciation marks.

2.3.1 Short Vowels

Arabic has six vowels. There are three short vowels which don’t have letters in the alphabet. Instead they are shown with pronunciation marks:

a as the first vowel in English “manipulate”, written with an a-mark ◌َ which is a small diagonal line above the letter like مَـ ma.
i as in English “bit”, written with an i-mark ◌ِ which is a small diagonal line under the letter like بِـ bi.
u as in English “put”, written with an u-mark ◌ُ which is like a tiny و wāw above the letter like فُـ fu.

Examples of words with short vowels:

فَتَحَ fataḥa
عَمِلَ ɛamila
قُتِلَ qutila

2.3.2 Long Vowels

There are also three long vowels which are part of the alphabet:

ā generally written with an unmarked alif ا and with the preceding letter having an a-mark. Example مَا mā. This vowel is mostly pronounced like the vowel in English “man”. If however, it comes after these letters خ،ر،ص،ض،ط،ظ،غ،ق it is pronounced like English “awe”.
ī like in English “meek” written with an unmarked ي yāʾ with the preceding letter having an i-mark. Example فِي fī.
ū like in English “moon” written with an unmarked و wāw with the preceding letter having an u-mark. Example ذُو d͡hū.

Examples of words with long and short vowels:

هَارُونُ hārūnu
کَذَا kad͡hā
سَرَادِيبَ sarādība

2.3.2.1 ā vowel written with a small alif

Sometimes the ā vowel is written as a small alif ◌ٰ, called a “dagger alif”, instead of a regular alif ا. This is done only for a few commonly used words. Here are some examples:

هَـٰذَا hād͡hā
ذَ ٰلِکَ d͡hālika

2.3.2.2 ā vowel written with a yāʾ

In some other words, the ā vowel is written with a yāʾ instead of an alif ا. When this happens, we will write the yāʾ without its dots and write a dagger alif ◌ٰ above it, like this ىٰ. Here are some examples:

عَلَىٰ ɛalā
رَمَىٰ ramā

2.3.3 Zero-vowel written with a ø-mark

As we have seen above if an Arabic letter has a vowel after it it will take one of the three pronunciation marks: ◌َ, ◌ِ, ◌ُ. If, however, there is no vowel after the letter we will put a zero-vowel ø-mark on it ◌ْ. This mark can generally only occur if there is a short vowel before the letter. Examples:

کَمْ kam
مُنْذُ mund͡hu
مِنْهُمْ minhum
مِنْهَا minhā

2.3.4 Semi-vowels

Arabic has two short semi-vowels:

aw like in English “show”. This is written with a wāw with a ø-mark on it and a short a vowel before it. Example لَوْ law.
ay like in English “bait”. This is written with a yāʾ with a ø-mark on it and a short a vowel before it. Example کَيْ kay. Examples with short semi-vowels:

وَيْحَکَ wayḥaka
غَيْرُهُ g͡hayruhu
قَوْلُهُ qawluhu

It also has two long semi-vowels:

āw like in English “cow”. This is written with a wāw with a ø-mark on it and a long ā vowel before it. Example وَاوْ wāw.
āy like in English “bye”. This is written with a yāʾ with a ø-mark on it and a long ā vowel before it. Example شَايْ s͡hāy.

These long semi-vowels are rare and may only occur at the end of a sentence.

2.3.5 Doubled letters

A word may contain “doubled” letters. This is when the same letter occurs, one after the other; the first letter has a ø-mark, and the second letter has a vowel. For example, in the word قَتْتَلَ qattala, the letter ت is doubled. When this occurs, we actually only write the letter once and put a “doubling mark” ◌ّ on it, like so: قَتَّلَ qattala. When pronouncing this word, stop at and stress the doubled letter qattala and make sure it does not sound like the undoubled letter in قَتَلَ qatala. Examples with doubled letters:

کَبَّرَ kabbara
حَدُّهُ ḥadduhu
فَعَّالَ faɛɛāla
سِکِّينُ sikkīnu. Note that the i-mark is below the doubling mark but above the letter ک. This is the most common way to write this, although having the i-mark below the letter is also sometimes done as well. (In this case, the doubling mark will still be above the letter.)
سَفُّودُ saffūdu
ضَالِّينَ ḍāllīna
مُزَّمِّلُ muzzammilu

2.3.6 Nūnation

In the next chapter, we will learn, if Allāh wills, that nouns in Arabic are sometimes pronouned with an extra nūn sound at their end. This is called nūnation. Nūnation is indicated in writing, not by adding a the letter ن at the end of the word, but by writing the final vowel mark twice, thus:

◌ٌ un, for example کِتَابٌ kitābun.
◌ً an, for example شَجَرَةً s͡hajaratan.
◌ٍ in, for example بَيْتٍ baytin.

The nūnated a-mark ◌ً has specific spelling rules: Generally, we will generally add a silent alif after it, for example سَالِم becomes سَالِمًا sāliman. This is done for all words except:

If the word ends with a ة. In this case we don’t add the silent alif. For example, غَاضِبَة becomes غَاضِبَةً g͡hāḍibatan.
If the word ends with a ā vowel, whether written with an alif ا or as a yāʾ with dagger alif ىٰ. In this case, the an mark is put on the letter before the alif ا or yāʾ ىٰ and the final vowel letter becomes silent and is not pronounced. For example, مُصْطَفَىٰ becomes مُصْطَفًى muṣṭafan, عَصَا becomes عَصًا ɛaṣan.
If the word ends with a hamzah. In this case, we might or might not write a silent alif, depending on the following rules:
1. If there is an alif before an unseated hamzah اء, then we don’t add a silent alif. For example دَاء becomes دَاءً dāʾan, not دَاءًا.
2. Otherwise, we add a silent alif after the hamzah. However, this may affect the writing of the hamzah, for example مُبْتَدَأ becomes مُبْتَدَءًا mubtadaʾan. This is discussed further in appendix A.

Here are some examples of nūned words:

سَعْدٌ saɛdun
ضَرْبًا ḍarban
قَاضٍ qāḍin
سَعَةً saɛatan
دُعَاءً duɛāʾan
ٱِمْرَءًا imraʾan
شَيْـًٔا s͡hayʾan
سُوءًا sūʾan
غَبَنٌ g͡habanun

2.4 Connecting hamzah

Some words in arabic begin with a ø-mark. When this occurs a connecting hamzah ٱ (written as a tiny صـ on an alif) is put before it. If this word comes in the beginning of the sentence the connecting alif is pronounced as a hamzah. Otherwise this connecting hamzah is not pronounced and the word is connected to the final vowel of the previous word in pronunciation. In this tutorial we will transcribe the connecting hamzah with a hyphen “-”. Examples of connecting hamzah:

ٱِفْتَحِ ٱلْبَابَ
ʾiftaḥi -lbāba

ٱُنْظُرْ
ʾunḍ͡hur

If the previous word does not end with a vowel, then a helper vowel is added. The most common helper vowel is ◌ِ. Example:

زَيْدٌ ٱلْکَرِيمُ
zayduni -lkarīmu

When one word ends in a long vowel and the next word begins with a connecting hamzah, the long vowel becomes a short vowel in pronunciation, but in writing the long vowel’s letter is retained. For example:

أَخَذَ مِنَّا ٱلْکِتَابَ
ʾak͡had͡ha minna -lkitāba

ذُو ٱلْقَرْنَيْنِ
d͡hu -lqarnayni

فِي ٱلْبَيْتِ
fi -lbayti

2.5 Pronouncing the end of a sentence

When a word is at the end of a sentence and it ends with a long vowel, then the final long vowel is pronounced normally. However, when a word at the end of a sentence does not end with a long vowel, then the final letter’s pronunciation mark is pronounced as a ø-mark when vocalizing the sentence. If the final letter is a ة then it is pronounced as a ه hāʾ with a ø-mark.

This change in pronunciation is only vocal, it does not affect how we write the pronunciation mark. Here we give some examples of words pronounced if they were at the end of a sentence:

فَتْحُ
fat·ḥ

عُقْبَةٌ
ɛuqbah

وَالِدَايَ
wālidāy

وَالِدَيَّ
wālidayy

If however, the final letter’s pronunciation mark is a an mark then it is pronounced as a long-ā vowel. The only exception is if the final letter were ةً, in which case it is then pronounced as a hāʾ with a ø-mark هْ. Here are examples of words with an marks pronounced as if they were at the end of a sentence.

مَفْعُولًا
mafɛūlā

سَاجِدًا
sājidā

مَرْفُوعَةً
marfūɛah

Note that the above exception is only for ة. If a hamzah with an an mark occurs at the end of a word, then it too will be pronounced as if it had a long-ā vowel after it. Such is the case, whether or not a silent alif is written after the hamzah. Examples:

مُبْتَدَءًا is pronounced mubtadaʾā
دُعَاءً is pronounced duɛāʾā

Similarly, if the word has a final yāʾ that represents the long-ā vowel, and the letter before has an an mark, it is pronounced with the long-ā vowel at the end of the sentence. For example:

مُصْطَفًى is pronounced muṣṭafā

Except in this section, we will usually transcribe Arabic into English letters without modifiying the transcription for the last word in the sentence. This is because the last vowel mark is helpful for us to learn the grammatical function of the word. But when saying the sentence out aloud you should pronounce the ending of the final word as we have just described.

For example, the sentence:
ذَهَبَ إِلَى ٱلْبَيْتِ

will be transcribed, in the remainder of this book, as:
d͡hahaba ʾila -lbayti

but should be pronounced as
d͡hahaba ʾila -lbayt

2.6 Qurʾānic script

In printed volumes of the Qurʾān, the spelling words is a little different from non-Qurʾānic Standard Arabic. The reasons for this are beyond the scope of this book. Here we’ll just give a few examples and note that these differences are typically only found in printed volumes of the Qurʾān.

Standard Arabic	Qurʾānic Arabic
ٱلصَّلَاةَ	ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ
ٱلسَّمَاوَاتِ	ٱلسَّمَـٰوَ ٰتِ
يَا ٱبْنَ أُمَّ	يَبْنَؤُمَّ