Arabic Letters. Common information.

Every arabic letter can have different writings depending of it's position in the word. The positions a letters can took inside the words are:

1. an isolated position
2. the position at the beginning of the word
3. in the middle of the word
4. at the end of the word

You can see the writing of some letters in Table.1.

Generally speaking, all existing arabic letters represent only consonants. For the representation of vowels diacritical marks are used and they are usually omitted in regular arabic text. You need to guess from the context what diacritic mark and what letter it is placed on. And this is usually not a problem for experienced people.

In addition to this base consonant representaiton function the next three arabic letters - Alif (ا), Wow (و), Yaa (ي) - are used to represent vowels duration and they also used as stand for "Hamza" (ء) letter.

There are two letters that are not present in Arabic alphabet but you will often see them in texts. These are mentioned above Hamza (ء) and another one - Ta-marboutah (ة).

The Letters ا, ب, ت, ث, و, ي, ء, ة .

Table 2 shows a list of letters that we will learn in this lesson. You can preview and listen their pronunciation there.

Further, we'll study the graphical representation of these letters and since the quantity of Arabic vowels are three - [a], [i], [u] - we need to examine the nuances of their pronunciation in combinations with them.

The Letter ا (Alif).

The Letter Alif is officially the first letter of Arabic alphabet.

Alif itself does not represent any consonant and it is used as a letter only in combination with Hamza which does represent the definite one. In this case Alif serves as a stand for Hamza.

Despite this fact, Alif is present in the official Arabic alphabet but Hamza is not present.

Alif is also used for support purposes such as representing a long "Aah".

The writing of the letter Alif resembles a straight standing stick which shape is a bit wavy.

Since Alif does not represent any sound itself we do not need to spend time analyzing the pronunciation of this letter and can move on to the next letter.

The Letter ب (Baa).

The next three letters we'll study have the same bow shape and differ only in the dots around it.

Letter ب's name is Baa. It is used for representation of [b] sound. It sounds exactly like letter B in English. The difference appears when [a]-sound follows letter Baa. In that case [a] sounds softer, like [a] in word yummy, and letter Baa become softer too, like English letter B in composition with sound [i] in the word bee.

Letter Baa in combination with following it [i] sounds exactly the same in English.

So it does with sound [u]. The vowel [u] is not softened if it follows the letter Baa and Baa sounds like B in the word book.

The Letter ت (Taa).

The letter ت is named Taa. It resembles letter T in English.

The pronunciation of the letter Taa in composition with vowels is similar to the letter Baa.

The sound [a] following this letter softens it.

So does sound [i].

The [u] after Taa sounds hard.

You can listen to the next words containing the letter Taa to get an idea of it's pronunciation.

The Letter ث (θаъ).

The letter ث is named Thaa and designates the sound [θ].

You can hear it in English words such as thick, think, bath etc.

The vowels pronunciation in combination with this letter is similar to the pronunciation with previous two letters. You can listen and see it from the examples below.

The Letter ن (Noon).

The letter ن's name is Noon and it is an analogue to the letter N in English.

There is no significant difference in pronunciation it in English or Arabic.

It's shape resembles the shape of previous three letters and also looks like bow. But this "bow" is pulled tighter than those. You should pay attention to this when you write it.

The Letter و (Wow).

The letter و is named Wow. It is used for two purposes. The first one is representation of consonant [w]. The second purpose of the letter is increasing the duration of previous [u].

As consonant it sounds like w in such English words like what, with, where etc. So there is no problem for an English speaking person to pronounce this letter correctly.

It has the same writing feature as the letter Alif has: you cannot connect it with any other letter that follows it.

The Letter ي (Yaa).

The letter ي's name is Yaa. It is analogous to the English letter Y. It also has two purposes in writing as Alif and Wow have: they are representing a consonant and designation of duration of previous vowel.

You can hear it in the words yummy and yellow.

The Letter ة (Taa-marboutah).

Ta-marboutah (ة) is a letter which position is always at the end of the word. It plays a supporting role, telling us that the word is feminine.

It sounds just like the letter Taa considered earlier.

At the end of the phrase in colloquial speech it sounds like letter H in English. In this case vowels indicated by diacritical marks above it are not pronounced.

The Letter ء (Hamza).

The letter Hamza (ء) is actually, the first letter of Arabic alphabet despite of Alif takes it's place officially. Look at any Arabic-English dictionary and you'll see that the first group of words are begins with the letter Hamza above or below Alif (ا).

There is no analogue for this letter in English alphabet. The sound of Hamza is born on the frontier between silence and starting of vowel's speaking. You can hear Hamza between pronunciation of two vowels following each other in the words like Cro-atia, co-operation. The sound of Hamza dwells at the places of the dashes there. The letter Hamza is heard as a stumble in the middle of speech.

Hamza can be written both separately and in combination with Alif, Wow and Yaa. If you see Hamza in company with them keep in mind that Hamza is not a diacritical mark. It is a real letter.

Writing Of The Letter Hamza.

At the beginning of the words Hamza ء is always written together with Alif ا. If Hamza has the diacritic mark Kasra it is written below Alif. Otherwise it is written above Alif.

In the middle of the word Hamza can be written together with the letters Alif, Wow and Yaa depending on the diacritical mark that goes with it.

At the end of the word Hamza can be written both separately and together with it's previously mentioned three pedestal role playing letters.

Let's look at examples.

The Diacritical Marks.

There are several little marks that are usually written above and below the Arabic letters which are called diacritical marks. They represent some sounds that are added to the letters they go with. It is not possible to write a diacritic without a letter. These sounds are vowels not existing in Arabic alphabet and some other sound combinations, that have relation to Arabic grammar.

The diacritical marks are not used in the normal printing of books, newspapers and magazines so you won't see them in most cases. You have to know Arabic words and some grammar rules to understand where and what diacritic has been omitted in the text.

The different little lines around the letters are diacritics. Pay attention to the second line - you can see something little above the letter Alif. It is not diacritic. Do you remember? This is the letter Hamza, written together with Alif playing a stand role here.

As it was mentioned earlier, there are three vowels in Arabic and they are [a], [i], [u]. So three diacritics (translated to Arabic - حَرَكَةٌ - Harakat) are used for representing them in writing: قَتْحَةٌ [fathah], كَسْرَةٌ [kasrah] and ضَمَّةٌ [dommah].

Fatkha is used for representation of the vowel sound [a] and it looks like the little semi-horizontal dash above the letter (ـَ). In combination with some letters it represents the vowel sound [o] and we'll consider it later.

Kasra is used for the vowel [i] representation. It also has the shape of semi-horizontal dash but is placed under the letter: ـِ.

The sign written above some letter and having the shape of the small و (Wow) is diacritical mark called Dommah - ـُ. It represents the vowel [u] (like in English word hook). Arabic [u] cannot be soften ever but after the letters Lam and Yaa. It always sounds hard.

The diacritical mark Sukun has the shape of small circle above the letter and means that there is no vowel following after this letter. This is it: ـْ.

There are some extra diacritics which probably can be do without as they don't enter any new sounds in the language. They have their special applicaton not connected with introducing extra sounds.

One of them - Tashdeed - is used for short writing and let to write one letter instead of two. It has the shape of three-pronged comb ـّ and means consonant letter's duplication.

The remaining diacritical marks are used for grammatical purposes and are always written at the end of words. They are called Tanaween (singular Tanween تَنْوِينٌ).

You can see them in Table 3.

Reading In Arabic With Diacritics.

Let's try to read some arabic writing.

The rules of reading is pretty easy:

1. We should read from right to left (i.e. along this ← direction).
2. Firstly we are pronouncing the letter and then pronouncing the diacritic mark connecting them smoothly.
3. The following step is smoothly connecting the next letter with diacritical mark etc.

For example, بَ, is read as [b] + [a] = [ba], بِ is read as [b] + [i] = [bi], بُ is read as [b] + [u] = [бу] и т.д.

Now, knowing the principle, try to read the next sound combinations not looking at the tips. After reading you can click on the button "Show" to check if it was read correctly.

Exercises.

1. You can download the file with studied letters, do the print version and write by your hand all the letters along the line. Try to write them as similar to the patterns as possible.
2. Do the online exercises for the lesson. Repeat until the rate of the correct answers reach 100%.