Learn Arabic Letters Part 1

Learn Arabic Letters

Asmaa Akl

12 Dec 2019

Arabic is a difficult language to learn since its letters are completely different from those of the Latin alphabet. In order to properly learn Arabic, you must first familiarize and memorize the Arabic alphabet and the phonetics of Arabic letters. Before that, there are certain points that you need to keep in mind. There are 28 letters in the Arabic alphabet. Those 28 letters have different forms depending on their placement in a certain word. Additionally, Arabic is a right to left language meaning that it is written and read from right to left.

It is also important to note that short vowels are not written as letters but as diacritics (tashkeel) above a letter. For the purpose of this article we will only concern ourselves with the pronunciation of the letters accompanied with the fatha (ــَــ) above them. The fatha adds a short (ă) sound after the pronunciation of the letter itself. For more information about diacritics please visit our article “Learn Arabic Diacritics (short vowels): Tashkeel”.

Let’s first learn to identify the Arabic letters then we can take it further.

Arabic Letters in Their Isolated Form

أ

aa

ب

ba

ت

ta

ث

tha

ج

ja

ح

Ha

خ

kha

د

da

ذ

zha

ر

ra

ز

za

س

sa

ش

sha

ص

Sa

ض

Da

ط

Ta

ظ

Zha

ع

AA

غ

gha

ف

fa

ق

Qa

ك

ka

ل

la

م

ma

ن

na

ه

ha

و

wa

ي

ya

Learn Arabic Letters and Their Different Forms

When you start to learn Arabic, you might find it complicated since the Arabic letters you started to memorize and practice look quite different when they are inserted in a word. The reason behind this is that Arabic letters change forms depending on their position in a word. There are four possible placements for each letter of the alphabet and they are:

1- Isolated. They can stand alone at any part of the word, be it the start, the middle or the end.

2- The beginning of a word.

Arabic Letter Alif In the beginning

 

3- The middle of a word.

Arabic Letter Alif in the middle

 

4- The end of a word.

Arabic Letter Alif at the end

 

Whether the letter is placed at the beginning, middle or end, it has an extended form. Look at the table below to see how a letter looks in each position:

Letter (Isolated)

Start

Middle

End

أ

ا

ـا / ـأ

ـا / ـأ

ب

بــ

ــبــ

ــب

ت

تــ

ــتــ

ــت

ث

ثــ

ــثــ

ــث

ج

جــ

ــجــ

ــج

ح

حــ

ــحــ

ــح

خ

خــ

ــخــ

ــخ

د

د

ــد

ــد

ذ

ذ

ــذ

ــذ

ر

ر

ــر

ــر

ز

ز

ــز

ــز

س

ســ

ــســ

ــس

ش

شــ

ــشــ

ــش

ص

صــ

ــصــ

ــص

ض

ضــ

ــضــ

ــض

ط

طــ

ــطــ

ــط

ظ

ظــ

ــظــ

ــظ

ع

عــ

ــعــ

ــع

غ

غــ

ــغــ

ــغ

ف

فــ

ــفــ

ــف

ق

قــ

ــقــ

ــق

ك

كــ

ــكــ

ــك

ل

لــ

ــلــ

ــل

م

مــ

ــمــ

ــم

ن

نــ

ــنــ

ــن

ه

هــ

ــهــ

ــه

و

و

ــو

ــو

ي

يــ

ــيــ

ــي

 

It might be confusing at first to learn Arabic letters’ forms, but with practice and the proper guidance, nothing is impossible. We at Nour Academy exist in order to provide professional guidance to learn Arabic online. Check our “Read Arabic letters Classes” or “Al-Nourani Qaeda classes” for a better learning experience on your journey to learning the Arabic language. If you want to learn Arabic letters in more detail stay tuned for part 2 of this article.

 Learn Quran Surat Al Bakarah

Learn Quran: Surat Al Bakarah

Surat Al-Bakarah is the second and longest chapter or surah in the holy Quran. It has 289 verses, 6,201 words and 25,500 letters. Its name ‘Al-Bakarah’ means The Cow. The recitation of Surat Al Bakarah has many benefits for Muslims, the most important of which is that Surat Al Bakarah protects those who recite it from the devil and the evil eye. It is known to ward off the devil from the house in which it is recited for three days.

READ MORE
 Learn the Quran with Tajweed Rules: The Meem Sakinah

Learn Quran with Tajweed Rules: The Meem Sakinah

In order to learn Quran with tajweed you have to encounter the Meem Sakinah and apply its three different tajweed rules for pronunciation: Idgham with Ghunnah, Oral Ikhfaa also known as Ikhfaa Shafawi إخفاء شفوي and Oral Izhar, also known as Izhar shafawi إظهار شفوي.

READ MORE
 Learn Arabic words and phrases: Arabic Numbers (Six to Ten)

Learn Arabic words and phrases: Arabic Numbers (Six to Ten)

We established in part 1 of this article that learning numbers in any language is essential, but since there are an infinite amount of numbers, we will start off with the basics, with which you can form any number. In this article we will continue to learn Arabic numbers from where we left off in our article, ‘Learn Arabic words and phrases: Arabic Numbers (Zero to Five)’. Now we we’ll learn how to write and pronounce Arabic numbers from 6 to 10.

READ MORE