Introduction

Arabic Introduction(Arabic Alphabet)

Reading back to front

Did you know that Arabic is written right to left?

English letters	Arabic letters
d (split shape d)	د
aa	ا
daa	دا

(See? Right to left! How cool is that?)

This means that when you pick up a book or magazine written in Arabic, you should start reading from the back cover — which, of course, is the front!

Aah!!

When Arabic is written using English letters, sometimes there’ll be two vowels in a row.

English letters	Arabic letters
daa	دا
duu	دو
dii	دي

This doesn’t mean that there are two vowels in Arabic, but rather that there is one loooong vowel. Arabic has both short and long vowels!

Oh, duh

When you see a tiny forward slash above a letter, it means this letter has a short ah sound right after it. We’ll talk more about this later.

English letters	Arabic letters
d	د
da	دَ

Wow, yeah!

Sometimes و = uu (long vowel) and other times و = w.

English letters	Arabic letters
zuu	زو

BUT

English letters	Arabic letters
zaw	زَو
wa	وَ
wuu	وو

Same with the letter ي: sometimes ي = ii (long vowel) and sometimes ي = y.

English letters	Arabic letters
zii	زي

BUT

English letters	Arabic letters
zay	زَي
ya	يَ

The key is other vowels! If there is a vowel right before or right after و or ي, then they become w and y. Otherwise, they’re just the long vowels uu and ii.

Mighty Morphing Power Letters

In English, letters can change shape, like if they’re uppercase or lowercase. Letters in Arabic, instead, change shape, based on where they are in comparison to other letters because they can connect to neighbouring letters. Look at the shapes of ب b:

Position	Arabic letters	English letters
Independent	ب	b
Beginning of word	بَر/ بَز / باج	baaj / baz / bar
Middle of word	جَبَر	jabar
End of word	رَجَب	rajab
	ذَوب	dhawb

Letters can have up to four shapes, though some have fewer than that.

All letters have the independent form and the End of word form (which means connecting to the previous letter).

However, not all letters connect to the following letter → some letters don't have the beginning and middle of the word forms.

ذ = dh

The new letter ذ (dhaal) makes the same sound as the letter combination th in the following English words: the, this, brother, bathing. In our transliteration system, ذ will be represented as dh.

Note that this is not the same sound as th in the following set of English words: thick, thunder, broth, bath. This th sound corresponds to a different letter in Arabic that you will learn soon.

English letters	Arabic letters
dha	ذَ
dhawaa	ذَوا
dhawb	ذَوب
jad	جَد

English letters	Arabic letters
ka	كَ
kuu	كو
kadh	كَذ
zak	زَك

English letters	Arabic letters
ja	جَ
jaak	جاك
raaj	راج

Name

English Name	Arabic
bob and judy	بوب وَ جودي (bwb w judi)
Rawad and Carrie	رواد و كري (rawad w kuri)
Geroge and Rosa	جورج وَ روزا (jurj w rawza)
Judy and George	جودي وجورج (judi wajurj)