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The Arabic Alphabet and Sounds

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Twenty-eight letters written right to left, the sounds English lacks, short vowels, and sun and moon letters.

Twenty-eight letters, right to left

Arabic writes right to left in 28 letters, nearly all of which join their neighbours — each letter has up to four shapes (alone, starting, middle, ending). Six letters refuse to join leftward (ا د ذ ر ز و), which is why words break where they do. There are no capital letters. The good news: spelling is almost perfectly phonetic — learn the letters and you can sound out anything, including words you don't know.

The sounds English lacks

Four sounds need new throat work: ع (ʿayn — a voiced squeeze deep in the throat), ح (ḥā — a breathy h from the same place), ق (qāf — a k from the far back) and خ (khā — like clearing your throat, as in Scottish loch). The "emphatic" consonants (ص ض ط ظ) are s/d/t/dh spoken with a dark, hollow resonance. Arabs will understand approximations — but the effort to learn ع and ح earns instant warmth.

Short vowels are usually invisible

Arabic writes long vowels (ا و ي) but normally OMITS short ones: كتب could be kataba (he wrote), kutiba (it was written) or kutub (books) — context and grammar decide. Beginners' texts add حركات (ḥarakāt — vowel marks): ـَ ـِ ـُ for a/i/u. Don't fight this: read vowelled texts first, and your grammar will resolve the unvowelled ones sooner than you expect.

Sun and moon letters

The definite article الـ (al- — the) behaves two ways. Before "moon" letters it keeps its ل: القمر (al-qamar — the moon). Before "sun" letters (ت ث د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ل ن) the ل vanishes and the sun letter doubles: الشمس is pronounced ash-shams (the sun), though still written with ل. The spelling never changes — only the pronunciation. Memorise the 14 sun letters once.

Arabic course Practice Quiz Review