letters - non-javascript page

Recognising the letters

Arabic is written from right to left. Thus the letter ا followed by the letter ل would look like ال.

Each letter may vary in shape slightly, depending on whether it is joined to other letters or not. Some letters never join on to a following letter, even in the middle of a word. In this case the next letter is normally written quite close.

The first letter of the alphabet has a couple of peculiarities. Don't worry - the rest are nothing like as bad!!!

ا never joins onto the following letter - otherwise you would read it as a different letter ل, but the letter before may join on to it.

20:2 begins:

When it is following ل, the pair may be written as or as in .

Sometimes, just to really try your perseverance, it is not written!!! Or it is written as a vertical line over another letter.
For example the first two words of 2:2 are really
.

And finally... at the beginning of a word it is sometimes being used as ء

Pronunciation peculiarities: Normally a long vowel, the 'a' sound varies slightly depending on the preceeding letter. Compare قاف with كاف . When being used as ء it is a short sound like in 'eh' 'ih' or 'uh' - for instance 1:5 begins .

ب , ت , ث

Hope you read the above list from right to left! ب and ت are common, while ث is used in very few words. All three use the same shape pattern - it is the dots that tell you which letter it is, and stop you confusing it with the letter س. The letter is elongated when it is at the end of a word. Here are some examples:

Note: rarely a ت may have come from

- see ه; below.

ج , ح , خ

The big down loop is for the end of words.

How to say خ - put a really big smile on your face, and without losing it say 'haa'!!!

د , ذ , ر , ز

None of these letters join onto the next one. Notice how ر and ز tend to hang down further. د and ذ may even curl up slightly.

س , ش

Three little waves! At the end of a word the last wave is made into a bigger one.

ص , ض

The second loop is larger and goes down a bit more at the end of a word.

So you want to say ض? Get ready to say 'd', and just as you start saying it, change your mind to say 'z' with a touch of 'th'. Or remember that this is the letter that Arabs use to tell who is non-arab and don't worry about it!!!

ط , ظ

ع , غ

The large down loop is for the end of a word. ع can change its sound to a 'i' or a 'u', depending on the vowel sound.

ف , ق

The letters are elongated at the end of word. For the ق the loop also goes down quite a bit at the end of a word.

ك , ل

ك only has a squiggle in it at the end of a word. Elsewhere it has a line joined at the top. ل tends to loop a bit lower at the end of a word.

م , ن

ه sometimes has two dots added

. This second form is only used as the last letter of a word, and changes pronunciation to a 't' if you are running the sound into the next word. Compare

with

. It also makes the word feminine. Should a suffix be added to the word, it changes to a ت.

This letter never joins the following letter. و can represent two sounds - a consonant 'w' or a vowel 'u'. Like ا it can be used for a ء. When used as a vowel, it may sometimes just make the 'a' sound from the previous lettter's vowel.

ى can represent two sounds - a consonant 'y' or a vowel 'ee'. It usually has two dots - but these are lost at the end of a word unless it is representing a double 'y' sound. When used as a vowel, it may sometimes just make the 'a' sound from the previous lettter's vowel.

ء is a bit like a short vowel sound coming to a very brief halt. It can be written alone, or on other letters. Quite often an ا at the beginning of a word is a ء . Which short vowel is indicated by other marks. The Saudi print seems to put them all in - Yusuf Ali mainly uses plain ا .

And finally...

Although Arabic numerals do not form part of the text, you may see them in reference markers to the verses. Numbers are written from left to right. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 look like 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 and 10 would look like 10

Introduction Contents Next