The Arabic script, letter forms and short vowels

How the script works

Arabic is written right to left, and letters inside a word are joined. There are 28 letters, all consonants or long vowels. There are no capital letters; instead, most letters change shape slightly depending on their position in the word.

Six letters never join to the letter after them: ا د ذ ر ز و. After one of them, the next letter starts a new chunk, even in the middle of a word:

• دَارٌ (dārun) — house (no letter joins to the left)
• وَرْدَةٌ (wardatun) — a rose
• زَيْتٌ (zaytun) — oil

Short vowels and other marks (harakat)

Short vowels are not letters. They are small marks above or below a consonant. Beginner books, the Quran and children's books show them; newspapers, signs and messages usually leave them out.

Tanween (the doubled vowel at the end) marks a word as indefinite: كِتَابٌ is "a book". The accusative form -an is written with an extra alif: كِتَابًا. Words ending in ة take it without the alif: مَدْرَسَةً.

Long vowels, diphthongs and taa marbuta

Three letters also write long vowels:

• بَابٌ (bābun) — door, alif = ā
• نُورٌ (nūrun) — light, waw = ū
• كَبِيرٌ (kabīrun) — big, yaa = ī

With a sukun, waw and yaa make diphthongs: يَوْمٌ (yawmun) day, بَيْتٌ (baytun) house.

Taa marbuta ة is a ه with two dots. It appears only at the end of a word, mostly on feminine nouns. It is pronounced -a when you stop and -t when a vowel follows: مَدْرَسَةٌ (madrasatun), in speech often just madrasa.

Hamza: a first look

Hamza ء is a glottal stop, like the break in English "uh-oh". It sits on a "seat" letter or alone. For now, recognise the shapes; the spelling rules come later.

Watch out as an English speaker

• English writes every vowel as a letter, so learners spell short vowels with ا و ي. ✗ كاتاب / ✓ كِتَابٌ (kitābun). Only long vowels get a letter.
• Without harakat one spelling can be several words: كتب is كَتَبَ (kataba, he wrote) or كُتُبٌ (kutubun, books). Context decides, so learn words with their vowels from the start.
• The final "-a" sound of feminine nouns is written ة, not ه or ا. ✗ مدرسه / ✗ مدرسا / ✓ مَدْرَسَةٌ.
• There are no capitals. Names look like any other word: سَامِي (Sāmī), لُبْنَانُ (Lubnān, Lebanon).

Example dialogue

مَا اسْمُكَ؟ — What is your name? (to a man)
اِسْمِي سَامِي. — My name is Sami.
كَيْفَ تَكْتُبُ اسْمَكَ؟ — How do you write your name?
سِينٌ، أَلِفٌ، مِيمٌ، يَاءٌ. — Seen, alif, meem, yaa.
شُكْرًا! — Thank you!