Arabic Alphabet

If you're trying to learn the Arabic Alphabet you will find some useful resources including a course about pronunciation, and sound of all letters... to help you with your Arabic grammar. Try to concentrate on the lesson and memorize the sounds. Also don't forget to check the rest of our other lessons listed on Learn Arabic. Enjoy the rest of the lesson!

Arabic Alphabet

Learning the Arabic alphabet is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. Without it, you will not be able to say words properly even if you know how to write those words. The better you pronounce a letter in a word, the more understood you will be in speaking the Arabic language.

Below is a table showing the Arabic alphabet and how it is pronounced in English, and finally examples of how those letters would sound if you place them in a word.

The Arabic alphabet is written from right to left. It has no capital letters. (Originally Eurpoean alphabet didn’t have capitals either, the Roman alphabet, from which we got ours, existed out of what we now call capital letters, the Capitalis Quadrata. There was also a handwritten script derived from the Capitalis Quadrata, used by the roman soldiers and merchants. Only during the Middle Ages under Charles the Great, capitals where introduced).

The Arabic script is called a running script. In Latin script there is the option to write the letters separate or attached to each other, In Arabic however you are forced to write most of the letters attached and some not. In Latin script when a word doesn’t fit on a line, you split the word up into syllables and break it on that, in Arabic that is not possible. So instead of braking the word into syllables making the word smaller as to fit on a line they make the word bigger by extending the letter, like so
أنا أكب لك رســـالة مملوء بالحــــــــــــــــــــــــــــب “Ana aktub lak risalatan mamlu’a bil-hhub I write you a letter ful of love. Some Arabic letters are almost impossible to pronounce, like the hh (a hot h as if you are cleaning a mirrors, or like if you eat hot sambal and your throat is on fire) the 3 as if you burb or like in English “I say” with a cracking voice and the q which is pronounced very deep in your throat with your huig. The g is like our Dutch g in Scheveningen. The glottal stop lik in English Co-operation or in Cockney bo’lle is also a letter in Arabic.

Arabic Pronunciation

You saw how a letter is written and might be pronounced, but there is nothing better than hearing the sound of the letters in a video or audio. Below you will be able to hear how the letters above are pronounced, just press the play button:

The alphabet and its pronunciation have a very important role in Arabic. Once you're done with Arabic alphabet, you might want to check the rest of our Arabic lessons here: Learn Arabic. Don't forget to bookmark this page.

The links above are only a small sample of our lessons, please open the left side menu to see all links.