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The Arabic script: letters, vowels and al-
Arabic is written from right to left, and most letters join up. Once you know how vowels and the word for "the" work, you can read almost anything aloud.
Letters and joining
Arabic has 28 letters, written right to left. Most letters join to the letter after them, so each letter has slightly different shapes at the start, middle and end of a word: بـ ـبـ ـب.
Six letters never join to the letter after them: ا د ذ ر ز و. That is why وَرْدَة (warda, a rose) has gaps inside it.
In this course, aa, ii and uu are long vowels, ' is a hamza (a catch in the throat), ʿ is the letter ʿayn (ع), kh is like ch in loch, and H is the breathy ح.
Six letters never join to the letter after them: ا د ذ ر ز و. That is why وَرْدَة (warda, a rose) has gaps inside it.
In this course, aa, ii and uu are long vowels, ' is a hamza (a catch in the throat), ʿ is the letter ʿayn (ع), kh is like ch in loch, and H is the breathy ح.
Short vowels (harakat)
The word for "the": ال
ال (al-) is joined to the front of the noun: كِتاب (a book) → الكِتاب (al-kitaab, the book).
With moon letters you hear the l: القَمَر (al-qamar, the moon), البَيْت (al-bayt, the house).
With sun letters the l is silent and the next letter is doubled: الشَّمْس (ash-shams, the sun), السَّيّارة (as-sayyaara, the car).
The 14 sun letters: ت ث د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ل ن.
With moon letters you hear the l: القَمَر (al-qamar, the moon), البَيْت (al-bayt, the house).
With sun letters the l is silent and the next letter is doubled: الشَّمْس (ash-shams, the sun), السَّيّارة (as-sayyaara, the car).
The 14 sun letters: ت ث د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ل ن.
Read aloud and translate: الدَّرْس
- ال means the.
- د is a sun letter, so the l is silent and the d is doubled: ad-dars.
- دَرْس means lesson.
Answer: ad-dars: the lesson
Arabic runs right to left and most letters join; ا د ذ ر ز و never join to the next letter. Short vowels are small marks (fatha a, kasra i, damma u). ال = the: the l is silent before the 14 sun letters.
The interactive lesson includes the diagrams for this topic.
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