Lesson 3

Arabic alphabet (Writing)

After you have learnt how to pronounce the Arabic letters, it is time to know how to write them.

I hear someone says: What is this silly question? What do you mean with how I could write them??!!

Okay, read what I will write below, and then you will know if this is a silly question or not.

When we write Arabic words, we do not write the letters in separate way (In most cases) as we do in English. I mean, we do not write them like this:

(ب ح ب ك)

But we write them interlocked, like this:

(بحبك)

By the way, this word means “I love you” in Arabic. Now, do you still see my question was silly??

When we write in Arabic, the Arabic letters change their shapes depending on their location in the word.

I hear the same person that asked me before, asks me again and says: what do you mean with this?! Why do you want to make things hard?

Look my friend, if you look at the table below, you will know what I mean. I just want one thing from you: do not believe that is difficult at all. You will get used to it after a short period of practice.

Tips:

·       Look and listen carefully to a letter after another. Do not rush to write them.

·       Grab your pen and start to write all forms of each letter many times before moving to the next letter.

·       I will pronounce each letter with “Fat-ha”, “Kus-ra”, and “Dum-ma”.

Remember: we often pronounce letter “ق” like letter “أ” in Egyptian slang.

Arabic Letter	Letter Position			Pronunciationhree shaps as in below)
	Initial	Medial	Final
ا	ا	ـا	ـا
ب	بـ	ـبـ	ـب
ت	تـ	ـتـ	ـت or ة
ث	ثـ	ـثـ	ـث
ج	جـ	ـجـ	ـج
ح	حـ	ـحـ	ـح
خ	خـ	ـخـ	ـخ
د	د	ـد	ـد
ذ	ذ	ـذ	ـذ
ر	ر	ـر	ـر
ز	ز	ـز	ـز
س	سـ	ـسـ	ـس
ش	شـ	ـشـ	ـش
ص	صـ	ـصـ	ـص
ض	ضـ	ـضـ	ـض
ط	طـ	ـطـ	ـط
ظ	ظـ	ـظـ	ـظ
ع	عـ	ـعـ	ـع
غ	غـ	ـغـ	ـغ
ف	فـ	ـفـ	ـف
ق	قـ	ـقـ	ـق
ك	كـ	ـكـ	ـك
ل	لـ	ـلـ	ـل
م	مـ	ـمـ	ـم
ن	نـ	ـنـ	ـن
ه	هـ	ـهـ	ـه or ه
و	و	ـو	ـو
لا	لا	ـلا	ـلا
ي	يـ	ـيـ	ـى
ء (this letter has four shapes as in below)
أ	أ	ـأ	ـأ	You will learn how to pronounce these forms when they come in words
إ	إ	-	-
ؤ	ؤ	ـؤ	ـؤ
ئ	ئـ	ـئـ	ـئ