Letters and Vowels

Introduction

The Arabic Alphabet

The table shows the letters of the alphabet in their possible states, depending on whether they are isolated or together with other letters in a word. If it is in a word, its form is affected by its position within the word, whether initial, middle or final. This causes a letter to have 4 possible forms, 1 when alone, and 3 when in a word: initial, middle and final.

 

MERGED			ISOLATED
Final	Middle	Initial
ـأ	ـأ	أ	أ
ﺐ	ـبـ	بـ	ب
ﺖ	ـتـ	تـ	ت
ـث	ـثـ	ﺛ	ث
ـج	ـجـ	جـ	ج
ـح	ـحـ	حـ	ح
ـخ	ـخـ	خـ	خ
ـد	ـد	د	د
ـذ	ـذ	ذ	ذ
ـر	ـر	ر	ر
ـز	ـز	ز	ز
ـس	ـسـ	سـ	س
ـش	ـشـ	شـ	ش
ـص	ـصـ	صـ	ص
ـض	ـضـ	ضـ	ض
ـط	ﻄ	طـ	ط
ـظ	ـظـ	ظـ	ظ
ـع	ـعـ	عـ	ع
ـغ	ـغـ	غـ	غ
ـف	ـفـ	فـ	ف
ـق	ـقـ	قـ	ق
ـك	ـكـ	كـ	ك
ـل	ـلـ	لـ	ل
ـم	ـمـ	مـ	م
ـن	ـنـ	نـ	ن
ـه	ـهـ	هـ	ہ
ـو	ـو	و	و
ي	ـيـ	يـ	ي

 

NOTE :

There are 6 letters that do not allow any letter to join with them from the left. These letters are :

و

ز

ر

ذ

د

أ

Click here to view a printable chart about these letters.

 

Letters

The correct recitation of the Qur'an that is achieved by giving each letter its due (using the organs of speech) through:

• The vowel movements - Harakaat
• Prescribed point of exit (where the sound of each letter should come from) - Makhraj
• The manner of articulation (the characteristics of the letters and recitation) - Sifa

There are 16 letters of the Arabic alphabet which can be likened to various letters of the English alphabet :

Arabic Letter	Closest English Equivalent	Arabic Word Example	Surah : Verse	English word example
ب	B		78:12	Bravo
ت	T		79:6	Tango
ج	J		78:9	Juliet
د	D		79:30	Delta
ز	Z		79:13	Zulu
س	S		78:4	Sierra
ش	Sh		78:39	Shoe
ف	F		78:3	Foxtrot
ك	K		78:4	Kilo
ل	L		78:10	Leema
م	M		78:3	Mike
ن	N		78:9	November
ه	H		78:3	Hotel
و	W		78:16	Water
ء	A		78:14	Alpha
ي	Y		78:18	Yankee

The following letters do not have an English equivalent. These are :

  ‌‌  ‌  ‌ ‌

ث		خ		ذ		ر		ص		ض
ط		ظ		ع		‌غ		ق

Vowels (Harakaat)

In the English language we use letters for vowels, whereas in the Arabic language we use symbols, or a combination of symbols and letters. Also, the Arabic language has short and long vowels, whereas the English language has just the one type.

SHORT VOWELS (1 count)

Symbol	Name	Also Known As	Sound	Example of Sound	Example of Arabic letter
	fathah	Zabar	a	cat
	Kasrah	Zay	i / e	me
	Dammah	Paysh	u	who

LONG VOWELS (2 counts)

Symbol/ Letter	Other	Sound	Extract from Verse	Surah :Verse
	ٰ ىٰ	aa aa aa		(114:2)
				(114:3)
				(93:1)
		ea/ee		(114:5)
		oo		(112:3)

MISCELLANEOUS

Symbol/ Letter	Name	Description	Extract from Verse	Surah :Verse
/	Sukoon / Saakin	Indicates the absence of a vowel. Joins 2 letters together		(112:4)
	Shaddah	Indicates a doubled letter (joins 2 letters and also tightens the pronunciation to illustrate 2 of the same letter), to the point that you pause on it for a fraction of a second E.g		(113:5)

SHADDAH ()

The letter on which the symbol appears is read by doubling it. (e.g R would become RR) So the first letter (R) is read as if there would be a sukoon (stop) on the it and the second (R ) with a harakat (vowel)

E.g

'Tabba' ( ) should be read as 'tab-ba' (2 ب 's),

not as 'tab' ( )

(1 ب )

Caution - when there are a couple or a few tashdeeds together in one, two or three words, then utmost care should be taken to ensure that all the tashdeeds are recited correctly. It is a common mistake to be neglectful of these collective tashdeeds

Example

Extract from Verse	Surah :Verse
	(113:4)
	(7:157)

Click 'here' to view practice exercises for a few Shaddah together