Arabic alphabet and pronunciation

The Arabic alphabet consists of 28 letters, each of which represents exactly one consonant. Three of the letters are used to indicate long vowels.

As a reader, it is very difficult to know how words are pronounced. Consonants and long vowels or diphthongs are written out in Arabic, but the short vowels are not; the reader must think of and learn them for himself. It can be really hard to figure this out.

Let us give you an example how it would look, if we would write English like Arabic is written.

Example: W lrn arbc tgthr! (We learn arabic together!)

You can still read it, but you have to have an idea of the sense of the words.

Pronunciation sound examples of the Arabic letters

Characteristics of the Arabic letters

Das Arabische Alphabet unterscheidet sich in mehreren Aspekten von anderen Alphabeten. Wir zeigen die die besonderen Merkmale des Arabischen Alphabets.

Diacritical marks or dots

One of the most important features in Arabic script are the dots above or below each letter. There are many letters in Arabic that differ only by these dots.

Here are some examples:

• ﺏ - ﺕ - ﺙ
• ﺝ - ﺡ - ﺥ
• ﺩ - ﺫ
• ﺭ - ﺯ
• ﻁ - ﻅ

Short vowels as reading aid

It is not really part of the Arabic alphabet, however, in the beginning it is very important to know the help signs for vocalization. The signs are added to the letters for short vowels as a reading aid, so that the pronunciation is clear. There are four help signs for short vowels: 

• short a: Fatha. It looks like a small thin line above an Arabic consonant.
• short i: Kasra. It looks like a small thin line under an Arabic consonant.
• short u: Damma. It looks like a small curl or loop above an Arabic consonant.
• no vowel: Sukūn. It looks like a small circle above an Arabic consonant.

These characters are used only in school lessons, in the Koran, or in poems, as well as scientific editions of classical texts.