خ — khaa
«khaa» is a consonant of the Arabic script, read as “kh (as in Bach)”. The ch of Scottish "loch" or German "Bach", with a scraping edge to it. For example, in the word “خبز” — bread. The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters in total. The same letter, dot on top. ح and خ differ by one dot — and that makes a different word. It appears, for example, in the word “صباح الخير” — good morning.
In short
| Character | خ |
| Name | khaa |
| Sound | kh (as in Bach) |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 9th of 31: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ح and د, appears in 322 words of this site.
How to type خ
- On a phone: add the Arabic keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+062E and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 062E.
- Unicode code point: U+062E. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
The ch of Scottish "loch" or German "Bach", with a scraping edge to it
Other written forms
The same character is written differently on a shop sign and in a book. Here are all the forms you may meet.
| Form | Character | Note |
|---|---|---|
| initial | خـ | — |
| medial | ـخـ | — |
| final | ـخ | — |
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- خبزхубзbread
The character in the “ج ح خ — j and two h sounds” group
The same trick again. The skeleton with a dot inside is "j". With no dot it is a breathy throat h, and with a dot on top a scraping kh. The three h sounds must not be confused: حوت is "whale", and خوت would be a different word.
Words with this character
- صباح الخيرсабаах аль-хейрgood morning
- مساء الخيرмасаа аль-хейрgood evening
- تصبح على خيرтусбих аля хейрgood night
- خبزхубзbread
- خمسةхамсаfive
- خضرواتхудраватvegetables
- رخيصрахисcheap
- تخفيضтахфидdiscount
- هل يمكن أرخص؟халь юмкин архас؟can it be cheaper?
- آخذаахузI take
- واحد آخرвахид аахарone more
- اختارихтаарto choose
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «khaa» it is “kh (as in Bach)”, as in the word “خبز”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 28 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Arabic character خ read?
As “kh (as in Bach)” — it is a consonant of the Arabic script. The ch of Scottish "loch" or German "Bach", with a scraping edge to it. For example, in the word “خبز” — bread.
What is the letter خ called?
Khaa. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Arabic script: it is called “khaa” and reads as “kh (as in Bach)”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can خ be confused with?
The same letter, dot on top. ح and خ differ by one dot — and that makes a different word. Similar characters are best studied side by side and deliberately compared: learned on different days, they stay separate and get mixed up at their first meeting inside a word.