ة — ta marbuta
«ta marbuta» is a sign of the Arabic script. At the end of a word it is simply "a"; before the next word in connected speech you will often hear "at": madrasat. For example, in the word “مدرسة” — school. The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters in total. This character does not count as a letter of the alphabet. ه with two dots on top — the "tied t". The marker of feminine words: مدينة، ساعة. It appears, for example, in the word “مع السلامة” — goodbye.
In short
| Character | ة |
| Name | ta marbuta |
| Sound | a (word-final) |
| What it is | a sign |
In our course the character comes 30th of 31: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ء and ى, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How to type ة
- 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+0629 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 0629.
- Unicode code point: U+0629. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
At the end of a word it is simply "a"; before the next word in connected speech you will often hear "at": madrasat
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 | ةـ | — |
| medial | ـةـ | — |
| final | ـة | — |
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.
- مدرسةмадрасаschool
The character in the “ء ة ى — the three special signs” group
Three signs that the table of 28 letters does not include. Hamza is not a letter but a vowel break, and it sits on other letters (أ، ؤ، ئ). Ta marbuta is the "tied t", the marker of feminine words; at the end it reads "a". Alif maqsura is written like a dotless ي and read as a long "aa" — hundreds of words end on it.
Words with this character
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 «ta marbuta» it is “a (word-final)”, as in the word “مدرسة”), 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 ة read?
A (word-final). It is a sign of the Arabic script. At the end of a word it is simply "a"; before the next word in connected speech you will often hear "at": madrasat. For example, in the word “مدرسة” — school.
What is the sign ة called?
Ta marbuta is what this character is called when the alphabet is recited aloud.