ي — yaa
«yaa» is a consonant of the Arabic script, read as “y / ii”. The y of "yes"; inside a word it also serves as the long vowel "ii". Without dots this sign is alif maqsura — see the special signs. For example, in the word “يوم” — day. The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters in total. The twin of waw: the same two dots as ب and ت, only underneath. It appears, for example, in the word “نهارك سعيد” — good day.
In short
| Character | ي |
| Name | yaa |
| Sound | y / ii |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 3rd of 31: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are و and ب, appears in roughly every other word on this site.
How to type ي
- 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+064A 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 064A.
- Unicode code point: U+064A. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
The y of "yes"; inside a word it also serves as the long vowel "ii". Without dots this sign is alif maqsura — see the special signs
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 | يـ | — |
| medial | ـيـ | — |
| final | ـي | — |
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.
- يومйаумday
The character in the “long vowels: alif, waw, yaa” group
The script is an abjad: short vowels are not written in it at all. كتاب is "ktb", and it reads kataba — the vowels are restored from grammar. Only the long ones are written, with these three signs. Waw and yaa stay consonants ("w" and "y") whenever they have a vowel of their own next to them.
Words with this character
- نهارك سعيدнахарак саʿидgood day
- كيف حالك؟кейфа хаалюк؟how are you?
- كيف حالكم؟кейфа хаалюкум؟how are you all?
- جيدджейидfine
- سيئсаййиʾbad
- صباح الخيرсабаах аль-хейрgood morning
- اسميисмииmy name is
- هيхияshe
- من أين أنت؟мин айна анта؟where are you from?
- أنا روسيана русийI am Russian
- هل تتكلم الإنجليزية؟халь татаккалам аль-инджлийзя؟do you speak English?
- مساء الخيرмасаа аль-хейрgood evening
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 «yaa» it is “y / ii”, as in the word “يوم”), 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 ي read?
As “y / ii” — it is a consonant of the Arabic script. The y of "yes"; inside a word it also serves as the long vowel "ii". Without dots this sign is alif maqsura — see the special signs. For example, in the word “يوم” — day.
What is the letter ي called?
Yaa. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Arabic script: it is called “yaa” and reads as “y / ii”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can ي be confused with?
The twin of waw: the same two dots as ب and ت, only underneath. 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.