How to read in Arabic

Right to left, joined, and no short vowels

Three differences from English, and all of them are visible in the first word. First: the line runs right to left — what you read first sits where the last letter of an English word would sit. Second: the letters join into one continuous line; a word looks like a single stroke. Third: short vowels are not written at all. The script is an abjad: letters carry the consonants and the long vowels, and memory restores the short ones. That is why the course always runs with a transcription — without it the first weeks are a pattern, not text.

The four letters of this step are among the most frequent in the language. ا is the long "aa", ب is b, ت is t, م is m. In باب (baab, "door") a long "aa" sits between the two b’s: b-aa-b, reading from the right.

Six letters that refuse to join on

Most letters clasp their neighbours on both sides, but six — ا د ذ ر ز و — take a join only from the right. In دار (daar, "house") the word falls apart into three separate signs, and that is not a rarity. This mark gives the six away in any text. The angle د therefore has no initial or medial form — only the letter itself.

The new letters of the step: د is d, ر is a short r in one tap of the tongue. ل is l with a long tail, ن is a circle with a dot on top. Remember lam separately: the article ال begins with it, and it sounds in every second word of the course.

ج ح خ — one skeleton, three sounds

The family that shows how the whole alphabet works: one skeleton, and the difference is the dots. A dot inside — ج, the j of "jam". No dot — ح, a breathy h squeezed out of the throat, like fogging a pane of glass. A dot on top — خ, a scraping kh, the ch of Scottish "loch".

The three h sounds must not be confused: حوت is "whale", and خوت would be a different word. Tell them apart by the place: ح comes from the throat, خ from the middle of the mouth. In جبل (jabal, "mountain") all three letters join into one line. The tail of lam at the end runs off to the left.

س ش — the three teeth, and waw with yaa on two jobs

س is the most conspicuous letter of the script: three teeth in a row. With no dot it is s; with a dot on top — ش, sh. A pair on one skeleton, like the angles of step two.

Waw و and yaa ي are the consonants w and y, but the same letter works as a vowel inside a word. Waw is the long "uu", yaa the long "ii". In يوم (yawm, "day") the waw is the consonant w; in ورد (ward, "rose") it is the same consonant. You will meet the long "uu" in words of later steps. And yaa without dots is already a different sign, alif maqsura — it arrives on the last step.

ص ض ط ظ ق — the heavy consonants and the deep q

The emphatic consonants are "heavy" sounds: the tongue is pulled back and the whole syllable darkens. Skeletons and dots list them: ص a heavy s, ض the same loop with a dot, a heavy d. ط is the broken-open oval, a heavy t. ظ is the same with a dot, a heavy interdental. English has no partners for them: the transcription writes plain s/d/t/z, and the weight you hear in the audio — trust your ears.

The step closes with ق — a k made right down in the throat, deeper than the English k. In قمر (qamar, "moon") the first sound sinks. You know it from "Quran" and from qadi, a judge.

ع غ — the throat, and three light consonants

ع is ayn: a sound English does not have at all. Squeeze your throat and draw a vowel through it — the way the beginning of "uh-oh" groans. The transcription marks ayn with ʿ. غ is ghayn: the same squeezed throat with voice — a gargled g, close to the French r of "Paris".

Next to them three light consonants. ف is f, ك is an ordinary k — the deep ق does the same job deeper down. ه is the weakest of the three h sounds, a plain breath of air. In مغرب (maghrib, "west") the throaty غ stands in the middle of the word. On it you hear that this is not English.

The last dots and the three special signs

Three pairs on familiar skeletons are left. ث is a voiceless interdental, the th of "think" — the same skeleton as ب and ت, three dots on top. ذ is a voiced interdental, the th of "this" — an angle with a dot. ز is z, ra with a dot.

And three signs that the table of 28 letters does not list. ة is ta marbuta, the "tied t": at the end of a word it reads simply "a". Feminine words finish with it, like مدينة "school" and ساعة "hour". ء is hamza, a vowel break: not a letter but a mark that sits on alif, waw or yaa. ى is alif maqsura: written like a dotless yaa, read as a long "aa". Hundreds of words end on it, among them مستشفى "hospital".

What order to take the characters in

The writing course is split into 7 steps: one step is one lesson, a few characters at a time. Nobody takes the whole script at once out of mercy: 31 signs in an evening stay in memory for exactly that, an evening.

• Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many times
  Donovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
• 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 times
  Adesope, 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.

Next

• Arabic alphabetA reference of all the characters
• TransliterationThe table, both ways
• PronunciationWhat you hear and what is hard
• How to break down an unfamiliar scripta note