آ — alef-madda
«alef-madda» is a vowel of the Urdu script, read as “aa with madda”. Alef with the madda stroke on top: a long "aa" at the start of a word. A word never opens on a short "a" — only on a sign like this one. For example, in the word “آب” — water. The Urdu alphabet has 38 letters in total. This character does not count as a letter of the alphabet. The wave — the madda — sits on the vertical stroke. آب "water" begins with it; inside a word the madda never appears. It appears, for example, in the word “آپ” — you (polite).
In short
| Character | آ |
| Name | alef-madda |
| Sound | aa with madda |
| What it is | a vowel |
In our course the character comes 2nd of 40: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ا and و, appears in 159 words of this site.
How to type آ
- On a phone: add the Urdu keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+0622 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 0622.
- Unicode code point: U+0622. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
Alef with the madda stroke on top: a long "aa" at the start of a word. A word never opens on a short "a" — only on a sign like this one
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 |
|---|---|---|
| final | ـآ | joins only from the right |
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.
- آبabwater
The character in the “ا آ و ی ے — the vowels and length” group
The script is an abjad: short vowels are not written in it at all. کتب is "k-t-b", and it reads kitab — the short i comes from memory. Only the long ones are written, with these signs, plus the seat a word starts on when it opens with any vowel. Vav and ye stay consonants ("v" and "y") whenever a vowel of their own stands next to them. The hamza is a glottal catch, a mark rather than a letter.
Words with this character
- آپapyou (polite)
- آپ کا نام کیا ہے؟ap ka nam kya hai?what is your name?
- آپ لوگap logyou (all)
- آپ کہاں سے ہیں؟ap kahan se hain?where are you from?
- مجھے سمجھ نہیں آئیmujhe samajh nahin aiI don’t understand
- آہستہahistaslower
- آپ انگریزی بولتے ہیں؟ap angrezi bolte hain?do you speak English?
- آدابadaba polite greeting
- آٹھatheight
- آمaammango
- آجadzhtoday
- آدھاadhahalf
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 «alef-madda» it is “aa with madda”, as in the word “آب”), 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 — 38 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 Urdu character آ read?
As “aa with madda” — it is a vowel of the Urdu script. Alef with the madda stroke on top: a long "aa" at the start of a word. A word never opens on a short "a" — only on a sign like this one. For example, in the word “آب” — water.
What is the sign آ called?
Alef-madda. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Urdu script: it is called “alef-madda” and reads as “aa with madda”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.