The Alphabet ----
الأبجدية ( Al-abjadiyyah)
The Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters, and some symbols that make reading easier. Arabic is written from right to left, horizontally.
Let’s have a look on the letters as they look like generally:
Arabic Name Transliteration
script
أ alif A
ب baa B
ت Taa’ T
ث Thaa’ Th
ج jeem J
ح Haa’ 7
خ Khaa’ Kh
د daal D
ذ dhaal Dh
ر Raa’ R
ز zaay Z
س seen s
ش sheen Sh
ص Saad S
ض DaaD D
ط Taa’ T
ظ THaa’ Th
ع ‘eyn 3
غ gheyn Gh
ف Faa’ F
ق qaaf Q
ك kaaf K
ل laam L
م meem M
ن noon N
ه Haa’ H
و waaw W
ي Yaa’ y/i
I don’t recommend transliteration, as you can see that several letters can be transliterated in the same way, which can create a confusion between them, so you’d better always check the Arabic spelling of words and sentences.
For pronunciation tips, and more details about the alphabet issue, please refer to :
http://arabic.speak7.com/arabic_alphabet.htm
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PS: May be someone around can make a sound file for the alphabet..Or if needed, I should consider that myself. (Nor sure though, I am shy!!!!!)
I am not sure this is clear enough, or if it's too much or too little, I didn't want to go longer than one page in "word"..Any questions are welcome. All suggestions to add more details are welcome too.
This lesson must look like a piece of cake to : Jonne, Digital Master, Nana, and Nadine as they can all write Arabic letters already. But if anyone around is totally new to the language, I am ready to help with writing and reading since the very beginning, and to practice that online.
This lesson is available as a word document in the attachement below, but without this “PS” part
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Please don't pay attention to the general presentation of this lesson, you can adjust size and color as you like in the word document. It took me ages to change the size and color of the 28 letters, and they still look aweful!