Arabic Alphabet
Recognize the 28 Arabic letters and see how letter shapes change inside words.
Start with the letters
Arabic is read from right to left. The source chart shows each letter by itself and in beginning, middle, and ending positions. Start by learning the isolated shapes below, then compare them with the full chart. The letter names have been respelled consistently for this web edition.
| Letter | Letter name |
|---|---|
| ا | Alif |
| ب | Ba |
| ت | Ta |
| ث | Tha |
| ج | Jim |
| ح | Ḥa |
| خ | Kha |
| د | Dal |
| ذ | Dhal |
| ر | Ra |
| ز | Zay |
| س | Sin |
| ش | Shin |
| ص | Ṣad |
| ض | Ḍad |
| ط | Ṭa |
| ظ | Ẓa |
| ع | 3ayn |
| غ | Ghayn |
| ف | Fa |
| ق | Qaf |
| ك | Kaf |
| ل | Lam |
| م | Mim |
| ن | Nun |
| ه | Ha |
| و | Waw |
| ي | Ya |
Look at the connected forms
Compare these shapes of ba: ب by itself, بـ at the beginning, ـبـ in the middle, and ـب at the end. The dot remains below the letter.
Open the original alphabet chart to study every letter’s connected forms.
Notice the dots
Compare ب ت ث, then ج ح خ, then د ذ. Their dots distinguish letters with similar outlines. Also compare ح and ه: this course writes them as 7 and h in Latin-script Darija.
Practice
Find the letters ب, ت, ث, ج, ح, and خ in the chart. Trace each isolated shape, then find its beginning and ending forms. Finish by identifying ع, غ, ش, and ق.
Reading guide
Transliteration key: 3 = ع, 7 = ح, sh = ش, kh = خ, gh = غ. A dot under a consonant marks an emphatic consonant. Latin spellings are reading aids; they do not fully capture pronunciation.
Source and audio
Adapted from Peace Corps/Morocco, Basic Introduction to Arabic, lesson 1 (PDF page 2). Formatting, English dialogue glosses where present, and practice prompts are LearnLahja adaptations.
Audio is not currently available for this lesson.