Arabic Alphabet - Basics of Arabic Script

Learn the Arabic alphabet, Arabic vowels, letters and practice in your own time with little effort.

Lesson 1:

In this lesson, we will learn the characters of the Arabic alphabet, their English equivalents, and their names. Click on the Arabic letter to hear what its name is, and click on the English equivalent for a demonstration of its pronunciation. You will need the latest version of Real Player to play the files. Please note that the characters of the Arabic alphabet are neither capital nor small; they have one form only.

Also note that some of these Arabic letters are very similar to English letter sounds e.g. 'baa' is very close to the letter 'B' in the English language; this is a useful way to remember the sounds.  However, many Arabic letters have no equivalent sound in English e.g. 'ein', and some letters have subtle but important differences in pronunciation, e.g. 'haa' which is pronounced with a lot more emphasis in the throat than the letter 'H' in English.

Also, please note that the Arabic script is read from right to left. Please read the Arabic alphabet below starting from the right and proceeding to each letter toits left.

The Arabic Alphabet

In the Arabic alphabet, we have 29 letters three of which are long vowels. The rest of the letters are consonants. Each letter is given a name which contains the letter itself.

The names of the letters, what the letters sound like, and the order in which they appear in the Arabic alphabet must be memorized before proceeding through successive lessons.