Resource 1 – Arabic alphabet

The table below shows a list of the 28 letters used in Arabic. From left to right the columns read:
- Letter – the letter as it looks when written on its own
- Name – the name of the letter (written in our alphabet)
- Transliteration – you can think of this as a translation of the letter from the Arabic alphabet
to our alphabet (note that we don’t have all the sounds that Arabic does)
- Closest equivalent sound – an example of an English word which, when pronounced, uses
that sound (the particular part of the word where the sound is heard is bold typed)
- Joining – examples of how the letter looks when joined-up; from left to right this column
shows how the letter looks at the end of a word (leftmost letter), the middle of a word, and
the start of a word (rightmost letter)
Example: Consider the Arabic word‫ لندن‬. Using the table below you can work out the individual
letters are ‫‘( ل‬l’), ‫‘( ن‬n’), ‫‘( د‬d’) and ‫‘( ن‬n’). Hence this word is pronounced ‘l’-‘n’-‘d’-n’ i.e. ‘London’.

Letter Name Transliteration Closest equivalent sound Joining

‫ا‬ Aliph ā car, cat ‫اـ ـاـ ـا‬
‫ب‬ Baa b barn ‫ببب‬
‫ت‬ Taa t tight ‫تتت‬
‫ث‬ Thaa th think ‫ثثث‬
‫ج‬ Jeem j gem ‫ججج‬
‫ح‬ Haa ḥ hat (whispered) ‫ححح‬
‫خ‬ Khaa kh loch (Scottish) ‫خخخ‬
‫د‬ Daal d dear ‫دـ ـدـ ـد‬
‫ذ‬ Dhaal dh that ‫ذـ ـذـ ـذ‬
‫ر‬ Raa r perro (Spanish rolled r) ‫رـ ـرـ ـر‬
‫ز‬ Zaay z zebra ‫زـ ـزـ ـز‬
‫س‬ Seen s sin ‫سسس‬
‫ش‬ Sheen sh shin ‫ششش‬
‫ص‬ Saad ṣ sauce (constricting throat) ‫صصص‬
‫ض‬ Daad ḍ dawn (constricting throat) ‫ضضض‬
‫ط‬ Taa ṭ tight (constricting throat) ‫ططط‬
‫ظ‬ Zaa ẓ xylophone (constricting throat) ‫ظظظ‬
‫ع‬ ‘Ayn ʿ hat (voiced) ‫ععع‬
‫غ‬ Ghayn gh guy ‫غغغ‬
‫ف‬ Faa f far ‫ففف‬
‫ق‬ Qaaf q caught (pronounced further ‫ققق‬
back in the mouth)
‫ك‬ Kaaf k cap ‫ككك‬
‫ل‬ Laam l lamp ‫للل‬
‫م‬ Meem m me ‫ممم‬
‫ن‬ Noon n nun ‫ننن‬
‫ه‬ Haa h hat ‫ههه‬
‫و‬ Waw w wet, pool ‫وـ ـوـ ـو‬
‫ي‬ Yaa y yesterday, meet ‫ييي‬