The Arabic alphabet consists of 28 letters, all of which are consonants. Vowels in Arabic are represented by diacritical marks (harakat) placed above or below the letters. Arabic is written and read from right to left, which is the opposite of English and many other languages. Each letter has up to four forms depending on its position in a word: isolated (standing alone), initial (beginning of a word), medial (middle of a word), and final (end of a word).
The 28 letters in order are: أ (Alif), ب (Baa), ت (Taa), ث (Thaa), ج (Jeem), ح (Haa), خ (Khaa), د (Daal), ذ (Dhaal), ر (Raa), ز (Zaay), س (Seen), ش (Sheen), ص (Saad), ض (Daad), ط (Taa), ظ (Dhaa), ع (Ayn), غ (Ghayn), ف (Faa), ق (Qaaf), ك (Kaaf), ل (Laam), م (Meem), ن (Noon), ه (Haa), و (Waw), ي (Yaa). Some letters have sounds that do not exist in English, such as ع (Ayn), ح (Haa), and خ (Khaa), and these require special attention.
Many letters share similar base shapes and are distinguished only by dots. For example, ب (one dot below), ت (two dots above), and ث (three dots above) all share the same basic shape. Similarly, ج, ح, and خ share a shape, as do د and ذ, ر and ز, س and ش, ص and ض, ط and ظ, ع and غ. Learning these groups together can speed up memorization.
Six letters in Arabic are called non-connecting letters because they do not connect to the letter that follows them: أ، د، ذ، ر، ز، و. This means they only have two forms (isolated and final) instead of four. All other letters connect to both the preceding and following letters. Our course teaches each letter group with visual aids, audio pronunciation, and handwriting practice sheets.
We recommend spending time each day practicing letter recognition and writing. The more you expose yourself to the letters, the faster they will become second nature. Our flashcard system uses spaced repetition to help you memorize the letters and their different forms efficiently.