Arabic Letters in Beginning Middle and End

Learning Arabic seems difficult at first; it’s natural to feel like that when you see how different the Arabic Letters in Beginning Middle and End of the word from your native language. The phase of learning the letters is the most important part of building up the following phases, so it has to be a solid foundation. Grab a pen and a piece of paper to write down important notes we will clear up in this blog and keep these notes in front of you throughout your learning letters journey.

What Are the Rules for Arabic Letters?

To learn the Arabic language, you have to be aware of the main rules that help you grasp and memorize them faster:

• Arabic texts are written from right to left, versus the English writing system, which starts from left to right.
• The Arabic letters are cursive in a series of strokes. For instance, the word “cat”, in Arabic it has the letters “ق، ط، ـة”, we don’t write it in this way separately, but we connect the letters to be like “قطة”.
• Some Arabic letters include dots in their drawing, which can’t be overlooked because they will change the letter itself if you miss out on drawing these dots. For instance, the letter “ذ” makes the sound /d/ if we discard the dot and write “د” that changes it to another letter, which makes the sound /th/.
• Unlike English, Arabic letters are joined together, except for some letters we will mention ahead, and their shape changes depending on their placement within a word.
• There are no vowel letters; however, there are diacritics that do the same function.  Don’t feel shy to speak in Arabic anymore, with Online Arabic Conversation Classes that help you speak confidently with a large range of vocabulary.

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What Are Diacritics?

We have in English five vowel letters “a, e, i. o, u” that help us know how the word is pronounced or written, right? Well, in Arabic we don’t have vowel letters and replace their role with the diacritics. Diacritics are marks that can be put above or under the letter to change its sound. For instance, it can change the letter “ج” that says /g/ to say /ga/ or /go/ or /ge/.

They are also called “Alamat al-tashkeel”, they are mainly 3 marks:

• Fatḥah (فتحة): We use it to produce the short sound of vowel a, which can be placed above the letter. For example: when we add Fathah to the letter “س” it becomes “سَ” which is pronounced like /sa/.
• Kasrah (كسرة): It’s used to make the short sound of the vowel i, we place it under the letter. For example, the letter “س”, when we add Kasrah to it, it becomes “سِ” which makes the sound /bi/.
• Dammah (ضمة): It makes the letter produce the same sound as the short o, it’s like a small “و” above the letter. For example, in the letter “س”, when we add the mark of Dammah to it, we get “سُ” which makes the sound /so/. 
• Sukun (سكون): This mark makes you stop on the letter without any vowel sound, so we don’t say sa or so or si we just stop on the letter making this sound /ssss/. Its mark is like a tiny circle above the letter.

To wrap up the diacritics, we have marks equaling the short sound of “a, i, o”, which are “Fatḥah, Kasrah, and Dammah”, so if you want to add:

• The short sound of a, you add Fatḥah. 
• The short sound of I, you add Kasrah.
• For the short vowel of o, you add Dammah.
• And if you want to stop on the letter without any vowel sound, add Sukun.

You have to Read: Harakat In Arabic Language

Arabic Letters in Beginning Middle and End of Words

In Arabic, the letters have three forms, aside from the isolated form that’s used to identify the letter, depending on the position of the letter, whether a letter comes at the beginning, middle, or end of the word.

Before we show you the Arabic letters in beginning middle and end, we just need to underscore some points that will prevent any confusion from crossing your mind:

The Isolated or Independent Letter

It doesn’t connect to any letter, regularly you learn in the beginning to know as an introduction to know their names.’

The First Letter in the Word

It’s the first letter from the right, connected to the subsequent letter only.

The Letters in the Middle 

They are connected to the first letter and the subsequent letters.

The Last Letter in the Word

It’s the last letter on the left, connected to the previous letters, and taking the shape of an independent letter because there is nothing to connect to after it.

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Chart of Arabic Letters in Beginning Middle and End 

What’s It Like to Learn the Arabic Alphabet as a Beginner?

You may feel a bit overwhelmed in the beginning, it goes without saying learning the Arabic language is like learning a whole new world. So, let’s simplify it with some steps that can help you in Arabic writing. Notably, Arabic writing is much easier than English writing, as you can depend on what you hear and write it. However, in English, you can’t apply this rule and write what you hear. Check the Arabic language course that will take you to fluency.

Steps Help You in Arabic Writing as a Beginner

1. Give your full attention to hear the word you want to write.
2. Repeat it many times until you catch each letter in it.
3. If you want to write the word “يذهب yazhab” which means in English go, you have to figure out what is the first letter and look at the above chart to see how it’s written in the beginning.
4. Then, repeat the same step with the rest of the letters, like the sound /b/ this is the letter “ب” in Arabic, look for it in the chart, how you can write it at the end of the word and so on.
5. Do that with the help of a mentor or instructor to fix your mistakes and give you feedback.
6. Keep rehearsing on some easy words every day. By the time, most words in Arabic become familiar.

Try to write this word in Arabic “smk” which means fish in English, leave a comment with your attempt and we will check it.

Read Also: Learn To Read Arabic For Beginners

Why Might Arabic Letters Sound Weird to English Native Speakers

At first glance, it seems weird because there are many sounds you even don’t know that they exist or how they make them, such as “ط، ظ، ع،غ،ح،خ” once you come across, you feel amazed.

Many letters in Arabic don’t have equivalents in English, which make you find difficulty in trying to produce the same sound like Arabic native speakers. You can rise above this challenge by following the right steps to pronounce these letters by getting the sounds and their articulations right from the start. 

That is exactly what we will make you master in Al-Walid Academy. In the beginner level of the Arabic Foundation Course, you will learn basic Arabic letters, sounds, and the correct pronunciation of each letter. 

Make sure you will master each letter’s pronunciation because we initially concentrate on practical aspects more than theoretical study. After a good grasp of letter articulations, you work on producing it as much as possible until you master it like Arabic native speakers.

Read more about: Learning Arabic As An English Speaker

Arabic Alphabet in Detail: 4 Important Concepts to Be Aware of

When it comes to learning the Arabic language, you have to know that there are many differences between it and English. To have a background about these differences can facilitate learning it. Here are four important concepts to be aware of:

1. The Arabic alphabet doesn’t have the concept of uppercase and lowercase, all the letters are the same but their shapes differ according to their position in the sentence.
2. The letters in the Arabic alphabet are 28, there are no consonants and vowels because the 28 letters are consonants and there are marks that I depend on to produce the vowel sounds, they are called “Harakat”.
3. The direction of Arabic writing is from right to left, unlike English, which is written from left to right.
4. Your hearing can be a great asset in Arabic dictation, even without prior visual exposure to the words, as Arabic writing is highly phonemic. The Arabic letters follow the Abjad system, as we mentioned before, the whole letters are consonants and there are ways of making long and short vowel sounds. For short vowel sounds, we have diacritics or Alamat Al-Tashkeel, which are “Fatḥah, Kasrah, Dammah, and Sukun”.For long vowel sounds, we have three letters that are added to any letter to get a long vowel sound, they are “أ، و،ي”.

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Which Arabic Letters Cannot Be Joined?

Have you noticed in the Arabic letters in the beginning middle and end chart there are some letters in the middle that look the same as in the end? Because we have some letters that can’t be connected with the following letter, they have the same shape in both positions: the middle and the end.

The Arabic alphabet has 6 letters that are unfriendly and don’t connect to the subsequent letter, they are: alif أ, waw و, dal  د, Thal ذ, raa ر, and zay ز. They join up with the previous letter but don’t join up with the subsequent one, leaving a small space. Here are some words with these 6 letters in the middle to show how they don’t link: “تفاحة، ذئب، راتب، دراجة، زرافة، وردة”. 

You can observe how they link to the previous letter and don’t do that with the letter following them. If you make a mistake and connect it, you turn it to another letter, such as the letter “alif أ” if you link it up with the following letter, you will turn it into the letter “lam ل”. For instance, in the word “ينام” if you connect the letter “أ” to the letter “م”, you will change it to another word “ينلم”.

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Does the Letter U Exist in Arabic?

The letter U has two sounds in English, the short sound and the long sound, Arabic phonics have covered them, whether using one letter or two. Here are how we can produce its sounds with Arabic letters:

The short sound of u, which is /ʊ/, exists in Arabic with the letter “أ” when you pronounce it with a fuller sound.

The long  sound of u is /juː/is also can be produced by using two letters together “يو”.

On the other hand, there are some sounds in English that don’t exist in Arabic, such as the letter p and v. Arabs confuse between the letters p and b, taking a long time to grasp they are different letters.

The most important factor to enhance your writing in Arabic is regular exposure to Arabic texts. Online Noorani Qaida Course can give you a foundational and detailed program, that helps you learn Arabic and read many texts and the Quran with Tajweed, which qualifies you exquisitely for writing.

You Must Read: Best Place to Learn Arabic Online

Conclusion

You’ve now got a good grasp of the Arabic letters in the beginning middle and end of the word which will definitely ease your writing and reading more than any time before. Most importantly, stick to reading, writing, and practicing every day because it’s the proven way to master any language,

FAQ

How Long Does It Take to Learn the Alphabet?

It depends on the time of studying them and your own abilities. Overall, it can take around a month, if you study every day.

How to Memorize Arabic Letters?

Study the names of the letters collectively, then take each letter with its positions in the word, and finally take the letters with Harakat while trying to read and write words.

What Is the Stage after Learning Letters?

You will start to learn the grammatical rules of Arabic to make sentences correctly.