Are you dreaming of speaking Arabic? Did you hear about Arabic words with long vowels before?
Do you need to understand the magic of letters in the Arabic language?
Let me inform you that reading and speaking Arabic starts with learning consonants and vowels and differentiating between them.
The coming lines will introduce the long vowels in the Arabic language in detail and go through it with many examples to understand this concept comprehensively.
Types of vowels in the Arabic Language
The Arabic Alphabet contains consonants and vowels, each figure and affects the word formation.
There are two types of vowels which are Short vowels and Long vowels.
Vowels help to differentiate the meaning of the word through sound vibrations, tone, and duration; they act as modifiers attached to other letters
Short vowels
They are sound and characterized by diacritics placed above or below the letter and known as Harakat حَركات or Tashkeel تَشكيل.
The letter is pronounced and then attached to the vowel sound ( determined by the symbol and the diacritic position) before moving to the following letter.
There are 3 types of Short vowels in Arabic;
- Fatiha: resembles the letter “a” as the word “bag”, it is identified by putting ( َ )over the desired letter.
- Kasra: resembles the letter “i” as the word “sit”, it is identified by putting the same diacritic as Fatiha but below the desired letter.
- Damma: resembles the letter “u” as the word “look”, it is identified by ( ُ )above the corresponding letter.
Don’t miss reading Harakat in Arabic language.
Long vowels
They are called Mad or “Modood in plural” in Arabic and known as Harf illa حرف علة.
They are the extension of the short vowels and are identified by 3 letters which will be discussed later in detail.
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What are the Arabic letters with long vowels?
It refers to the elongated pronunciation of short vowels, it is represented in the English language as doubling the letter.
They are indicated in Arabic by 3 letters Alif, Waaw, and Yaa.
Alif
It is the first letter in the Arabic alphabet and the long vowels as well, it is pronounced “aa” which is double the short vowel Fatiha.
Alif letter is written as “ا”, it is the long /a/ sound and represented as /ā/, while the short vowel Fatiha is represented as /a/.
For example: the letter “م” is pronounced /ma’/, while the long vowel Alif is pronounced /mā/ ما, as in the word ماهر which means clever.
Waaw
Waaw letter is written as “و” and pronounced “oo” or “uu” which is double the short vowel Damma.
It is the long /u/ or /o/ sound and is represented as /ū/.
Let’s use the same letter “م” which will be pronounced as /mū/ with the Waaw vowel as in the word أمور, omour which means issues.
Yaa
The third long vowel letter is written as “ي”.
It is pronounced “ee” or “ii” which is double time the short vowel Kasra and represented as /ī/.
Again with the letter “م” with the Yaa vowel, it will be “mī” as in the word جميل which means beautiful.
Arabic vowels may be a new and conflicting concept for non-Arabic speakers, The Arabic Language Course offered by Al Waid Academy will help you understand them well and provide continuous practice to use them easily in your speech.
Arabic Words with Long vowels
After being familiar with the long vowel letters and their pronunciation, here are some practical examples.
Do you the difference between sun letter and moon letter in Arabic?
What are the long vowels in the Quran?
The Holy Quran is the only written text where you will find marks and diacritics that indicate long vowels.
The three long vowel letters “مد” are represented by certain marks in the Holy Quran as follows:
- Alif Madd: represented by Fatiha before the Alif letter and means stretching the sound for two counts, for example, ومَا، عَذاب، النَار.
- Waaw Madd: represented by Damma before the sakin Waaw letter and means elongating with two counts, for example, مسرُورا، دُحورا.
- Yaa Madd: represented by Kasra before the Yaa letter and means prolonging for two counts for example كبِير, رحَيم، حلِيم.
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What are the marks on long vowels in Arabic?
The long vowel marks are mainly used in spoken words and rarely be written, except for the Holy Quran.
In Long vowels, there are no diacritics used, however, it is identified by the subsequent letter as follows:
- The Alif letter ”ا” ( double time of Short vowels Fatiha) follows the prolonged Fatiha.
- The Waaw letter “و”(double time of Short vowels Damma) follows the prolonged Damma.
- The Yaa letter ”ي”(double time of Short vowels Kasra) follows the prolonged Kasra.
Examples of Arabic words with long vowels
Examples of the long vowel Alif:
- Gamal جمال:beauty
- Tager تاجر : merchant
- Maher ماهر: clever
- Hemar حمار: donkey
- Gebal جبال: mountains
- Ketaab كتاب: book
- Daar دار: home
Examples of the long vowel Waaw:
- Sonbour صبور: fucket
- Masrour مسرور: Happy
- Sabour صبور: patient
- Korood قرود: monkeys
- Akhtabout أخطبوط: octopus
- Oyoon عيون: eyes
Examples of the long vowel Yaa:
- Feel فيل: elephant
- Harees حريص: Careful
- Ameer أمير: prince
- Kabir كبير: big
Here are many Arabic words to practice reading.
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Conclusion
There are three Long vowel letters in the Arabic language which are Alif “ا”, Waaw “و”, and Yaa “ي”, they differ from short vowels in the elongation of the sound.
Practicing many examples of Arabic words with long vowels is your key to understanding this concept in the Arabic Language and being able to read and speak smoothly, in addition to reading the Holy Quran which contains additional marks to confirm this concept