The Arabic Alphabet

28 letters

How does it look like?

• There are 28 letters in the Arabic Alphabet
• Words are written from right to left however numbers are written from left to right  
• Most of the letters are joined together in both hand-written and printed Arabic. There are only 5 or 6 letters that can be joined from one side only, apart from that all other letters are joined together from both sides; right & left.
• Some letters are changing form depending on where they appear at the beginning, middle or end of the word
• There ONLY 3 long vowels /a:/, /i:/ and /u:/ in the Arabic alphabet which are represented by the letters 'alif, yā' and wāw.

ا

ي

و

Short vowels are not represented by any letters they are only understood from habitual use.

Please make sure to read from right to left NOT the opposite.

ر	ذ	د	خ	ح	ج	ث	ت	ب	ا
rāʾ	ḏāl	dāl	ḫāʾ	ḥāʾ	Ǧīm	ṯhāʾ	tāʾ	bāʾ	ʾalif
R	ḏ	D	ḫ	ḥ	Ǧ	ṯʾ	t	b	ʾ(a)
ﻑ	ﻍ	ع	ظ	ط	ض	ص	ش	س	ز
fāʾ	ġayn	ʿayn	ẓāʾ	ṭāʾ	ḍād	ṣād	šīn	sīn	zāy
F	ġ	ʿ	ẓ	ṭ	ḍ	ṣ	š	s	z
	ء	ي	و	ه	ن	ﻡ	ﻝ	ﻙ	ﻕ
	hamza	yāʾ	wāw	hāʾ	Nūn	mīm	lām	kāf	qāf
		y	w	h	N	m	l	k	q

See the video for a lecture on the Alphabet…