Ukindia Learning to read Arabic

Ukindia
Learn to Read Arabic

Lesson 1

Lesson 2..Learn Arabic Online..Arabic CD Rom..Home

Arabic is the language of a large part of our planet . It is one of the permanent languages of the UN.

These are a few very basic learn to read the alphabet lessons. You may freely copy these lessons for non-commercial uses .
The words are mostly in English so you can more easily recognise the shape of the letters.Write to us to let us know if you
find the lessons useful and if you spot any mistakes.

Arabic is written in the opposite direction from English , i.e. from your right hand towards your left one . In are two letters
"sh" as in shame and "n" as in name. The Hindi equivalent is given alongside . Hindi Lessons.

Each letter is written in four forms . For eg if 'Sh' comes in the beginning of a word it is written as

If in the middle then

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 Ukindia Learning to read Arabic

If at the end then

and if on its own , in a detached form

From the figure below one can see that it is easy to spot the four forms of each letter. The detached form and final form
look very similar . The inital and medial ones have the final bit of a letter left out . Arabic has its own built in shorthand !

These are the four forms of Sh and N marked detached , initial , medial and final.

Supposing we wanted to make a word beginning with Sh and ending with N ( eg to shun somebody) we take initial form of
Sh and final form of N to make shn

Now follows the whole Arabic alphabet with the closest English equivalent .

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Note that in the figure above (which has the equivalent Hindi sound added ) some sounds share a common letter. For
example B and P are the same , although in some Arab countries three dots are present under B to make it P.

Revise the alphabet again

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Lesson 2..Learn Arabic Online..Home

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 Ukindia Learn Arabic script 2

Ukindia
Learn to Read Arabic

Lesson 2

Lesson 3..Learn Arabic Online..Home

Vowel Marks

Using our letters SH and N we can add vowel marks

First the short vowels.

The first is an accent mark - a short slanting line over the letter . It is called fatha so this word reads shn with the accent on

the sh . It is also used as an aae vowel for example like the a in cAt or mAt

Mark i is called kasra and written below the line. What does this word read as ?

Of course it is shin -part of the leg.

Another short vowel is u called damma as in sUgar . What does this word read ?

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Full marks if you got it as shUn as in sUgar .

There is tendency to leave out the short vowels. So when you see

you may have to read it as shin

or as shUn depending on the context.

Long Vowels

Aa is a straight vertical line which is not joined to the letter that follows it. For example this is shAAn

The long OO is signified by using the letter v and putting a damma mark on top .

That word was shOOn

The u (damma) and little i ( kasra) mark may be a little distance from the O as in the figure below which still reads as
shOOn.

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The next word has the long EE . EE is made by putting a kasra mark next to two dots borrowed from the y letter

It is shEEn

The little i and u marks may be left out altogether so if yous see shOn it may read as shOOn

Next we make an aw sound as in shawn by putting a mark called sukuun on top of the O or V letter.

So the above word reads as shAWn

The AI sound as in mIne is made by putting a sukuun over two dots . One way of writing shIne as in the sun shines

Another use of the open circle sukkun mark is to make an abrupt stop. For example in the word for mother -spelt as mdr in
Arabic , we would put sukuun marks over m , d and r to show that these are abrupt m , d and r and do not have a modifying
vowel -ie they are not mi or du etc.

When the vowel like the long EE comes at the end of the word the full letter Y with its dots is written . Whats this word ?

The answer was SHE as in she wants to talk.

This is a mark called HAMZA - sounded like A

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When a vowel comes at the beginning of a word the first letter alif is written as well as a vowel mark with hamza . For

example ashn is written as

ushn is written as

Ishn as

The long aa at the front is marked by a madda mark over the alif . This word is read as AAshn

Another mark is a doubler called tashdeed or shadda . For example in this word the sh letter has to be sounded twice and it

reads as shshn

We will meet more examples of vowel marks later.

Lets have a look at all the four forms of each letter. The first group are those which have only one shape . They are joined
to a letter which comes before them but not to one after- for example in the word lurk-spelt lrk the r is joined to l but not to
k. T' and Z do join the letter coming after and before then but do not change their shape. These stand alone letters are

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The next set are B (and P) , T and TH as in THink.

Now the four forms of J, H and K . Note it is quite easy to guess these forms.

S , SH , D and DH

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Below are Aine (A) and G

Now follow F , Q, K, L ,M , N , H , Y ( and EE). Note a compound letter LA formed by L and A

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Below are the vowel marks . The nn, in and un marks are often put at the end of the word.

Lesson 3..Learn Arabic Online..Home

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 Arabic Lesson 3 Ukindia

Ukindia
Learn to Read Arabic

Lesson 3

Lesson 4..Home

The following two figures marked 'Arabic Script' may seem a bit confusing but do contain almost all the letters in the Arabic
alphabet. Dont worry too much if you find it difficult at first . Print the figure out and keep it at your side as you read the next
few lines. Line 1 has letters which do not join to the letter coming after them and so do not change their shape. These letters are
A , D, THE , R , Z , soft T, Z and V ( and O).

T' and Z do join the letter coming after and before then but do not change their shape.

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The second line marked 2 has B , T and TH as in THink. Note carefully the inital , medial amd final form of these letters . Only
T is shown , the others are similar except of course B has a dot at the bottom and TH has three dots above.

Line 3 has on your right J , H and KH and the forms of one of these. Next is S and SH. Check on SH from the previous lesson . S
forms are shown here.

The next has the long S as in hiSS and DH . The following line has A and G. Note A would have the initial , medial and final
forms of G but no dot on top. Then follows F, Q, K ,L, M ,N , H and Y .

Then comes Y with its two dots . If the slanting line is added to the two dots it becomes a long EE as you should see in the last
line . After Y is a compound letter LA made of L and A . On the last line are vowel marks.

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The above figure has a bit of space. If you convert this into a bitmap file you will be able to use the space to make your own
words.

Now see if you can read the next figure by looking at the previous 'Arabic Script ' figure and seeing if you can decipher what the
words are -hint- think religion.

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Here are the answers .

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How the words Massiah ( Christ) and Muhammad are made is shown again at the bottom.

Some notes . The first line in the figure below has three ways of writing Allah -God . The first form has A with an accent mark
for ugh , Then a L doubled with the tashdid mark. An accent mark on top and then a small vertical line to signify an even longer
emphasis on L , and then a final A. As accent marks can clutter , the next form is shown without them. the third form has the
compound letter LA used.

The first line also has the word Muslim . The second line has Quran , Muhammad and Masiih (Christ) . Note the small open
circle above R , it is called a sukuun and is often put over the second letter when it is a constant (here R) following another
constant (here Q) . . R is followed by a long AA and then N . The next line shows how the word Muhammad was made up. Note
an accent mark over the second M , in addition to teh doubler. Often these accent marks are left out.

The final line shows how the word for Christ is made up . Note another sukuun (again often left out ) because here constant H
follows another constant S.

Lesson 4..Home

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 Learn Arabic Script Lesson 4 Ukindia

Ukindia
Learn to Read Arabic

Lesson 4

Lesson 5..Home

Lets form some English words from the Arabic script. There are ten in the figure below -see if you can read them. Hint the first
line has law enforcers , a place to buy drinks and photographic... The second has a place to buy lots of goods , a smoke and a
milk product. The third has two drinks. The fourth has a medicine and an illness.

The answers are

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Check with the full script below

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Some notes on these words

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In the first line note that P in Police is the same as a B. In the second note that we have omitted the little i in market and the u
mark over the P.

Strictly speaking Supermarket , Whisky and Milk Shake should be written as

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but as Arabic often omits the short i , u and a vowels it is good practice to get used to this omission.

Here are some more initial , medial and final forms of each letter with English words..

Some hints . The first letter reading from your right is a material made from oil. It has another form of LA that is sometimes
used. Next is something people do when embarassed. Then to complete the first line is .... and that . In the second line are an
African country , an Arab city and an Arab person.

Here are the answers

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In the final part of this lesson see if you can read some more English words .

Here are the answers

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Lesson 5..Home

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 Ukindia Arabic script Lesson 5

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Learn to Read Arabic

Lesson 5

Lesson 6..Home

Lets look at some more religious words and how they are made up.

Here are the answers

You might wonder how the ones above are made up . The first -Ayyat , chapters of the Quran has the doubler for Y . The
second has a doubler over the final Y. However because of the small i (kasra) mark the first Y is actually a long EE . The
second is a normal Y. So this reads as NBeeY with the final Y pronouced as Y. In the third spelt Alrrasool but pronounce Ar-
rasool the L is silent so the word actually is read as Ar-rasool . Al means THE in Arabic , for example AL-DeeN means 'The
Religion'.

The next figure has words which are common to Urdu and Arabic . Although written in Arabic only the Urdu translation is
given which in most cases is the same as Arabic.

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Here are the answers

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Some notes on the above. In Greeb there is a missing i mark , as it is common in Arabic and Urdu to miss out i and u marks
but pronounce them anyway , it is best to get used to it. Mashhoor has a missing u mark .Sahib a missing i one. Sandooq a
missing u one. Dakhli has the missing two dots and i to make it a long EE at the end . This is quite common. Maloomat a
missing u . Some of these missing ones are put in brackets.

Here are some more common Urdu/Arabic words

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And the answers

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Note NHR (river) has another way of writing H in the middle.

The next figure has two Urdu words at the top followed by an English one in the top line. The rest are Arabic words to
complete most of the initial and final forms.

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The answers are

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Lesson 6..Home

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 Arabic script Lesson 6 ukindia

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Learn to Read Arabic

Lesson 6

Lesson 6..Home

This is the final lesson for the time being in Arabic . Please let us know if you spot any mistakes.

The medial H , J and K can be written as follows -here h is shown where it forms the middle letter in Al- Hajj on your left
instead of as on the right .

The sound CH as in CHina is made by writing a T after an SH

as in this figure

The two little parallel slanting lines indicate an n sound modified by a pesh or kasra or fatah as in the next figure .

Remember the normal vowel marks

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In handwriting the two dots over the Q can be written as a dash . The three dots of SH as an inverted v or straight line and the K
eg as in KL can be modified as follows

a T vowel mark over the final H can be silent as below or can be pronounced as TA depending on circumstances.

Finally see if you can decipher this , one of the commonest phrases in Arabic.

Lesson 6..Home

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