How to Read + Write Arabic: o5 the alphabet

This week I've uploaded a copy of the entire Arabic alphabet, in order for you to know what all the letters look like, but first we’ll review the first four letters of the alphabet (alif, baa, taa, thaa) which you already know {see wgaw blog labels: 'How to Read & Write Arabic'}



Now we'll look at the remaining 24 letters of the alphabet.

When you read the letters below, start at the top right hand side and read across towards the left. The four letters in the top row are called: 5, jimm (right hand side); 6, Haa; 7, khaa; 8 Daal (left hand side)

row 2: 9, dhaal (right hand side); 10, raa; 11, zaay; 12, seen
row 3: 13, sheen; 14, Saad; 15, Daad; 16, Taa (left hand side)
row 4: 17, DHaa; 18, ayn; 19, ghayn; 20, faa
row 5: 21, qaaf; 22, kaaf; 23, laam; 24, miim
row 6: 25, nuun; 26, haa; 27, waaw; 28, yaa


Don’t panic and feel you have to learn all the letters this week, you don’t. Right now we’re only introducing the entire alphabet to give you some idea of what it looks like. Next week we’ll return to explaining one letter at a time, with a full explaination and lots of pictures, so you have time to get to know each letter individually.


Identification
This week we’ll concentrate on improving your ability to identify individual Arabic letters. Each photo below has some information attached to it which gives you three pieces of information:
1 – the English translation

2 - the phonetic spelling in Arabic
3 - the total number of Arabic letters in the photo

See how many letters of the alphabet above you can recognize in the photos below. Don’t forget that some of the letters are non-connectors. The first one is done for you:



airport: [al ma-Taar] 6 letters




Aradous Highway: [shar-ra-A aa-ra-doos] 10 letters




road closed: [al ta-reeq mogh-laQ] 10 letters




lifts: [ma-saa-ed] 5 letters




Bahrain Fort: [Qal-at al baH-rain] 11 letters




out: [Kho-rooJ] 4 letters


Independent Forms

Don’t worry if some of the letters in the photographs don’t seem to be in the alphabet above. Remember, the alphabet letters are always written in their independent form and the letters in the photographs will be written in one of four possible forms; independent, initial, medial or final. However, there are lots of similarities and you should be able to guess the names of some of the letters.

Finally for this week, here is a copy of the entire 28 letter Arabic Alphabet:



What's Next?

Next week, Thursday 12th February, we'll take a closer look at the next letter of the Arabic alphabet, 'jiim', which is located on the furthest right on row 2.