How to Read & Write Arabic 16: TTAA

Before we look at this week's letter ttaa I want to offer endless appologies for the appaling quality of this week's posting.  The Mac seems to have gone into some bizzare not-working blonde ritual and after many hours, no, days, of trying to work out what is wrong, I am simply unable to improve on what is here.

Appologies once again, but it seems more important to post than to worry about a few hundred typos ...

So, this week we'll look at another letter which is very similar in sound and looks to the last letter which was introduced, daad.


Speaking Ttaa
Like the last letter DHaa, the sound for ttaa needs to come from your lungs rather than from your mouth. Again use the technique of blowing on your glasses to clean them. Blow on your glasses to make them steam up and make an hhrrrh sound whilst you’re doing it. Once you can do this, add a deep ‘T’ to the beginning of the sound and keep it deep and low.

Remember; keep the sound as low as possible and keep your tongue on the back of your two front teeth whilst you make the sound.

To help you remember, think of this letter as the ‘Traveling T’ – both Tey-yarr-raa (airplane) and mat-Tar (airport) contain this letter.


Writing Taa
Writing Taa is easy; it's a very similar shape to the letters Saad and DHad, you simply make the short vertical stroke longer, like so:


medial



Initial








Meidal
See if you can find the letter taa by yourself:

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final

How to Read & Write Arabic 15: DAAD

This week we'll look at the letter 'Daad', another letter which has no equivalent sound in English. 

Speaking Daad
Like Saad the sound needs to come from your lungs rather than your mouth. Use the same technique you used to make the sound of Saad, but this time begin the sound with a ‘d’. Remember, like Saad the sound must be low. 

The sound for Daad needs to come from your lungs rather than your mouth and is made using the same technique as when you blow on your glasses to clean them. Blow on your glasses/sunglassses to make them steam up and make a sort of 'hhrrrh' sound whilst you’re doing it. Once you can do this, add an ‘D’ to the beginning of the sound and keep it deep and low. You should now be making a 'Daarrrh' sound.

Once you can make the 'Daarrrh' sound change the 'rrrh' at the end to a ‘d’ and make the Daaad sound; Daarrrd. Make sure when you say the letter 'Daad' you keep the sound as low as possible and that your tongue touches your top teeth.


Reading & Writing Daad
Daad is written in exactly the same way as Saad – a loop followed by a short vertical stroke, but this time you’ll need to add a dot above the loop. Always write the dot last:

independent


initial


medial

final



Photos of Daad
Here are some photos of words containing the letter Daad

Initial
remember, even though a letter is in the middle of a word if it follows a non-connector it will be written in its inital form



ground floor [al TarbaQ al ar-D'ee]






Medial
I can't quite remember where I took this sign for the Hippodrome, but I think it was Jerash or Petra, but definately somewhere in Jordan

This photo below is probably the most useful for learning Arabic; guest rooms or literally translated, room guest [gur-fa al Daa-wee-oof].  In Arabic the adjective always comes before the noun:



Independent
Another useful word in this sign, Sharah [shar-raH] or road:




Whilst this road sign says the same thing, without the word 'road'



Practice
This week's practice is the same as the previous weeks, except there is no hide and seek this week, finding the letter Daad has been difficult and I've used up all the photos I have of this particular letter!  You'll have noticed I'm sure there were no images of Daad in its final form ~obviously not a popular letter~

Anyway, should you wish to practice Daad, try the following:
1. Using lined paper write the letter 'Daad' in its four forms, as many times as you can; initial, medial, final and independent. A minimum of 20 repetitions is suggested.
2. Re-read the previous wgaw blog posts {wgaw subject/ labels 'How to Read and Write Arabic} and try to find the letter Daad in the postings. Then decide which form the letter 'Daad' appears.


What's Next?
Next week we’ll look at THAA, the next letter of the alphatet and another letter which doesn't have an equivalent sound in English.

How to Read & Write Arabic 14: SAAD

This week we’ll start to look at the first of the four Arabic letters which are the hardest for non-native speakers to differentiate and pronounce: unfortunately for all of us, they all look and sound quite similar ...

So, this week we’ll look at the letter 'Saad' and next we'll look at the letter, 'Daad'. Then we'll continue with the other two letters which are really similar. The good news is, once you’ve learnt these four letters, the rest of the alphabet is easy ~a piece of cake~ and you’re two-thirds of the way through the alphabet. The bad news is, these four letters are bloody difficult.

If you haven’t already found a native Arabic speaker who's willing to help you achieve the correct pronunciation, now is the time to find one.  These four letters have no equivalent in English, not even anything which is even vaguely similar!

There is some good news though, all four are connectors and so you’ll already know each of them have four different ways of being written; independent, initial, medial and final.


Speaking Saad
The sound for Saad needs to come from your lungs rather than your mouth and is made using the same technique as when you blow on your glasses to clean them.  Blow on your glasses/sunglassses to make them steam up and make a sort of 'hhrrrh' sound whilst you’re doing it.  Once you can do this, add an ‘s’ to the beginning of the sound and keep it deep and low.  You should now be making a 'saarrrh' sound.  

Once you can make the 'saarrrh' sound change the 'rrrh' at the end to a ‘d’ and make the saaad sound; saarrrd.Make sure when you say the letter 'Saad' you keep the sound as low as possible and that your tongue touches your top teeth.


Writing Saad

Thank goodness something is easy with Saad - the writing; start in the middle of the letter and move to the right, making a loop.  Follow this with a tail shape (which ends above the line you are writing on).  Make sure you keep your pen on the paper all the time, don’t lift up the pen between writing the loop and the tail, like so:


independent



Initial


Medial


Final



Examples of the Letter 'Saad'
The photos below all show the letter Saad in its various formats:

Initial







Medial






Final

Independent

Hide & Seek

Now see if you can find the letter Saad in the photos below:

Practice/ Homework

Should you wish to practice writing the letter 'Saad':

1.

Complete the hide and seek activities in the article above

2.

Using lined paper write the letter 'saad' in its four forms, as many times as you can; initial, medial, final and independent. A minimum of 20 repetitions is suggested.

3.

Re-read the previous wgaw blog posts {wgaw subject/ labels 'How to Read and Write Arabic} and try to find the letter Saad in the postings. Then decide which form the Saad appears.

Overview

1. The fourteenth letter of the Arabic alphabet is called, 'Saad'

2. The are four forms of the letter 'Saad'; initial, medial, independent and final

What's Next?

Next week we’ll look at Daad, the next letter of the alphatet and another letter which doesn't have an equivalent sound in English.