Day 1 - Arabic Alphabets

Modern Arabic dictionaries use the following alphabets and their corresponding sounds in English:

Arabic alphabet

ا ب ت ث ج ح خ د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ك ل م ن ه و ي

ي

و

ه

ن

م

ل

ك

ق

ف

غ

ع

ظ

ط

ض

ص

ش

س

ز

ر

ذ

د

خ

ح

ج

ث

ت

ب

ا

y

w

h

n

m

l

k

q

f

gh

‘

ẓ

ṭ

ḍ

ṣ

sh

s

z

r

dh

d

kh

ḥ

j

th

t

b

ā

SOME UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE ARABIC LANGUAGE

• The basic Arabic Alphabet contains  28 letters,
• All of them are included in the Urdu alphabets,
• Some other languages Kashmiri, Persian, Ottoman, Sindhi, Malaysian and Pashto also use Arabic letters in addition to some other additional letters,
• There is no distinct upper and lower case letter forms in Arabic language.
• There is only one “Ye” and not “Bari Ye”
• The most difficult letter to pronounce is “ض” and it is unique to Arabic. Hence, sometimes the Arabic language is known as “Lughat ut Dawad”,

All individual letters of the Arabic language have their own special sounds and not as we pronounce them in Urdu. The Urdu Pronunciation of Arabic Letters and their real corresponding pronunciation have been shown below:

Arabic Letters	As we pronounce in Pakistan	Real Arabic Pronunciation
ث	س	Similar to “th” but taking out the tongue
ح	ه	Same as “h” but deep from the throat
ذ	ز	Similar to “th” but touching the tongue with lower teeth
ص	س	Similar to “seen” but with round puff of air
ض	ز	It is most difficult letter to pronounce. It should be pronounced while touching the four lower teeth of left jaw.
ط	ت	Similar to “te sound” but making it round in the first part of the jaw
ظ	ز	It should be pronounced while taking out tongue outside but touching its sides with lips
ع	ا	This should be pronounced from the inner side of the upper jaw.
ق	ك or خ	This letter is totally different from “Kaf” as it is pronounced from the inner throat. Some people in Pakistan also pronounce it as “Khaf” which is also not correct.

ARABIC NUMERALS