Arabic Consonants Arabic Lesson For Beginners – LearnArabic Free Online
Arabic Consonants Arabic Lesson For Beginners – fasiharabic.com
All about consonants
Arabic uses 28 different consonants, and each consonant is represented by a
different letter. Because the Arabic alphabet is written in cursive, most of the
letters connect with each other. For this reason, every single letter that represents
a consonant actually can be written four different ways depending on
its position in a word — whether it’s in the initial, medial, or final positions,
or whether it stands alone. In English transcription of the Arabic script, all
letters are case-sensitive.
Thankfully, most of the consonants in Arabic have English equivalents.
Unfortunately, a few Arabic consonants are quite foreign to nonnative speakers.
Table 1-3 shows all 28 Arabic consonants, how they’re written in Arabic,
how they’re transcribed in English, and how they sound. This table can help
you pronounce the letters so that you sound like a native speaker!
The Arabic Alphabet: Consonants
| Name | Isolated | Initial | Medial | Final | Transliteration | Sound | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ‘alif | ا | ـا | ‘ / ā | long unrounded low central back vowel | ‘a’ as in ‘father’ | ||
| Bā’ | ب | بـ | ـبـ | ـب | b | voiced bilabial stop | ‘b’ as in ‘bed’ |
| Tā’ | ت | تـ | ـتـ | ـت | t | voiced aspirated stop | ‘t’ as in ‘tent’ |
| Thā’ | ث | ثـ | ـثـ | ـث | th | voiceless interdental fricative | ‘th’ as in ‘think’ |
| Jīm | ج | جـ | ـجـ | ـج | j | voiced palatal affricate | ‘j’ as in ‘jam’ |
| Ḥā’ | ح | حـ | ـحـ | ـح | ḥ | voiceless pharyngeal constricted fricative | only in Arabic; a constricted English ‘h’ |
| Khā’ | خ | خـ | ـخـ | ـخ | kh | voiceless velar fricative | ‘ch’ as in German ‘Bach’ |
| Dāl | د | ـد | d | voiced dental stop | ‘d’ as in ‘deer’ (approx.) | ||
| Dhāl | ذ | ـذ | dh | voiced interdental fricative | ‘th’ as in ‘there’ | ||
| Rā’ | ر | ـر | r | voiced dental trill | ‘r’ as in ‘run’ (approx.) | ||
| Zāy | ز | ـز | z | voiced dental sibilant | ‘z’ as in ‘zoo’ (approx.) | ||
| Sīn | س | سـ | ـسـ | ـس | s | voiceless dental sibilant | ‘s’ as in ‘sit’ |
| Shīn | ش | شـ | ـشـ | ـش | sh | voiceless palatal sibilant | ‘sh’ as in ‘shut’ |
| Ṣād | ص | صـ | ـصـ | ـص | ṣ | voiceless post-dental sibilant emphatic | the counterpart of Sῑn; all the ’emphatics’ are pronounced with the back of the tongue slightly raised |
| Ḍād | ض | ضـ | ـضـ | ـض | ḍ | voiced post-dental emphatic stop | the counterpart of Dāl |
| Ṭā’ | ط | طـ | ـطـ | ـط | ṭ | voiceless post-dental emphatic stop | the counterpart of Tā’ |
| Ẓā’ | ظ | ظـ | ـظـ | ـظ | ẓ | voiced post-interdental emphatic fricative | the counterpart of Dhāl |
| cayn | ع | عـ | ـعـ | ـع | c | voiced pharyngeal fricative | purely Arabic — a constriction of the throat and an expulsion of the breath with the vocal cords vibrating |
| Ghayn | غ | غـ | ـغـ | ـغ | gh | voiced uvular fricative | close to a French ‘r’ as in ‘Paris’ — like a gentle gargling |
| Fā’ | ف | فـ | ـفـ | ـف | f | labio-dental voiceless fricative | ‘f’ as in ‘free’ |
| Qāf | ق | قـ | ـقـ | ـق | q | voiceless unaspirated uvular stop | ‘k’ in the back of the throat; compare ‘cough’ with ‘calf’ |
| Kāf | ك | كـ | ـكـ | ـك | k | voiceless aspirated palatal or velar stop | ‘k’ as in ‘king’ |
| Lām | ل | لـ | ـلـ | ـل | l | voiced dental lateral | ‘l’ as in ‘lift’ |
| Mīm | م | مـ | ـمـ | ـم | m | voiced bilabial nasal | ‘m’ as in ‘moon’ |
| Nūn | ن | نـ | ـنـ | ـن | n | voiced dental nasal | ‘n’ as in ‘net’ |
| Hā’ | ه | هـ | ـهـ | ـه | h | voiceless glottal fricative | ‘h’ as in ‘house’ |
| Wāw | و | ـو | w | voiced bilabial glide | ‘w’ as in ‘wonder’ | ||
| Yā’ | ي | يـ | ـيـ | ـي | y | voiced palatal glide | ‘y’ as in ‘yellow’ |
| Hamza | ء | ‘ | voiceless glottal stop | not a phoneme in English but found in some exclamations — e.g. ‘oh-oh’ |
So there you have it — all 28 different consonants in the Arabic alphabet! To
sound as fluent as possible, memorize as many of the letters as you can and
try to associate each letter with the Arabic words in which it appears. The
trick to getting the pronunciation of some of these more exotic Arabic sounds
is repetition, repetition, and even more repetition! That old saying, “Practice
makes perfect” certainly applies to Arabic.