ARABIC SHORT VOWEL-MARKS OVERVIEW
- In Arabic, there are 3 short vowel-marks. We shall learn the long vowel-marks in a later lesson In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing). The short vowel-marks enable the letter to make a sound in a similar way to the English language. In the same way a word cannot be made in the English language without one of the 5 vowels (a, e, i, o or u), in Arabic one cannot make a word without a vowel being used.
- We will cover the 3 vowel-marks in Arabic below In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing). The vowel-marks are the marks below or above the letter /Dāl/ in the examples below. The letter / Dāl/ has been used to give you an idea of where the vowel is placed.
The Single Vowel-Marks:
- The single vowel-marks are the basic vowel-marks which add a sound similar to that of a, i or u in the English language to the letter. Please click on the letters with the vowel-marks to hear the pronunciation.
Dü Di De
دُ | دِ | دَ | Arabic Character |
/Đammah/ | /Kasrah/ | /Fatħah/ | Vowel Name |
u | i | a | Vowel Sound |
The ‘u’ in put | The ‘i’ in sit | The ‘a’ in /ba/ | English word with similar sound |
The Double Vowel-Marks:
- The double vowel-marks signs are an extension of the single vowel-marks. The double vowel signs add the ‘-n’ sound to the single vowel. Please see the letters below. The /Dāl/ has been used to enable us to see the position of the double vowel sign which is called /tanwīn/. /Tanwīn/ refers to the double form of any vowel, the specific name of the double vowel sign e.g.: double /Fatħah/ (Fatħatān) is also given below as this is unique for each vowel. Click on the letters with the vowel-marks to hear the pronunciation.
دٌ | دٍ | دً | Arabic Character |
/Đammatān/ | /Kasratān/ | /Fatħatān/ | Vowel Name |
‘un’ | ‘in’ | ‘an’ | Vowel Sound |
The ‘on’ in dragon | The ‘in’ in sin | The ‘an’ in ran | English word with similar sound |
- In the next lesson we are going to practice each letter we have covered with each short vowel and long vowel, In-Shā’-Allâh (God willing).