Arabic Alphabet

The Arabic Abjad

The Arabic alphabet, or Abjad, has about 30 basic letters. Most letters are consonants (like n, k, b), and a few are long vowels (aa, ee, uu). Short vowels are usually unwritten, except in special cases like children's books or religious texts. We'll come back to short vowels in a later exercise.

Arabic is written from right to left. That may feel unusual at first, but your brain adapts quickly! You'll be surprised how natural it becomes.

The script is also written in a connected, cursive style. Each letter changes shape depending on where it appears in a word. Letters have four forms:

• Isolated – standing alone, unconnected
• Initial – at the beginning of a word
• Medial – in the middle of a word
• Final – at the end of a word

Connecting vs. non-connecting letters

Most letters connect to the letters on both sides of them once they're in the middle of a word. But six letters — ا (Alif), د (Dal), ذ (Dhal), ر (Ra), ز (Zayn), and و (Waw) — only connect to the letter before them. They never connect to the letter after them, even mid-word. So whenever one of these letters shows up, the next letter starts a fresh, unconnected shape — almost like starting a new word right in the middle of one.

Compare Alif (a non-connector) with Baa (a full connector):

Alif أ — Isolated: أ | Initial: أ | Medial: ـأ | Final: ـأ
Notice the initial form is identical to the isolated form: no stroke reaches forward to the next letter.

Ba ب — Isolated: ب | Initial: بـ | Medial: ـبـ | Final: ـب
Notice the initial form is different from the isolated form - because the initial form connects to the next letter. Baa's medial form also has connecting strokes on both sides, since it links to the letters before and after it.

Two more letters — ى (Alif maqsura) and ة (Ta Marbuta) — are even more restricted: they only ever appear in their final form, at the very end of a word.

Look for the note under each letter's Final/Medial/Initial forms above — it will tell you which type this letter is.

For now, pay attention to the sounds each letter makes and how their shapes shift depending on position. Don't worry about memorizing everything right away - that will come with practice. We've added a font menu so you can see the letters in different scripts, which helps you notice both the changes and the consistencies. Good luck!