Lesson objectives

By the end of this session you will

- learn about different variations of
Arabic
- learn the Arabic alphabet
- differentiate between short and long
vowels
-Write your name in Arabic

By Ghizlane Lafdi
 History

Modern Standard Arabic belongs to the

Semitic language family. There are three
distinct forms of Arabic. Classical or
Qur’anical Arabic, Formal or Modern
Standard Arabic and Spoken or
Colloquial Arabic.

By Ghizlane Lafdi
 Classical Arabic

Classical Arabic is the form of Arabic

literally found in the Qur’an. It is used
neither in conversation nor in non-
religious writing. As such, Classical
Arabic is primarily learned for reading
and reciting Islamic religious texts.

By Ghizlane Lafdi
 Modern Standard Arabic

Modern Standard Arabic provides a

universal form of the language that
can be understood by all and is
commonly used in radio and TV news
broadcasts, films, plays, poetry, and
conversation between Arabic-
speaking people of different dialects.

By Ghizlane Lafdi
Spoken or Colloquial Arabic

Arabic colloquial dialects are generally

only spoken languages. Arabs use the
colloquial language in all their daily
interactions. There are wide
differences between the various
colloquial dialects. In fact, some of the
differences are so large that many
dialects are mutually unintelligible.

By Ghizlane Lafdi
 Arabic Script

The Arabic alphabet (‫ )أبجدية عربية‬is

the script used for writing several
languages of Asia and Africa, such as
Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. After the
Latin alphabet, it is the second-most
widely used alphabet around the
world.

By Ghizlane Lafdi
 Arabic alphabet

The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad

is the Arabic script as it is codified for
writing the Arabic language. It is
written from right to left, in a cursive
style, and includes 28 letters. All of
the 28 letters are consonants.

By Ghizlane Lafdi
 ‫خ‬ ‫ح‬ ‫ج‬ ‫ث‬ ‫ت‬ ‫ب‬ ‫أ‬
khaa’ Haa’ jiim thaa’ taa’ baa’ alif

‫ص‬ ‫ش‬ ‫س‬ ‫ز‬ ‫ر‬ ‫ذ‬ ‫د‬

Saad shiin siin zay raa’ daal daal

‫ق‬ ‫ف‬ ‫غ‬ ‫ع‬ ‫ظ‬ ‫ط‬ ‫ض‬

qaaf faa’ ghayn 3ayn Daad Taa’ Daad

‫ي‬ ‫و‬ ‫ه‬ ‫ن‬ ‫م‬ ‫ل‬ ‫ك‬

yaa’ waaw haa’ nuun
By Ghizlane Lafdi
miim laam kaaf
In groups, match the letters in the Arabic alphabet to the letter in the English

Starter:
alphabet

Taoufiq Cherkaoui
Taoufiq Cherkaoui
 Transliterated Arabic

Transliteration is a method used to

convert a text from one script to
another. Thus, transliterated Arabic is
Arabic written by using English or,
more generally, Latin alphabet.
For example the word ‫ أهال‬is
transliterated as follows: ahlan

By Ghizlane Lafdi
 Arabic Vowels

There are two types of vowels in

Arabic: short vowels and long vowels.
Short vowels are little symbols or
diacritics placed above or under a
consonant. Long vowels are written.

By Ghizlane Lafdi
 a vowel
i sound e.g. nun ,
woman
 u in bull.

A small circle above the letter.

It is used to signify the absence of a
vowel, for example:

ْ‫بنْتْوْكن‬
 Short Vowels

ْ
َ fatHa a ْ‫ب‬ ba

ُ Damma u ْ‫ب‬ bu

َْ kasra i ْ‫ب‬ bi

By Ghizlane Lafdi
 Practice

Find a letter equivalent to the English

letter ‘t’ from the Arabic alphabet.
Now write in the Arabic script:

ta
tu
ti

By Ghizlane Lafdi
 Long Vowels

baa ‫ ا = بْا‬+ ‫ب‬

ْ

buu ‫ و = بْو‬+ ْ‫ب‬

bii ‫ ي = بْي‬+ ْ‫ب‬

By Ghizlane Lafdi
 Joining Arabic Letters

All letters are joined to the letters

following them except for six letters:

‫ و‬-ْ‫ دْ– ذْ– رْ– ز‬-‫ا‬

Click here to see how the Arabic
letters are joined.

By Ghizlane Lafdi
 Write these English words written in Arabic in English

Answers:
1._________________ 2. __________________
3.__________________ 4. __________________
5. __________________ __________________
7. __________________ 8. __________________
9. __________________ 10. _________________
Taoufiq Cherkaoui
11. __________________ 12. _________________