Unlike the Western languages, the letters are not made in the same way and may actually look like squiggly lines. The first letter in the Arabic alphabet is alef. The symbol is similar to a T in the English language and has a symbol shaped like an S over it. The S shape is called a hamzeh and it is an accent mark telling you how this letter is pronounced. Sometimes you may see it under a letter, which tells you that you pronounce it differently.



The second letter of the Arabic alphabet is called baa. The shape of the letter changes depending on its position in a word and is one of the joined letters in the Arabic language. There are two forms of this letter a full form and a short form. The full form is used when a word ends in this letter and the short form is used when the letter is used at the beginning of a word or when it comes between two other letters.

As you continue with learning the language, your first lessons will be concerned with learning the shapes and sounds of the letters. You will not have to concern yourself with learning how to write the language until you master this and start learning some vocabulary words. Even in Arabic there is an alphabet song you can learn to help you learn the letters. Adults sometimes balk at learning this cong, but when learning any language you have to start at the beginning just as children do when learning their native language.

Even though the vowels of the English language are not used in the Arabic language, there are symbols that serve the same purpose as vowels. You do have to learn the vowels in order to learn the correct pronunciation of words. The symbols placed above and below the letters function as vowels in that they tell you how the word or the letter should sound. The Kasr-aa is one of these symbol. This is a slanted stroke that you seen written under some letters. It tells you that you change the sound of the letter to either an sound or an sound. The Fat-haa is a sloping stroke placed above a letter. This symbol changes the sound of the letter to the English sound as in the word Another vowel sound is that of the Dam-aa, which looks somewhat like a written When you see this symbol, you add an sound to the letter.

When learning Arabic grammar you will see that there are only four personal pronouns, I, You, He, She and They. There are two forms of the word masculine and feminine. Although there is a word for it is usually not used in normal conversation. Adjectives have to conform to the nouns they describe and are either masculine or feminine. Numbers when used with nouns are considered to be adjectives and therefore change accordingly.