Summary of the Arabic Writing System

Here is a handy summary of the entire Arabic writing system, divided into an alphabet chart, letters that stand for borrowed sounds, other letter-like characters, and diacritics (marks used in combination with letters).

Alphabet Chart

All the letters of the alphabet in the order in which they are recited:

Name	Transcription [IPA]	Final	Medial	Initial	Independent
’alif	aa [ɛː, ɑː]	ـا	ـا	ا	ا
baa’	b [b]	ـب	ـبـ	بـ	ب
taa’	t [t]	ـت	ـتـ	تـ	ت
thaa’	th [θ]	ـث	ـثـ	ثـ	ث
jiim	j [d͡ʒ]	ـج	ـجـ	جـ	ج
ḥaa’	ḥ [ħ]	ـح	ـحـ	حـ	ح
khaa’	kh[x]	ـخ	ـخـ	خـ	خ
daal	d [d]	ـد	ـد	د	د
dhaal	dh [ð]	ـذ	ـذ	ذ	ذ
raa’	r [r]	ـر	ـر	ر	ر
zaay	z [z]	ـز	ـز	ز	ز
siin	s [s]	ـس	ـسـ	سـ	س
shiin	sh [ʃ]	ـش	ـشـ	شـ	ش
ṣaad	ṣ [sˤ]	ـص	ـصـ	صـ	ص
ḍaad	ḍ [dˤ]	ـض	ـضـ	ضـ	ض
ṭaa’	ṭ [tˤ]	ـط	ـطـ	طـ	ط
ḍhaa’	ḍh [ðˤ]	ـظ	ـظـ	ظـ	ظ
ʕayn	ʕ [ʕ]	ـع	ـعـ	عـ	ع
ghayn	gh [ɣ]	ـغ	ـغـ	غـ	غ
faa’	f [f]	ـف	ـفـ	فـ	ف
qaaf	q [q]	ـق	ـقـ	قـ	ق
kaaf	k [k]	ـك	ـكـ	كـ	ك
laam	l [l]	ـل	ـلـ	لـ	ل
miim	m [m]	ـم	ـمـ	مـ	م
nuun	n [n]	ـن	ـنـ	نـ	ن
haa’	h [h]	ـه	ـهـ	هـ	ه
waaw	w, uu [w, uː]	ـو	ـو	و	و
yaa’	y, ii [j, iː]	ـي	ـيـ	يـ	ي

Letters whose initial and medial forms appear in gray are non-connectors. That is, they do not connect to their left. For these letters, the initial form is identical to the independent form, while the medial form is identical to the final form.

Borrowed Sounds

Common additional letters used to represent borrowed sounds. These are commonly used in loanwords, foreign names, and names of companies.

Name	Transcription [IPA]	Final	Medial	Initial	Independent
paa’	p [p]	ـپـ	ـپـ	پـ	پ
zhiim	zh [ʒ]	ـچـ	ـچـ	چـ	چ
vaa’	v [v]	ـڤـ	ـڤـ	ڤـ	ڤ

Name

Transcription

[IPA]

Final

Medial

Initial

Independent

paa’

p [p]

ـپـ

پـ

zhiim

zh [ʒ]

ـچـ

چـ

vaa’

v [v]

ـڤـ

ڤـ

Additional Letter-Like Characters

The following elements work like letters but aren't included in the alphabet.

Name	Tran- scription	Shapes	Remarks
hamza	’	ء أ إ ئ ؤ	The glottal stop. Can be written independently or over a “seat”, which can be ’alif, waaw or dotless yaa’. The seat itself is not pronounced. Initial hamza is always written over an ’alif, except in cases when it is written with ’alif madda.
taa’ marbuuṭa	-a, -at	ة ـة	Written as a haa’ with two dots. Occurs only word-finally. The t is only pronounced when a suffix indicated by a diacritic is added or when the word is the first term of an ’iḍaafa phrase (possessive phrase).
’alif maqṣuura	-aa	ى ـى	Written as a yaa’ without dots. Occurs only word-finally.
’alif madda	’aa	آ ـآ	This represents a hamza followed by the long aa sound.
laam ’alif		لا ـلا	Used instead of the expected لـا. The ’alif in this ligature can have any of the values of a normal ’alif and can carry a hamza: لازم laazim ‘must’, الاسم ’al-ism ‘the name’, and الأمّ ’al-’umm ‘the mother’.

Diacritics

Diacritics are symbols used in combination with letters (such as accent marks in the Roman alphabet).

Name	Shapes	Remarks
fatḥa	ــَــ	Indicates an a vowel after the letter it is written on.
kasra	ــِــ	Indicates an i vowel after the letter it is written on.
ḍamma	ــُــ	Indicates an u vowel after the letter it is written on.
sukuun	ــْــ	Explicitly indicates no vowel after the letter it is written on.
shadda	ــّــ	Indicates that the consonant it is written on is doubled.
tanwiin il-fatḥ tanwiin il-kasr tanwiin iḍ-ḍamm	ــَــ ــٍــ ــٌــ ـًا ىً ـةً	These occur only word-finally in formal Arabic and are pronounced -an, -in, and -un, respectively. In practice, tanwiin il-fatḥ is only written in combination with a final ’alif, ’alif maqṣuura or taa’ marbuuṭa.