Arabic Alphabet

The Arabic alphabet is written from right to left and has 28 basic letters. Letter shapes change depending on their position in a word.

28 letters · right-to-left · used across Arabic-speaking regions

Alef

ā · /aː/

Beh

b · /b/

Teh

t · /t/

Theh

th · /θ/

Jeem

j · /dʒ/

Hah

ḥ · /ħ/

Khah

kh · /x/

Dal

d · /d/

Thal

dh · /ð/

Reh

r · /r/

Zain

z · /z/

Seen

s · /s/

Sheen

sh · /ʃ/

Sad

ṣ · /sˤ/

Dad

ḍ · /dˤ/

Tah

ṭ · /tˤ/

Zah

ẓ · /ðˤ/

Ain

ʿ · /ʕ/

Ghain

gh · /ɣ/

Feh

f · /f/

Qaf

q · /q/

Kaf

k · /k/

Lam

l · /l/

Meem

m · /m/

Noon

n · /n/

Heh

h · /h/

Waw

w / ū · /w/ or /uː/

Yeh

y / ī · /j/ or /iː/

History

The Arabic alphabet developed from the Nabataean form of Aramaic writing. Recognizable Arabic letter forms appear by the early centuries CE, and the script became widely established with the spread of Arabic and Islam from the 7th century.

The alphabet represents consonants and long vowels, while short vowels are usually shown only when needed with optional diacritics. Most letters connect to neighboring letters and take different contextual shapes without changing their underlying Unicode character.

Sources

Letter order and forms follow Unicode; names, transliterations, and sounds reflect Modern Standard Arabic.

അനുബന്ധ ഉപകരണങ്ങൾ

നിങ്ങൾക്ക് ഇവയും ഇഷ്ടപ്പെട്ടേക്കാം

ضArabic Keyboard

Type and copy Arabic letters, diacritics, and punctuation.

⇄Standard Arabic Translator

Translate text to or from Standard Arabic.