How Arabic writing works

This course teaches Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) reading. Arabic runs right to left with spaces and no capitals.

Listen to door and heart. These four orientation pages have no quizzes. You can listen without being expected to recognise any sign yet.

Arabic has 28 basic letters. Most of them are consonants; ا, و and ي also write the long vowels ā, ū and ī. MSA has three short and three long vowels.

Its 28 basic letters have contextual forms: one letter can look different alone, at the start, in the middle or at the end. ا د ذ ر ز و do not join to the next letter, so house and roses are written with separate shapes.

Short-vowel marks are training aids and normally disappear in adult print. Both spellings of book are read kitāb.