Learn the Arabic alphabet online, letter by letter

What the Arabic script actually is

Arabic is written from right to left in an alphabet of 28 letters. It looks unfamiliar at first, but it is consistent: once you know the shapes and the vowel marks, words are read the way they are written. There is no guessing at spelling the way there is in English or French.

The script is the same one used for Modern Standard Arabic, the Quran and written Moroccan Darija, so every hour you spend on it serves whichever path you take next.

Letter forms and joining

Arabic is a joined script. Most letters connect to the letters before and after them, and their shape changes with their position: isolated, at the start of a word, in the middle, or at the end. The letter ب, for example, appears as ﺑ at the start of a word, ـﺒـ in the middle and ـﺐ at the end.

Six letters — ا د ذ ر ز و — join only to the letter before them, never to the one after. Learning these exceptions early saves a great deal of confusion when reading.

Vowels: written and unwritten

The alphabet itself writes consonants and long vowels. Short vowels are small marks above or below the letters: fatha (a), kasra (i) and damma (u). Children's books, learner materials and the Quran show every mark; newspapers, signs and most books do not. Your lessons move from fully vowelled text to normal writing as your vocabulary grows, so the transition is gradual rather than a shock.

Pronunciation built in from day one

Several Arabic sounds do not exist in English or French: the throat letters ع and ح, the deep ق, the rasping خ and غ, and the emphatic letters ص ض ط ظ. In private lessons your teacher models each sound, watches and listens as you produce it, and corrects you before a wrong habit forms. This is the part of alphabet learning that apps and videos cannot do.

How the course progresses

• Letters in small groups, with their sounds and shapes, not all 28 at once
• Joining letters into short, real words from the first lessons
• Short vowel marks and reading fully vowelled words and sentences
• Writing each letter by hand and typing it on an Arabic keyboard
• Reading practice that grows from words to short texts

The alphabet is normally the first stage of learning to read Arabic and learning to write Arabic, and it sits inside every beginner course at Lisanova. You can also read our free Arabic alphabet guide for beginners to see the approach before you book.