Writing Arabic

Learning the Arabic alphabet is a good first step to learning to read and write in the Arabic language. Knowledge of the alphabet will allow you to recognize place names, signs, food items, and much more if you plan on traveling to the Middle East.

There are some basics you should know about the Arabic language. Arabic is read from right to left. There are a total of 29 letters in the Arabic alphabet, all of which are basically consonants. Vowels do exist, but are not considered part of the alphabet. Each letter takes the appearance of four different forms, depending on where they appear in a word. Fortunately, these forms all look similar to each other. For more information about what the letters are called, how to pronounce them, and how to write them in all four forms, visit (http://www.shariahprogram.ca/Arabic-alphabet.shtml).

Unlike the English alphabet, the Arabic alphabet does not distinguish between capital letters and lowercase letters. There is also no such thing as printing versus cursive writing, which makes thing easier since this means that there is essentially only one way to write Arabic. For more information about the writing the alphabet and Arabic in general, visit (http://www.shariahprogram.ca/Arabic-alphabet.shtml).

You can find some resources for learning the symbols and pronunciation of the Arabic alphabet at Arabic2000. Some good books to invest in are Teach Yourself Beginner’s Arabic Script and Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds. You can get used copies of these books for only a few dollars.

The alphabet can be difficult to learn since the symbols and pronunciation are so different from that of the American alphabet. However, learning a couple of symbols a day through memorization and practice can help you cover the entire alphabet in just one week. Practice writing each symbol and make flash cards to help you recognize what they look like and sound like. Create sample drills for yourself by grouping different letters together and testing yourself to see if you can correctly write the symbols and say the pronunciation. Learning the alphabet and remembering the order of the letters will come in handy when you want to use an Arabic dictionary later to further help your studies.

Yemen Links has some printable Arabic learning materials here (http://www.yemenlinks.com/Arabic_Download.htm) that you can use to help improve your reading and writing. These materials include flashcards, coloring pages, and writing practice sheets. The writing practice forms will be particularly useful to help you practice writing the alphabet. The sheets can be used in a few different ways. You can print them out and then trace the letters to help practice your form. You can also print the pages with just the boxed and practice writing the letters without any of the traceable letters visible. Another idea is to print the sheets and laminate them so that you can repeatedly use the same sheet with dry erase markers. The writing practice forms can be found here. There are four total but each one is multiple pages.

Yemen Links also has printable matching games to help learn the symbols of the alphabet and the numbers. Other learning games and learning tools can be found here.