The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters, written from right to left in a script that is always cursive — most letters change shape depending on where they sit in a word. The charts below give every letter with its name, romanization, IPA, and closest English sound, plus all four positional forms: isolated, initial, medial, and final.
Standard (hijāʾī) dictionary order, shown in isolated form. Arabic is an abjad: the letters ا, و, and ي double as the long vowels ā, ū, and ī, while short vowels are optional marks (harakat) written above or below the line.
| Letter | Name | Romanization | IPA | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ا | alif | ā | /aː/ | a in "father" — long; also carries hamza at the start of words |
| ب | ba | b | /b/ | b in "book" |
| ت | ta | t | /t/ | t in "table" |
| ث | tha | th | /θ/ | th in "think" |
| ج | jim | j | /dʒ/ | j in "jam" (g in "go" in Egypt) |
| ح | ḥa (deep h) | ḥ | /ħ/ | strong breathy h, like fogging a mirror |
| خ | kha | kh | /x/ | ch in Scottish "loch" |
| د | dal | d | /d/ | d in "door" |
| ذ | dhal | dh | /ð/ | th in "this" |
| ر | ra | r | /r/ | rolled r, as in Spanish "perro" |
| ز | zay | z | /z/ | z in "zoo" |
| س | sin | s | /s/ | s in "sun" |
| ش | shin | sh | /ʃ/ | sh in "ship" |
| ص | ṣad | ṣ | /sˤ/ | deep, emphatic s — said with a hollow mouth |
| ض | ḍad | ḍ | /dˤ/ | deep, emphatic d — Arabic's most famous letter |
| ط | ṭa | ṭ | /tˤ/ | deep, emphatic t |
| ظ | ẓa | ẓ | /ðˤ/ | deep, emphatic th of "this" |
| ع | ʿayn | ʿ | /ʕ/ | voiced squeeze from the throat — no English equivalent |
| غ | ghayn | gh | /ɣ/ | gargled g, like a French r |
| ف | fa | f | /f/ | f in "fun" |
| ق | qaf | q | /q/ | k pronounced far back in the throat |
| ك | kaf | k | /k/ | k in "kite" |
| ل | lam | l | /l/ | l in "lamp" |
| م | mim | m | /m/ | m in "map" |
| ن | nun | n | /n/ | n in "note" |
| ه | ha | h | /h/ | h in "hat" |
| و | waw | w / ū | /w/, /uː/ | w in "wet"; oo in "boot" as a long vowel |
| ي | ya | y / ī | /j/, /iː/ | y in "yes"; ee in "see" as a long vowel |
Arabic is always cursive, so each letter takes a different shape at the beginning, middle, or end of a word. Six letters — ا, د, ذ, ر, ز, and و — never connect to the letter that follows them; their initial and medial cells show the isolated shape they keep in those positions, which is why visual gaps appear inside many Arabic words.
| Isolated | Name | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ا | alif | ا | ا | ا |
| ب | ba | ب | ب | ب |
| ت | ta | ت | ت | ت |
| ث | tha | ث | ث | ث |
| ج | jim | ج | ج | ج |
| ح | ḥa | ح | ح | ح |
| خ | kha | خ | خ | خ |
| د | dal | د | د | د |
| ذ | dhal | ذ | ذ | ذ |
| ر | ra | ر | ر | ر |
| ز | zay | ز | ز | ز |
| س | sin | س | س | س |
| ش | shin | ش | ش | ش |
| ص | ṣad | ص | ص | ص |
| ض | ḍad | ض | ض | ض |
| ط | ṭa | ط | ط | ط |
| ظ | ẓa | ظ | ظ | ظ |
| ع | ʿayn | ع | ع | ع |
| غ | ghayn | غ | غ | غ |
| ف | fa | ف | ف | ف |
| ق | qaf | ق | ق | ق |
| ك | kaf | ك | ك | ك |
| ل | lam | ل | ل | ل |
| م | mim | م | م | م |
| ن | nun | ن | ن | ن |
| ه | ha | ه | ه | ه |
| و | waw | و | و | و |
| ي | ya | ي | ي | ي |
Four letters — ص, ض, ط, and ظ — are "emphatic" versions of s, d, t, and the th of "this". They are pronounced with the back of the tongue raised toward the soft palate, which gives them a darker, deeper sound and colors the vowels around them: صار (ṣāra, "became") and سار (sāra, "walked") differ only in that depth. Hearing and producing this contrast is the single biggest step toward an authentic accent.
The throat letters ع (ʿayn) and ح (ḥa) have no English equivalents. ح is a whispery, forceful h — the sound of fogging up a mirror — while ع is its voiced twin, a controlled squeeze of the throat while the voice keeps humming. They separate many common words, like حال (condition) and عال (excellent), so they are worth drilling early; a plain English h or vowel is understood, but clearly foreign.
The definite article الـ (al-) changes with the letter after it. Before the 14 "sun letters" (ت, ث, د, ذ, ر, ز, س, ش, ص, ض, ط, ظ, ل, ن) the l assimilates: الشمس is pronounced ash-shams, not al-shams. Before the 14 "moon letters" the l survives intact: القمر is al-qamar. The spelling never changes — only the pronunciation — making this the first sandhi rule every learner meets.
The Arabic script grew out of the Nabataean cursive form of Aramaic — itself a descendant of Phoenician — in the centuries before Islam. The earliest inscriptions recognizably in Arabic script date to the 6th century AD, such as the Zabad inscription of 512, and that early script was a bare consonantal skeleton: many letters shared identical shapes, with no dots to tell them apart.
The 7th-century standardization of the Quran drove the script's refinement. Consonant dots (iʿjām) became systematic to distinguish look-alikes such as ب, ت, and ث, and by the 8th century the grammarian al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi had shaped the short-vowel marks (harakat) still used today. Calligraphy flourished into distinct styles — angular Kufic for early Qurans, and later the flowing Naskh on which most modern print and screen fonts are based.
Carried by Islam, trade, and scholarship, the alphabet spread far beyond the Arabic language: adapted versions write Persian, Urdu, Pashto, Kurdish, and Uyghur, among others, with extra letters like Persian پ (p) and گ (g) invented for sounds Arabic lacks. Today it is the world's second most widely used alphabetic script, after Latin.
28 consonant letters, written right to left. Three of them (ا, و, ي) double as the long vowels ā, ū, and ī. The hamza (ء), a glottal stop, is sometimes counted as a 29th letter — it usually rides on a carrier, as in أ or ئ. Short vowels are not letters at all but optional marks above and below the line.
Because Arabic is always written cursively — there is no separated "print" style. Every letter therefore has up to four contextual forms: isolated, initial, medial, and final, all built on one skeleton. Six letters (ا, د, ذ, ر, ز, و) never connect forward, so they only have two shapes. Once you know the base forms, the variants are entirely predictable — see the positional chart above.
Long vowels use real letters: ا (ā), و (ū), and ي (ī). Short vowels use small marks called harakat — fatha (َ), damma (ُ), kasra (ِ) — written above or below the consonant. Everyday text omits them almost entirely; readers infer vowels from context and word patterns. Qurans, poetry, and children's books are fully vocalized, which is why learners start there.
They share the same core. Persian keeps all 28 Arabic letters and adds four — پ, چ, ژ, گ — for p, ch, zh, and g, making 32. Urdu extends the set further to around 39 letters, adding retroflex consonants and aspiration marks for South Asian sounds. The cursive joining rules are identical, so reading one script gives you a head start on the others.
Yes — use the Print chart button above the table (or your browser's print function). You get a clean black-on-white reference of all 28 letters with names, sounds, and the full positional-forms table, which works well as a one-page study sheet.