The Ultimate Guide to Reading Arabic: Step-by-Step for Beginners

Hello, everyone. Here is Mr. Bakour and this is your first lesson in this course, which I'm going to teach you how to read Arabic. In this lesson, I'm going to teach you the alphabet names. Pay attention, pay attention. I'm going to teach you the names of the alphabet. So, I'm going to teach you the alphabet names, all right? Because later on, I'm going to teach you how to read these letters when we read a word or even a phrase. Well, before I get started, let me give you some instructions, some tips. In this lesson, I'm going to say the letter and I give you time, I give you a chance to read it by yourself. Make sure that you repeat after me. All right? So, I'm going to read, I'm going to say the letter and I give you time to say it by yourself. In Arabic, we have 28. We have 28 letters. We write Arabic from right to left. Therefore, we read Arabic from right to left. Okay. Are you ready, guys? Let's get started to our alphabet. Our first letter is Alif. And this is how we write Alif. Alif. And this is how we say Alif. Again, again, again, I'm teaching you the alphabet names. Alif. Alif. All right? Okay, next. Baa. Baa. Baa. Guys, I'm sorry, I forgot to give you time to repeat Alif. So now, I will go back to Alif and give you time to repeat Alif. Now, get the microphone and repeat it. Good job. Next. Baa. This is how we write Baa. Baa. Look at my mouth. Look how I pronounce this letter. Baa. Now, get the microphone and say it by yourself. Good job. Nice. I like your pronunciation of these letters. Good job. Okay, next. Taa. Taa. Taa. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. Well done. Next. Thaa. Thaa. Pay attention. Just pay attention because we are on a very important letter. Thaa. I'm going to teach you how you can pronounce this letter correctly. So, look at my mouth. When I say this letter, my tongue goes to the front teeth. Thaa. Look at my mouth. Thaa. Thaa. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. Okay, next. Jeem. Jeem. Jeem. Your time. Good job. Thaa. Pay attention on this letter. Thaa. I know this letter maybe it doesn't exist in your language. So, pay attention on this letter. Train yourself. Practice a lot. Thaa. By the way, this letter is coming from your throat. Middle of your throat. Thaa. Thaa. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. Good job. Next. Next is quite hard but after practicing a lot, you will come over with this letter. Khaa. Khaa. Khaa. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. Well done. Good job. Next. Daal. Daal. Daal. Your turn. Well done. Alright, next. Thaa. Thaa. Pay attention guys. This letter, your mouth should go between the front teeth. Thaa. Look at my mouth. Thaa. Thaal. Thaal. Okay, next. Raa. I forgot again. So, let's go back to this letter. Take the microphone and say it by yourself. Next. Raa. Raa. Raa. Your turn. Next. Zay. Zay. Zay. Your time. Seen. Seen. Seen. Alright. Get the microphone. Your time. Well done. Sheen. Sheen. Sheen. Your turn. Saad. Saad. Saad. Your turn. Excellent. Daad. Daad. Daad. Get the microphone. Wow. Very nice. Next. Taa. Taa. Taa. Grab the microphone and say it by yourself. Good job. Next. Thaa. Thaa. Thaa. Guys, this is the third letter which your tongue should go to the front teeth. So, how many letters we should make our tongue go to the front teeth? We got three letters in Arabic and this is the letter number three. Look at my mouth. Look how I say this letter. Thaa. Thaa. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. Excellent. Aayn. Aayn. Aayn. Guys, this letter is hard. I know it's hard but as I keep telling you after practice, after training, you will get this letter. You will say this letter correctly. So, it's Aayn. And by the way, let me make it easier for you. This letter K comes from the middle of your throat. Aayn. I know it's hard but believe me, practice, practice, practice. Okay? So, Aayn. Aayn. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. All right. Before you get in the microphone and say it by yourself, let me just tell you that do not be shy. I think you're watching me behind the camera. You are alone. Do not be shy. Make sure that you take the microphone and say it. This will improve your pronunciation. This is how you're gonna learn Arabic. Hello, everyone. So, shall we continue our letters? Yeah. We're gonna go to continue our letters. So, the last letter we stopped at last lesson is Aayn. I'm sorry. Aayn. Now, let's move to Ghayn. Ghayn. This is how we write Ghayn. Ghayn. And this is how we say Ghayn. Now, get the microphone and say it by yourself. Good job. Next. Faa. Faa. Faa. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. Good job. I like your pronunciation, by the way. Next. Qaaf. Qaaf. By the way, this letter is heavy. Heavy. Strong. Qaaf. Qaaf. Qaaf. Your turn. Good job. Next. Qaaf. Qaaf. Qaaf. So, the previous one is heavy but this one is light. Qaaf. Qaaf. You see? You see my mouth? I'm showing you a little smile. Me, this letter is light. Qaaf. But the other one, the previous one is Qaaf. There's no smile. Qaaf. And this one is Qaaf. Qaaf. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. Good job. Next. Laam. Laam. Laam. Laam. Your turn. Excellent. Meem. Your turn. Bravo. Excellent. Noon. Noon. Your turn. Excellent. Haa. Haa. So, by the way, I would like to mention that this Haa sounds like house, home, horse, like itch in English. Haa. So, this one is easy for English speakers to pronounce. Haa. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. Excellent. Next. Waaw. Waaw. Waaw. Yeah, go ahead. Bravo. And now we come to the last one. Yaa. Yaa. Grab the microphone and say the last one. Alright, guys. Good job. So, we have finished the alphabet names and now we're going to go to another lesson. We're going to go to another level. See you in the next lesson. Bye-bye. This is the first true step to learn how to read Arabic. I taught you the alphabet names and now I'm going to give you the first step to start reading Arabic. In this lesson, I'm going to teach you short vowels. Short vowels in Arabic is something very, very important to know. If you don't know what are these short vowels in Arabic, believe me, believe me, you will not learn how to read Arabic. So, let's not talk anymore. Let's get into our lesson. Short vowels. So, in Arabic, basically, we have three short vowels. Three short vowels. Short vowels in Arabic, we call them Harakat. Harakat. Keep this word in your mind. Harakat. Alright. So, the first one is Fatha. This is Fatha. Fatha. Fatha. I'm going say this word again. Fatha. So, what does Fatha mean? This Fatha is basically a short line we put on the letter. To Fatha in Arabic that you're going to open your mouth when you read this letter. Let me give you some examples. For Alif, the first letter. When we have Alif with Fatha, we're going to read Alif like this. We will not say Alif because I told you this is the name, but this is how we're going to read Alif in a word. If Alif got Fatha on. So, this is Fatha. It's a short line and we draw it, we put it on the letter. Pay attention. Pay attention. We draw it on, on the letter. Okay. Short vowel number two. Kasra. Keep this word in your mind. Kasra. So, what does Kasra mean? Kasra looks like Fatha, but the difference is we put it under the letter. Kasra. And Kasra means in Arabic that you're going to make your mouth, especially the lower part of your mouth down like this. Like this. Kasra. I'll give you an example. For the second letter in Arabic is Ba with Kasra is Be. You see? Be. Be. Be. Okay. Short vowel number three. Dhamma. So, Dhamma basically looks like a small wow. Dhamma. And we put it on the letter. You have to make your lips rounded like this. When you read the letter. Like this. I'll give you an example. Like Jeem. This letter Jeem with Dhamma. If we have Dhamma on Jeem, we have to make Jeem like this. You see my mouth? So, this is what I want to explain. Short vowels. Now, I'm going to teach you. I'm going to let you listen to all letters with these short vowels. Coming up. Hello, everyone. Welcome. In this lesson, I'm going to teach you how to read, how to say, how to pronounce all letters with the three short vowels. Pay attention. This lesson is a very important step to read Arabic easily and to understand how we pronounce the letters. So, short vowels, as I told you in the previous lessons, we have three short vowels. Fatha, Kasra, and Dhamma. And in this lesson, I'm going to show you each letter with these three short vowels. Ready? Get your paper and pen and pay attention here because you're going to learn something very amazing and something new. One, two, three. Okay. Let's get started. Let's get started with the first letter, Alif. Alif with Fatha is Aa. Alif with Kasra is Ee. So, Aa, Ee, Oo. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. Okay. Next. Again. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. Excellent. Next. Now, get the microphone and say it by yourself. Excellent. By the way, if you have studied well the previous lecture, you will understand as one of these letters, your tongue should go between your front teeth. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. Again. Now, get the microphone and say it by yourself. Excellent. Again. Your turn. Excellent. Now, get the microphone and say it by yourself. Good job. Okay, everyone. Let's continue. We are on Dal. Now, your turn. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. Excellent. Good job. Now, next. So, if you paid attention on the last lesson, on the previous lesson, you will understand that that is one of these letters, your tongue should go to the front teeth. Look at my mouth. Your turn. Excellent. Your turn. Good job. Your turn. Excellent. Amazing. By the way, I like your pronunciation. Your pronunciation is amazing. Next. Again. Your turn. Good. Yes. Well done. By the way, is a strong letter. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. Amazing. So, it might sound hard for some of you. So, I want you to listen carefully to me, how I'm pronouncing this letter. Get the microphone and try to say this letter with a three short vowel correctly. Get the microphone and try to say this letter. Good job. By the way, this is the last letter. Your tongue should go to the front teeth. Your turn. Okay. Amazing. Your turn. Good job. Next. Your turn. Excellent. Next. Your turn. I think after this lesson, you will got some muscles in your mouth. Amazing. Amazing. Good job. Next. Your turn. Well done. Next. So, the previous one is strong letter and this one is light. Your turn. Next. Next. Now, get the microphone and say this letter. Your turn. So, this one, I would like to mention this one comes from near to the chest. Your turn. Excellent. Yes. Amazing. I can hear you by the way. The last one. Last but not least. Your turn. Wow. Good job. Now, in this lesson, we're going to talk about something which many people were asking me about. This thing will help you a lot to understand how we read the Arabic language. Ready? Let's get started. So, the thing we're going to talk about is Keep this word in your mind. So, what does exactly that mean? Sukoon means no movement. Again, no movement. The pure sound of the letter. Okay. So, the shape of Sukoon looks like a small circle. And pay attention that we draw this Sukoon above the letter. Again, we put this Sukoon above the letter. So, this is in brief what does exactly Sukoon mean. So, to pronounce the letter with Sukoon, you can add E letter in English before the letter. And then you will say the letter before E. Let me give you some examples. Like sheen. Sheen with Sukoon, you can add E at the beginning. And then it will sound like this. This is the pure sound of the letter. Let me give you more examples. Extra examples. Like So, I'm going to add E letter before. And then I will say Another letter. So, this is Sukoon. This is what I'm talking about. In this lesson, I'm going to talk about Ashshadda. So, Ashshadda, what does exactly this word, this definition mean? Ashshadda means we got the letter duplicated. Yes. So, instead of writing the letter two times. Like sheen and sheen. Saad and Saad. Kaf and Kaf. We just mix these two letters in one letter. And then we draw Shadda above. So, but there's something important to know here. That the first letter should Sukoon letter. And the second letter, Fatha, Dhamma, Kasra. So, the first letter should be Sukoon. And the second letter should have one of these short vowels. This is the condition of this rule, Ashshadda. Well, we got three types of Shadda. Shadda with Fatha. Shadda with Dhamma. And Shadda with Kasra. So, we got three types of Shadda. And now let me give you some examples to know more about this Shadda. And to know how we use Shadda in reading words and phrases. So, let me give you an example for Harf Seen. The letter Seen. With Shadda, Fatha. So, we got Seen. The first Seen is Sukoon Seen. And the second one is Fatha Seen. But instead of writing Seen, Sukoon. And then Seen, Fatha. We mix them together to make one letter with Shadda. So, Issaa. This is how we pronounce this letter with Shadda. Issaa. Let me give you an example, a word. Bassaa. So, Issaa. Issaa. Another example for Fatha with Shadda. Attaa. So, here Ttaa is duplicated. First Ttaa is Sukoon. And the second Ttaa is Fatha. Attaa. Okay. Let's go to Shadda with Kasra. All right. Iddhi. So, we got Dhal right here. And this is Dhal with Shadda Kasra. Iddhi. Ibbhi. All right. Now, let's go to Shadda with Dhamma. Ikkoo. Kaaf duplicated. Ikkoo. Ishsoo. Ittoo. Well, this is Shadda. And this is a very important thing because while reading you will find Shadda in the context. So, see you in the next lesson. In this lesson, we're going to talk about an important definition in reading Arabic principles. We're going to cover At-Tanween. So, what does exactly At-Tanween mean? At-Tanween basically simply means we add new letter at the end of the word. And this process shows that the word is indefinite. The word we have added At-Tanween to is indefinite word. If I would like to talk about definite articles Al. There is one definite article in Arabic which is Al. Alif and Lam. Let me give you an example. The word Kitab means a book. So, if I say Al Kitab means the book. Al Kitab. So, here the definite article is Al. Al Kitab. Okay, let's go back to our topic. The At-Tanween. So, At-Tanween indicates that the word is indefinite. So, as I told you, we add noon at the end. Pay attention. I told you we gonna add noon at the end when we say, when we read. But when we write down, we don't add noon. We do not add noon. All right. So, we got some types of Tanween. Basically, we got three types of Tanween. We got Tanween Fatha and this is the shape of Tanween Fatha. We draw Tanween Fatha above letter, always above Alif. And we got Tanween Kasra. Basically, Tanween Kasra is two Kasra, two short lines of Kasra. And we draw it under the letter. And we got Tanween Dhamma. Tanween Dhamma is two vowels and we draw it above the letter. And right now, I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna show you how we pronounce all these types of Tanween. The first type of Tanween is Tanween Fatha. I give you a word. Like our example here, we'll focus on the word Kitab. Kitab means a book. So, we got Kitaban. Kitaban. And this is the, this is how we read it. Look at the word and read it after me. Kitaban. This is Tanween Fatha. Okay, get the microphone and read this word by yourself. Excellent. Okay, next. Now, we're gonna go to Tanween Kasra. This is how we say Tanween Kasra. Kitabin. Get the microphone and say it by yourself. Amazing. Good job. Okay. Now, last but not least, Tanween Dhamma. Kitabun. Try to say it by yourself. Okay. So, I would like to mention that all these types of Tanween means a book, right? So, this is about Tanween. Hello everyone and welcome. In this lesson, I'm gonna show you something very important to help you to read Arabic easily. So, by the way, in Arabic, each letter in Arabic, when we connect these letters together, the letters shapes, I'm talking about letter shapes change a little bit. And in this lesson, I'm gonna show you this change. So, coming up. So, in Arabic, each letter, when we connect it in a word, when we put this letter in a word, the shape of the letter, it change according to the position of the letter. What does it mean? What does that mean? It means that we got three positions in Arabic. We got at the beginning, in the middle, at the end. And the letter shape changing according to the position. In this lesson, I'm gonna show you all these positions and how does the shape of the letter change according to the position. So, let's get started with the first letter, Alif. By the way, before I get started with Alif, in Arabic, we got different Alif. We got Alif without Hamza, what we call it Alif Wasd or Hamzat Wasd. And we got Alif with Hamza, what we call it, this is what we call it Hamzat Qata. So, I'm gonna show you these types in this lesson. All right. So, let's get started with Alif without Hamza. Look carefully how these shapes are different. You can get your paper and pen and write down these shapes by yourself. This will help you a lot to recognize this letter while you're reading Arabic. All right. Let's go to Alif with Hamza, Alif Qata. So, we got Alif Hamza, this Hamza. It might come on the top of Alif and sometimes it come under the Alif. And I'm gonna show you both types right here. So, let's start with Alif Hamza on the top. This is the shapes of Alif Hamza on the top. Beginning, middle, at the end. Did you get the difference? All right. Now, let's go to Alif Hamza under. Beginning, middle, at the end. Did you get the difference? All right. Now, let's go to Ba. Ba beginning, Ba middle, Ba at the end. Try to keep them by your heart. This will help you easily to recognize what letter is this while you're reading Arabic. Now, let's go to Ta. Ta beginning, Ta middle, Ta at the end. By the way, Ba and Ta are the same. The same shapes. All right. Now, let's go to Tha. Tha beginning, Tha middle, Tha at the end. All right. Jeem. Jeem beginning, Jeem middle, Jeem at the end. So, we have Jeem and the next one is Ha. Jeem and Ha are the same. I'm talking about the shapes of this letter. Beginning, middle, at the end. They are same. But the main difference is the letter itself. But when we write these two letters, beginning, middle, at the end, they are the same in changes. So, we continue. Kha. Kha beginning, Kha middle, Kha at the end. So, Jeem, Ha and Kha, these three letters are sharing the same changing. All right. Okay. Let's go to the next letter. Daal. Daal beginning, Daal in the middle, Daal at the end. So, if I'm talking about at the end position, this is how Daal connected with the letter before. Daal. Daal beginning, Daal middle, Daal at the end. So, Daal and Daal, these two letters are sharing the same changes. But I think that the only difference between Daal and Daal is the dot above. Okay. Did you keep these shapes in your mind? Well, let's go to the next one. Ra. Ra at the beginning, Ra in the middle, and Ra at the end. Good. All right. Next. Zay. Zay beginning, Zay in the middle, Zay at the end. Ra and Zay are sharing the same changes. Okay. Next. Seen. So, we got Seen, and then Sheen, and then Sheen, Seen, Sheen, Saad, Daad. These letters are sharing the same differences when we connect them with letters before or after. So, now we have Seen. Seen beginning, Seen in the middle, and Seen at the end. Now, Sheen. Seen, Sheen, Sheen with three dots. Sheen beginning, Sheen in the middle, Sheen at the end. Okay. Next. Saad. Saad beginning, Saad in the middle, Saad at the end. Good. All right. Next. Daad. Daad beginning, Daad in the middle, Daad at the end. All right. Next. Taad. Taad beginning, Taad in the middle, and Taad at the end. Next. Thaad. Thaad beginning, Thaad middle, Thaad at the end. Well, Thaad and Thaad, they are very, very similar. The thing that they are like different in is the dot, only dot. Okay. Next. Ayn and Ghayn. These two letters are similar, Ayn and Ghayn. The main difference is the dot. Okay. So, we got Ayn and Ghayn. And let's start with Ayn. Of course, we got to start with Ayn because it's before in the order. Okay. So, Ayn beginning, Ayn in the middle, Ayn at the end. Let's go to the sister of Ayn, Ghayn. Ghayn beginning, middle, at the end. Try to keep these shapes in your mind. Okay. Now, next. Thaad. Thaad beginning, middle, at the end. These positions are similar. There is no big difference here. Okay. Qaaf. Qaaf beginning, middle, at the end. This is Qaaf. Let's go to the light, the light sister of Qaaf, which is Kaaf. Kaaf. You see? I showed you a little smile. This is how I pronounce it. Qaaf. Okay. So, this is Qaaf beginning, middle, at the end. Qaaf, it might look hard for some of you. I know it's hard. Qaaf. So, try to practice writing Qaaf a lot. It will help you. Okay. Now, Lam. So, this letter Lam, I want you to pay attention because Lam, it might look like Alif. I'm talking about shapes. When we connect Alif and Lam in a word, these two letters might look very similar. So, try to understand the differences here. Try to understand, try to know the difference here between Lam and Alif. Okay. So, this is Lam beginning, middle, at the end. Meem. Meem beginning, Meem in the middle, Meem at the end. All right. Now, Noon. Noon beginning, Noon middle, Noon at the end. Let's go to Ha. So, this one, Ha, it's hard. I know it's hard. It's even hard for Arabs. So, focus more, pay attention more, try to use extra energy. To memorize this letter, Ha. This is Ha beginning, Ha in the middle, Ha at the end. Waw. Let's go to Waw. Waw beginning, middle, at the end. And now, last but not least, Ya. Ya beginning, Ya middle, Ya at the end. All right. At this point, we come to the end of our lesson. See you in the next lesson. As-Salaamu Alaykum.