The Arabic alphabets with fathah
In this lesson:
- We will learn how each letter is pronounced with the short vowel fathah.
Length of fathah sound:
When we make the sounds with fathah, we must make sure the sound is x1 length long. And this applies to all the short vowels we will learn.
- So be sure not to make the sounds x2 lengths long.
- Light sounds are written in blue (Tarqeeq).
- Heavy sounds are written in red (tafkheem).
All the alphabets with fathah:
أَ: the letter hamza with fathah is pronounced as ‘a’ as in ‘apple’ (light).
بَ: this is pronounced as ‘ba’ as in ‘bat’ (light).
تَ: this is pronounced as ‘ta’ as in ‘tadpole (light).
ثَ: this is pronounced as ‘tha’ as in ‘thatch’ (light).
جَ: this is pronounced as ‘ja’ as in ‘jam’ (light).
حَ: this is pronounced as ‘Ha’ as in ‘hatch’ (light + exhale forcefully).
خَ: this is pronounced as ‘khar’ as in ‘car’ (heavy/nearly full mouth + grate).
دَ: this is pronounced as ‘da’ as in ‘dad’ (light).
ذَ: this is pronounced as ‘tha’ as in ‘that’ (light).
رَ: this is pronounced as ‘ra’ as in ‘raft’ (heavy/full mouth).
زَ: this is pronounced as ‘za’ as in ‘zap’ (light).
سَ: this is pronounced as ‘sa’ as in ‘sad’ (light).
شَ: this is pronounced as ‘sha’ as in ‘shack’ (light).
صَ: this is pronounced as ‘sar’ as in ‘sardine’ (heavy/ full mouth).
ضَ: this is pronounced as ‘dar’ as in ‘darling’ (heavy/ full mouth).
طَ: this is pronounced as ‘tar’ as in ‘target’ (heavy/ full mouth).
ظَ: this is pronounced as ‘Dhar’ (heavy/ full mouth).
‘dh’ as in ‘thou’. Start with the tip of the tongue between the front upper and lower teeth.
عَ: this is pronounced as say ‘ahhh!’ and then block the throat (light).
غَ: this is pronounced as ‘ghar’ as in ‘gargle’ (heavy/ nearly full mouth).
فَ: this is pronounced as ‘fa’ as in ‘fat’ (light).
قَ: this is pronounced as ‘qar’ as in ‘car’ (heavy + block throat before saying letter).
كَ: this is pronounced as ‘ka’ as in ‘carry’ (light).
لَ: this is pronounced as ‘la’ as in ‘lamb’ (light).
مَ: this is pronounced as ‘ma’ as in ‘mat’ (light).
نَ: this is pronounced as ‘na’ as in ‘nanny’ (light).
وَ: this is pronounced as ‘wa’ as in ‘wack’ (light).
ھَ: this is pronounced as ‘ha’ as in ‘hat’ (light).
ءَ: this is pronounced as ‘a’ as in ‘apple’ (light).
يَ: this is pronounced as ‘ya’ as in ‘yack’ (light).
Practice with heavy and light letters:
In the following table on the left side, there are seven heavy letters and on the right side, we have some of the light letters which have been put to help us to compare what the light sound is versus the heavy sound of letters that sound almost the same. So, what we will do is, we will read the letter on the right-hand side
i.e. the light version and then we will go across to the heavy letter and we will work our way down until we get to the last two letters.
Heavy letters light letters (All empty Mouth) طَ (taa) تَ (ta) قَ (qa) كَ (ka) ضَ ‘daa’ دَ (da) ظَ ‘dhaa’ ذَ (tha) صَ (saa) سَ (sa) خَ (kha) غَ(ghaa)
All Full Mouth All Empty Mouth Tafkheem Tarqeeq
The last two heavy letters do not have any light equivalent letters.
The above table is important to practice making sure you do not say the same sound for different letters
. There must be a difference between the two pronunciation.
Conclusion:
- We have seen how the alphabet letters are pronounced with fathah.
- We have known how the ‘heavy’ letters are pronounced as compared to the ‘light’ letters.
- We understand the correct length to pronounce the short vowel fathah.
