Learn to read Arabic the easy way - Earworms

yourself, think of the word: M.O.P: mم م Lee, y, iيلل ‘L’ is easy – just turn it to face Left. This looks a bit like an ‘S’ with a long tail and two dots below.Imagine the dots are ‘e’s. So the ‘S’ + ‘ee’ spells ‘See’.Just remember the two ‘ee’s.When writing, sometimes the squiggle is left off:It also takes the ‘y’ sound as in ‘yacht’.DدLooks like an openD. د rرIs rounded and is rolling to the rightsسLooks like a curled up snakeoo or wوLooks like a 9. Imagine 9 cookies and 9 waffles.gغThis does look somewhat like a g with a difference. And the sound is different. It’s a bit like gargling!tطLooks like a turtle on the move.kكK as in kettle. The ‘s’ shape in the middle reminds of steamcoming out of the kettle!

Step 2: SpellingNow for a bit of fun, let’s spell some English words using Arabic letters.The purpose of this exercise is to work with the letters, to anchor them into your memory.Try writing them, too. Arabic is written from right to left. I repeat:.left to right from written is Arabic.to used getting some takes ThisBelow on the left you can see the printed letters and next to them on the right, the handwrittenversion:1.= man م + ا+‏ ن.tfel ot thgir morf etirw ot rebmemeR2.ث + ي + ن= thin.tfel ot thgir morf etirw ot rebmemeR3.ف + ا + ن= f**4.ل + ا + م + ب= l**b

5.+ يي + م= d*mد6.= m*th م + ا + ثث7.di** = د + ي+‏ + ل + ل8.ي+‏ ل + ل9.*ill = م + +piece!) (Clue: a small *** = + + تي ب10.implement) (Clue: sports *** = ب + ا + ت11.sorry!) (No clue, *** = ف + ا + ت

Now lets get reading some real Arabic words. For the sake of familiarity, lets take themonths. (earworms Rapid Arabic Vol 2.)The months‏,مايو mahyoo ‏,أبريل abreel ‏,مارس maris ‏,فبرايرfebrayir ‏,ينايرyanayir, سبتمبرّ‏ ‘r’) sibtemberr (role the ‏,اغسطس agoostoos ‏,يوليو yulir ‏,يونيو yunirديسمبر disember ‏,نوفمبر noofember ‏,أوآتوبر aooktooberيناير=‏ yaneyirLet’s look at the word ‘yanayir’ under the microscope:ينايرDo you recognise all the letters? No?Apart from being written from right to left, the second hurdle is that whenwritten together in one word, letters often lose their tails and flourishes.Let’s do an experiment to try to separate the letters. You can try thisyourself in a text programme like Word. (See Doc. Arabic months)يناير1. Going from right to left putting a space between the first andsecond letter, ي separates itself so we have:ناير2. Separating the second letter gives us:ي ن ايري3. Separating the third:ير ا ن ي4. until all letters are separate:ر ا ي ن ي5. Reading from the right you can now read: y a n a y i rNotice the ‘a’ after the first y and the ‘i’ after the second y (heregrey) are not actually written!. In most cases in Arabic the (short)vowels which are additional small symbols above and below themain letters are left out; you have to guess them. It’s a bit like SMStexting e.g. “pls rng bck” (Please ring back)

Lets try the same with febrayirSeparated:فبرايرر ف ب ر ا يr y a r b fyou read: f b r a y rNote here that you also have to interpolate the missing vowels (febrayir)مارس = MarisSeparated:مارسم ا ر سs r a myou read: m a r s and have to guess the vowel ‘i’ after the ‘r’.أبريل=‏ AbreelأبريلSeparated:ل ر ي أ بl i r b ABy the way the little ‘c’ shaped symbol above the ‘A’ is called ‘hamza’.

م ايو = Mayooممايوو ا يoo y a Mيونيو = YunirيونيوAs single letters:و ن ي و يrinuyيوليو yulirAs single letters:و ل ي و ي yuliry u l i rاغسطس agoostoosAs single letters:غ س ط س ا agoostoossoot soog a (vowels are not written)سبتمبرّ‏ sibtemberrAs single letters:رّ‏ م ب ب تس sibtemberrr eb met bis (vowels are not written)

أوآتوبر aooktooberAs single letters:aooktooberر و ب و ك ت أr b oo t k oo a‏,نوفمبر noofemberAs single letters:ر م ب و ف ن noofemberreb mefoonديسمبر disemberAs single letters:ر م ب ي سد disemberreb mes i dHere are the rest of the 28 letters. Try to think of more visualisations to aid your memory.Sound Arabic letter Visualisation to aid your memoryshjhlike the ch in lochlike the ‚th’ in ‚there’zsādāstrong zشجه or حخذزصضظ

Sounds a bit likesaying ‚ahh’ when thedoctor examines yourthroat.q as in queenعقLooks like a queen with a crown on her head.