Add a word
Type the English, your transliteration, or both, the way you wrote it in class. Then press Generate Arabic to get the Arabic script with vowel marks and a cleaned-up transliteration. Check the result before you add it. Words are saved in this browser only.
This and that: هٰذَا and ذٰلِكَ
Use hādhā for something near you and dhālika for something far away.
Who and what: مَنْ and مَا
man asks about people. mā asks about everything else, animals included. The question word comes first in the sentence.
“A dog” or “the dog”: endings
Without al- a noun takes a double ending (tanwīn) -un, which means “a”. With al- it takes a single ḍamma (pesh) -u, which means “the”. When nothing else changes the ending, it is a ḍamma.
Subject and predicate
In a sentence like “The dog is fat”, the subject (mubtada’) has al- and a ḍamma at the end. The description (khabar) has no al- and takes tanwīn.
Sun and moon letters
Moon letters: the lām of al- is pronounced (only the alif goes silent when joined to the word before). Sun letters: the lām is silent too, and the next letter is doubled with a shadda.
Prepositions (ḥurūf al-jarr)
After these words the noun ends in a kasra (zer). With al- it is one kasra, -i. Without al- it is two, -in.
| Arabic | Say | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| فِي | fī | in |
| عَلَى | ʿalā | on |
| إِلَى | ilā | to, towards |
| لِ | li / lil- | for |
| مِنْ | min | from |
Asking questions
| Arabic | Say | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| مَنْ | man | who (people) |
| مَا | mā | what (everything else) |
| هَلْ | hal | yes/no question marker (“is…?”, “are…?”) |
| كَيْفَ | kayfa | how |
| أَيْنَ | ayna | where |
| لِمَنْ | li-man | whose, for whom |