Arabic Letter Forms: How Letters Join (Beginning, Middle, End)

One of the first surprises for new learners is that an Arabic letter can look different depending on where it sits in a word. ب on its own looks quite different from the بـ at the start of بِسْمِ. Once you understand the simple joining rules, words that looked impossible suddenly become readable.

Arabic is written joined up

Arabic is written from right to left, and most letters join to the letters on both sides, a bit like joined-up handwriting. Because of this, most letters have up to four forms:

The good news: for most letters, the four forms share the same "core" shape. The initial and medial forms are usually just shortened.

The 6 letters that never join forward

Six letters join to the letter before them, but never to the letter after them:

ا د ذ ر ز و

After one of these letters, the next letter starts again as if it were at the beginning of a word. That is why a word like وَرَدَ looks like three separate letters: و ر د.

Letters that change shape the most

‘Ayn and ha change the most, so it is worth practising them in real words: عَلِمَ, يَعْلَمُ, سَمِعَ, هُوَ, فِيهِ, وَجْهُ.

Look-alikes in the middle of a word

At the start or in the middle of a word, five letters share the same small "tooth" shape and differ only by their dots:

بـ تـ ثـ نـ يـ

Read our guide to Arabic letters that look alike for all the dot patterns.

Special shapes to know

• لا (lam + alif): when lam is followed by alif, they join into a special shape, as in لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ.
• ة (ta marbutah): appears only at the end of a word. It looks like ه with two dots, and is read as t when you continue and h when you stop.
• ى (alif maqsurah): looks like ي without dots, and is read as a long a, as in عَلَىٰ.
• Hamza on a seat: the hamza can sit alone (ء), on an alif (أ إ), on a waw (ؤ) or on a ya without dots (ئ). It is always the same sound.

How to practise

1. Write each letter in its four forms, five times. Writing helps the shapes stick.
1. Break words apart: take a word like الْعَالَمِينَ and say each letter: alif, lam, ‘ayn, alif, lam, meem, ya, noon.
1. Find the non-joiners on one page of the Mushaf and notice the gaps after them.
1. Read slowly from a Mushaf with a teacher, or from a beginner primer like the Noorani Qaida.

Next steps: learn the vowel marks, or start from zero with learning the Arabic letters as an adult. To learn with a teacher, see learn the Quran for beginners.