How to Read Arabic - 7 Arabic Steps™ Method
I truly believe that learning how to read Arabic is not hard.
As an Arabic teacher, there are only 7 main lessons that I teach my students.
1. Arabic Letter Sounds & Forms (Huroof)
I spend a lot of time teaching the correct pronunciation and letter forms because having a solid foundation will make your reading fluency easier. If you're struggling to recall how a letter sounds or looks, then all the other signs and symbols will only confuse you more.
2. Short Vowels (Harakaat)
Being able to identify the 3 short vowels is of second importance because every single Arabic word includes a short vowel (and all the other rules include them as well). So do a lot of reading practice with fathah, kasrah and dammah before moving on.
3. Absence of a Vowel (Sukoon)
I love teaching the lesson on sukoon! This symbol represents the absence of a vowel. You truly get to hear how the Arabic letters sound when they have a sukoon on it. (Here are some sounds to try: أحْ أذْ أضْ أطْ أعْ أقْ أهْ).
An additional lesson on sukoon is called Leen. Leen is simply the letters ي and و acting as vowels instead of consonants. For Quranic reading, if a word has يْ or وْ as the second last letter, then you will read it with madd (rules of stopping).
4. Double Short Vowel (Tanween)
When you see two short vowel signs parallel to each other, you will add the "n" sound (نْ) after saying each short vowel. This is also referred to as nunation and indicates an indefinite article in Arabic grammar.
5. Long Vowel (Madd)
There are 3 long vowels in Arabic. They are a combination of a letter associated with a short vowel. Add ا after fathah to elongate its sound, يْ after kasrah, and وْ after dammah.
6. Doubling of a Letter (Shaddah)
If there are 2 identical Arabic letters that are a part of a words’s root letters, only one letter is written and a symbol will be placed above it to indicate that the letter is read twice. I teach this literacy rule last because it combines all the previous rules.
7. Silent Letters
Lastly, there are few silent letters in Arabic. Sometimes it's due to how the Arabic word is written, a verb tense, or due to an ا ل attachment. These too follow a pattern, so it's easy to remember!
Hamzah
Hamza (ء) is a symbol (and letter) that I weave into lessons gradually. It confuses students mostly when it is written above the letters ؤ and ـئ . Simply ignore the letter above or below hamza and focus on the vowel mark or sukoon to know how to read it.
Writing Arabic
Aside from the specific (and logical) order that I use to teach these rules, Arabic writing is an essential part of my 7 Arabic Steps™ method.
Writing is an active form of language learning and naturally strengthens reading skills. I always teach my students how to write the Arabic letters and Arabic words that are related to each lesson. Knowing how to write Arabic will also help them easily move on to more advanced Arabic studies.