Lesson 2

The letter ذ and the sound /ð/

The letter ذ (thaal, also: dhal, ḏāl) is written the same as dal, with the addition of one distinguishing dot. It is pronounced as /ð/ in words like ‘this’ /ðɪs/ or ‘that’ /ðæt/.

/ð – ð – ð – ð – ð – ð – ð/

ذ – ذ – ذ – ذ – ذ – ذ – ذ

Exercise 1. Read from right to left, pronouncing ذ and the vowel sounds correctly. Write it down, making sure that the dots and vowel marks are not very close to the letters.

ذَذَذَ ذُذُذُ ذَذِذُ

ذِذِذِ ذُذِذَ ذِذَذُ

The audio for ذَذُذِذْ:

Exercise 2. Read from right to left, clearly distinguishing the pronunciation of ز and ذ. Write it down.

Exercise 3. Read from right to left, observing the rules for pronouncing consonants and vowels.

The letter و and the sound /w/

The letter و (waw) is similar to ra, but has a loop at the upper end. The letter is written with a continuous clockwise movement of the pen. Here is the letter waw compared to alif and dal:

ادو

The letter waw (like the word wow) is pronounced the same as ‘w’ in ‘wow’ or ‘world’ and is written as /w/ in the transcription.

Exercise 4. Read from right to left and then write down:

وَوَوَ وِوِوِ وُوُوُ وَوِوُ وُوِوَ وِوَوُ

The audio for وَ وُ وِ:

Exercise 5. Read by pronouncing the consonant and vowel sounds correctly. The stress is always on the first syllable. Write in columns and give the transcription (in the input forms below or in your notebook).

The long vowel /ā/

In addition to short vowels, Arabic has long vowels, such as /ā/ (the straight dash above the letter in the transcription indicates that the vowel is long).

In writing, the long sound /ā/ is indicated by the letter alif, which is written after a letter that has the vowel mark ـَ, e.g.:

The letter alif itself has no vowel sings. It just denotes that the preceding vowel /a/ is long.

As in English, it is important to distinguish between short and long vowel sounds.

Compare /ā/ and /rā/:

Exercise 6. Read, paying attention to the difference between long and short vowels. The stress is always on the first syllable, irrespective of the long and short vowels. Write down and transcribe.

The ending of nouns and adjectives

Nouns and adjectives in Arabic have an ending /-un/, which is not represented in writing by letters, but by a special mark above the last letter of the word. This mark resembles the vowel mark /u/ with the complement on the left* (a bit like ـُ with number two on the left), looking like this: ـٌ, e.g., دَارٌ [dārun] — building, house. The vowel /u/ in this ending is pronounced very briefly and becomes similar to the English /ɔ/. We are going to write /-un/ in italics.

The ending /-un/ carries a secondary (weakened) stress, which in Arabic words exists along with the main (strong) stress. The main stress is similar in its strength to the usual English stress, while the secondary stress is somewhat weaker.

* It can also appear in simpler variants: as two ـُـُ conjoined, or one ـُ and an inverted ـُ above it, i.e. as originally intended, but the system only allows the first variant to be displayed.

Exercise 7. Read it, paying attention to the stress and vowel length. The main stress is on the first syllable, the secondary stress is on the ending. Write it down.

The audio for وَارِدٌ:

Exercise 8. Transcribe the following words, write them down in columns in Arabic letters with vowel marks. Read, paying attention to the long and short vowels (the main stress is always on the first syllable).

/zāra, rāwada, waradā, wārid-un, zāwada, zād-un, wāridā, dawarā, dār-un, wizr-un, ward-un, zāda, dāra, rāwā, zāwada/.