Most Arabic textbooks transliterate with dots and hats: ḥ, ʿ, ḍ, ṣ. They mean nothing unless you've already studied phonetics. We use something simpler. Every letter is something you can type on a keyboard, and reading it the way it's spelled usually gets you to the right sound.
Here's the whole key. Bookmark it; you'll come back.
The full key
| Arabic | English-friendly | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| ا | a / aa | a in "car" (long version) |
| ب | b | b |
| ت | t | t |
| ث | th (or s) | English th in "think" |
| ج | j | j in "jam" |
| ح | H | breathy h from the throat |
| خ | kh | ch in Scottish "loch" |
| د | d | d |
| ذ | dh (or z) | English th in "this" |
| ر | r | rolled r |
| ز | z | z |
| س | s | s |
| ش | sh | sh |
| ص | S | emphatic s |
| ض | D | emphatic d |
| ط | T | emphatic t |
| ظ | Z | emphatic z |
| ع | ' | strangled a from the throat |
| غ | gh | French r |
| ف | f | f |
| ق | q | deep k (or a glottal stop in urban speech) |
| ك | k | k |
| ل | l | l |
| م | m | m |
| ن | n | n |
| ه | h | English h |
| و | w / oo / ow | consonant w, or long oo / ow |
| ي | y / ee / iy | consonant y, or long ee / iy |
| ء | ' | glottal stop |
| ة | a / e | final -ah / -eh |
A few rules to read by
Capital letters are emphatic. S, D, T, Z aren't shouting; they mark the four "deep" consonants pronounced with the back of the tongue. They're a different sound entirely, not louder. Capital H is similar: a breathy throat-h that the regular lowercase h doesn't capture.
Digraphs are two-letter sounds. sh, kh, th, dh, gh: each pair represents one Arabic letter, not two. starts with one Arabic letter, not s+h.
The apostrophe does double duty. A bare ' covers both ع (the throat sound English doesn't have) and ء (the glottal stop, the catch in "uh-oh"). They're different letters in Arabic. When we need to distinguish them, we use a backtick for ع. Most of the time context tells you which is which.
Long vowels double up. A short a is the "a" in "cat"; a long aa is the "a" in "car". Same for i / ee and u / oo. Pronouncing (book) as "kit-AHB" instead of "ki-tab" is the difference between sounding Arab and sounding fluent.
Palestinian shortcuts. In colloquial Palestinian, ث often softens to a hard s or t, and ذ to z or d. We write words the way they're actually said in the dialect, not the way the dictionary spells them.
The ق has a twin life. In MSA, in Bedouin areas, and up north, it's a deep q from the back of the throat. In urban Palestinian (Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramallah) it's silent: just a glottal stop. We write q either way; each guide tells you which version to use.
Click anything to hear it
Throughout the site, underlined words are clickable: ("hello"), ("thank you"), ("let's go"). Tap once to play, again to pause.
That's the whole system. Read any word on this site out loud and you'll be close enough to be understood.
