Three small vowel marks

Read fatḥa, kasra, and ḍamma with familiar consonants.

Short a

Fatḥa is a short stroke above the consonant. Say a brief a, roughly the a in English cat, with the exact quality affected by neighboring consonants.

بَ

ba — a practice syllable

Short i and u

Kasra is a stroke below and gives short i, roughly in sit. Ḍamma is a small curl above and gives short u, roughly in put. These marks are vowels after the consonant, not new alphabet letters.

بِ بُ

bi / bu — practice syllables

Read what is marked

The same consonant can take different vowels. Ordinary Arabic print often omits short vowels; missing marks do not automatically mean there is no vowel. This course supplies them for new vocabulary.

كَتَبَ

kataba — he wrote; all base letters are familiar