Arabic extra sounds and signs

Look up Arabic vowel marks, hamza, shadda, sukun, and common written forms with examples, transliteration, and IPA.

Some signs change a sound; others mark a vowel, a doubled consonant, or a combined written form. Use the examples and notes to see the difference.

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Arabic additional sounds, signs, and written forms
Sign	Name	Examples	Transl.	IPA	Use	Articulatory phonetics
ء	hamza	ء, أ, إ, ؤ, ئ	ʾ	/ʔ/	glottal stop; can stand alone or sit on a carrier	voiceless glottal plosive
لا	lam-alif	لا, ـلا	lā / la	/laː/	ligature used when lam is followed by alif	alveolar lateral approximant followed by a long open vowel
ة	tāʾ marbūṭa	ة, ـة	a / at	/a/ or /at/	common feminine ending; pronounced t in construct or careful reading	open vowel in pause; includes a voiceless dental-alveolar plosive in connected forms
ى	alif maqṣūra	ى, ـى	ā	/aː/	final long ā written with a ya-like shape without dots	long open unrounded vowel
ـَ	fatḥa	بَ	a	/a/	short a mark above the consonant	short open unrounded vowel
ـِ	kasra	بِ	i	/i/	short i mark below the consonant	short close front unrounded vowel
ـُ	ḍamma	بُ	u	/u/	short u mark above the consonant	short close back rounded vowel
ـْ	sukūn	بْ	-	no vowel	marks the absence of a following vowel	no following vowel
ـّ	šadda	بّ	double consonant	gemination	doubles or lengthens the consonant	lengthened consonant articulation
ـً	fatḥatān	بً	an	/an/	nunation with short a	open vowel followed by an alveolar nasal
ـٍ	kasratān	بٍ	in	/in/	nunation with short i	close front vowel followed by an alveolar nasal
ـٌ	ḍammatān	بٌ	un	/un/	nunation with short u	close back rounded vowel followed by an alveolar nasal
ـٰ	dagger alif	هٰذا	ā	/aː/	small superscript alif for long ā in some common words	long open unrounded vowel
آ	madda	آ	ʾā	/ʔaː/	hamza plus long ā on alif	glottal plosive followed by a long open vowel

IPA is the International Phonetic Alphabet. The IPA column describes pronunciation; the transliteration column represents Arabic using Latin letters.

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