2 Vowels in Arabic

Vowels in Arabic are called ‘ḥarakāt’. These vowels are important, not only for reading, but also for the meaning of the sentence, as the meaning is often linked to the vowel on the last letter. For example: the following two sentences contain the same words in the same order, but the meaning is different. The only difference is the vowel above the last letter of each word.

١- سَمِعَ الطَّالِبُ الأُسْتَاذَ

٢- سَمِعَ الطَّالِبَ الأُسْتَاذُ

1. The student heard the teacher.
2. The teacher heard the student.

The change that occurs at the end of words in Arabic is called إِعْرَاب - Iʿrāb (declensions). Each of these vowels is a sign of a case:

• kasra: is a sign for the genitive case which concerns nouns only.
• ḍamma: is a sign for the nominative case which concern both nouns and verbs.
• Fatḥa: is a sign for the accusative case which concern both nouns and verbs.
• Sukūn: is a sign for the jussive case which concern verbs only.

You are not expected to understand and apply this yet – declensions will be taught later in the Beginners Arabic Course [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] with the Open Centre for Languages and Cultures.

In Table 3 you can find the vowels with examples. Listen carefully and repeat.

In addition, there are tanwīn vowels, denoted by doubling the vowel signs ( ـٍ ، ـٌ ، ـً ). These vowels are used for an indefinite noun or adjective for example: قَلَمٌ a pen (a definite noun would translate to “the pen”). It also comes with the last letter of the word. The pronunciation of these vowels is: in - un or an. Alif letter should be added to the end of the word when the tanwīn is double Fatḥa. Listen to the audio file to see how tanwīn is pronounced.

١- طَالِبٍ - طَالِبٌ - طَالِباً

٢- مُعَلِّمٍ - مُعَلِّمٌ - مُعَلِّماً

٣- طَوِيلٍ - طَوِيلٌ - طَوِيلاً

٤- قَلَمٍ - قَلَمٌ - قَلَماً

٥- بَابٍ - بَابٌ - بَاباً