Pronunciation Guide

These letters…  are pronounced as in the following words…

ee           Meet

ae          Game

uu          Moon

e              Get

o             Got

u             A short version of “moon”

a             Gas

aa           Air

oo          Goal

 

•             You will find consonants written in either upper or lower case and is each pronounced in a different way.
•             Consonants shown in capitals are emphatic or hard versions of the lower case letters.
•             Pronunciation of the vowel “a” is changed if it has an emphatic consonant before or after it.  For example…
• s-h          is pronounced as two separate letters, not “sh”

ba…        is pronounced as in back

Ba…        is pronounces as in but

 

•            When a consonant is doubled, each of the letters must be pronounced separately, with a short break between.  For example…

kasar – (he) broke something      is pronounced as  ka-sar

kassar –  (he) broke something into pieces             is pronounced as  kas-sar

 

•            Some Arabic letters have no direct equivalent sounds in English.  These have been represented in the dictionary as numbers.  For example…

2              pronounced as a stop in the word, as in the Cockney pronunciation of the word “Bottle” – bo2le

3              pronounced as the sound “Ah” but from deep in the throat

3’            pronounced as the last letter in the French word “Bonjour”; or the first letter in the German word “Rennen”

7              pronounced as the sound you make when you breathe on your glasses to clean them

7’            pronounced as the “ch” in the Scottish “lock”; the first sound in the Russian word “ХОРОШО”; the first sound in the Spanish word “Justo”

 

 

 

 

 

Press on the items in red to hear the Arabic audio!