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!