Vowels in Arabic

Vowels are not letters

Vowels in Arabic, unlike in English, do not make up the alphabet and are therefore not letters. They are signs (strokes) inserted above/below letters.

Vowels in written materials

Vowels are usually not indicated in writing unless to avoid ambiguity. When one reads an Arabic article in a magazine for example, one is supposed to know which vowel should be placed where. This might be puzzling for the beginner, but is not really a problem. Reading materials for beginners will have vowels, and advanced learners do not need them. Word formation in Arabic is largely governed by rules that have few exceptions, therefore words of the same form will have (mostly) the same vowels. As for the few words that can take various vowellings, context will determine which one is suitable. Here grammar will help a great deal, so don't neglect your grammar if you are aiming at accurate understanding of what you (will) read.

Type/Number of vowels

There are six vowels in all: 3 short, and 3 long.

Short vowels

The three short vowels are:

1. ــَـ
2. ــُـ
3. ــِـ

and represent the vowels a, oo (or u) and i as in fashion, foolish (or full) and fiddle respectively. The word "hooligan" has all three in it.

The letter ب with the three short vowels above will be pronounced in this order:

1. بَ : ba (like in bag)
2. بُ : boo (like in book), or bu (like in bull)
3. بِ : bi (like in big)

Lets see some more example:
عَ will be pronounced as 3a ^{(see note below)}
رَ will be pronounced as ra
بِ will be pronounced as bi
يَ will be pronounced as ya

Long vowels

Long vowels are stressed versions of the short vowels, and are represented not only with signs but also with a matching consonant for each sign. The 3 short vowels a, i and oo are matched by ا, و and ي respectively. Each long vowel is a short vowel followed by its matching consonant. These are:

1. ـَا
2. ـُو
3. ـِي

The last two like in "cool" and "keep"; the first one I can't find an English equivalent for. It is somewhat like in German "Bahnhof", "fahren", "paar", etc.

These three letters never take a vowel when used as long vowels; instead they are then unvowelled. However, if they do not act as long vowels they may take vowels, like in اَلْ، وَ، يَد .

The letter ك with the three long vowels above will be written and pronounced in this order:

1. كا: kaa (like in ??? — Search in progress...:-) )
2. كو: koo (like in school)
3. كي: kee (like in keen)