Further to my recent blog post about the Arabic short vowels, I want to give you a little trick that you can use to remember the sounds and shapes of all the short vowels. For each of the harakaat there is a mnemonic, or memory aid, that helps you remember the significance of the sign.
| Short Vowel | Name | Comment |
| بَ | fatHa | This is an <a> sound, so it’s convenient that this short vowel always appears above the letter in question |
| بِ | kasra | This is an <i> sound. Imagine that the little stroke is a drop of ink that is dropping down. |
| بُ | Damma | This is a <u> sound. Just remember that this short vowel is a small version of the letter waaw (و) that makes a similar sound. |
| بّ | shadda | The letter underneath this sign is doubly pronounced. Easy to remember, because the sign itself looks like its a “double u” |
| بْ | sokoon | This sign indicates that the letter underneath doesn’t carry any short vowel. Sokoon looks like a zero and there are zero short vowels here. |
This should help you remember the harakaat once and for all.
Related posts:
Great article, I just given this onto a co-worker who was doing a little research on that. And he in fact purchased me lunch because I discovered it for him