Writing in Arabic is something that many beginning Arabic learners are afraid of. Many simply don’t know how to begin learning the Arabic alphabet and writing system. In this article I give you some tips on how best to approach Arabic writing and how to master it.

1. Start by learning the individual letters of the Arabic alphabet. The Arabic script might seem difficult at first, but with the right method it can be learned easily. You can read more about a successful Arabic alphabet learning technique here.

2. Proceeed to reading individual words and writing these words yourself. After a few times try to write these words from memory.

3. Start looking at whole sentences of Arabic writing and copy the text. You should get a native Arabic speaker to pronounce the sentnece for you. Or, alternatively, you can start by copying sentences that have short vowels written out.

4. Finally, take a few short articles written in Arabic and copy them out word for word. Make sure that you know how to pronounce each individual word. So it’s best to have a recording by by a native speaker of the article you are copying.

Remember that Arabic writing takes some getting used to, but with consistency you’ll master it eventually. Also, remember to make learning Arabic writing a fun activity to do. Your brain just doesn’t learn well when it’s bored…

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1. Quick And Easy Way To Learn The Arabic Alphabet
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"maktaba" without vowel signs

Were we to merely transcribe the letters that appear we would end up with <mktba> – the two short “a”-sounds are merely implied. The reader needs to know already that the word means “library” and that library is maktaba and not something else like muktiba or mikatuba.

So, what about the learner who just started out? Or the Arabic child who hasn’t mastered reading and writing yet? Here is where vocalization comes into play: through the short vowel and other signs any reader who knows the Arabic letters will be able to pronounce the word. Below is maktaba written with the short vowel signs added.

"maktaba" with vowels

As you can see there is now a small sign above the first letter from the right م (meem) that indicates a short <a>-sound. This little stroke is called “fatHa”. The next letter ك (kaaf) bears a symbol indicating that there is no short vowel at this point. This small circle is called “sukoon”. There is no sign above the fourth letter ب (baa’), because it is followed by a ة (taa’ marbooTa) that is pronounced as an “a”-sound in any case.

Below is a table summarizing the short vowel sings.

Should I use vocalization in my Arabic studies?

Some teachers insist that it is best to start learning Arabic without recourse to vocalized texts. Their reasoning is that almost all Arabic writing in real life comes without the short vowels and that it is therefore better to get used to reading unvowelled texts from the get go.

On the other hand, even Arab children start out by reading vowelled texts and continue to do so for a long time at school. I’ve seen textbooks for Arab kids in grade six and they still vocalize almost every word. It seems like it could take quite a while to build up the knowledge of words and grammar before children are capable of doing without the harakaat.

My personal take on this debate is that Arabic learners should pursue a double strategy. A text for study should first be read with all the vowel signs in place and repeated until the student has assimilated the pronunciation of all the words. In the next step, one can proceed to a version of the same text that lacks the short vowels. It should now be possible to read this version with the same confidence as the vowelled text.

An undoubted benefit of using fully vowelled texts is that the grammatical concepts are much easier to grasp, because all the endings are evident. To give you an example of this consider the following sentence, meaning “the weather was good”:

"The weather was nice" with no vowel signs

Without vocalization it is not immediately clear to the Arabic learner what case الطقس takes. Is it nominative or accusative? However, when the same sentence is vocalized, this becomes immediately obvious:

"The weather was nice" with vowel signs

Now we know that it’s al-Taqsu and not al-Taqsa.

While this might not seem important to some Arabic learners, these little details do make a difference, especially when the context of communication gets more educated.

So in conclusion: Do both! Vowelled and unvowelled material is both important.

UPDATE: I’ve posted a new blog entry about a neat technique that helps you remember the Arabic short vowels.

Related posts:

1. An Easy Way To Remember The Short Vowels
2. Arabic Tattoo: Faith, Hope, Love
3. Arabic Writing

Hi Max!

I am writing you from Hungary, I have seen your e-mail adress in your webpage. I have a problem, exactly that I want an arabic tattoo, but I am a bit unknown in this language, I hope you can help me. I would like to know how to write “happiness” and the horoscope “scorpion” in the arabic language.

I am very grateful, if you help me!

I’m happy to oblige.

Scorpio

The first request is for the astrological sign “Scorpio”. In Arabic this would be برج العقرب (pronounced burj al-3aqrab), literally “sign (of) the scorpion”. However, for the purpose of a tattoo it would probably be better to abbreviate this simply to العقرب (al-3aqrab), or “the scorpion”. In case your PC doesn’t display the letters properly here’s a picture of the word using three different fonts.

The Zodiac sign "Scorpio" in Arabic

Happiness

As for the second request, “happiness”, I would translate it as السعادة (pronounced as-sa3aada). This literally means “the happiness”. The article “the” is used, because in Arabic a statement such as “Happiness is important” would be translated as “THE Happiness is important”. Below you can see the word written in three different fonts.

"Happiness" in Arabic

You might want to try out a few different Arabic fonts to see which one you like. There are a lot of free fonts at http://freearabicfonts.com/. Or perhaps you could ask an Arab calligrapher to make a special calligraphy for you using the word you have in mind?

I hope this helps. But you might also consider:

Learning The Arabic Alphabet The Easy And Effective Way

With the revolutionary method I explain here you’ll master the Arabic script in no time. This way you’ll be sure that the Arabic tattoo you were thinking of getting really is written correctly.

Related posts:

1. Arabic Tattoos – Another Reader Request: never give up, unbreakable, strength and courage
2. Arabic Tattoos – The Latest Celebrity Must-Have
3. Arabic Tattoos – The Three Most Embarrassing Errors

I’ll show you some bad examples and help you avoid some of the common mistakes. The same considerations apply equally to Persian, Urdu or Pashto tattoos, because these languages too use some form of Arabic script.

1 Disconnected letters

I guess the main culprits for this are people’s word processors that are not equipped to deal with the Arabic script. They don’t know how to interpret the letters and just represent them each individually. Arabic is a cursive script: the majority of letters are connected, like in handwriting. For example, below you can see the Arabic for “television” as it should be written:

The word "television" written in Arabic in the correct way

And here the same word, but written incorrectly, with the letters disconnected:

The Arabic for "television" written incorrectly with disjointed letters

Let’s see an example of this “in the wild”:

Disconnected letters

To be honest, I can’t even have a guess at what the word is supposed to mean.

2 Disconnected AND written from left to right instead of from right to left

Well, most people know that Arabic – unlike European languages – is written from right to left. However, some people don’t take notice of that and try to write Arabic from left to write.

Like this person here:

3 Offensive tattoos

This is probably the worst kind of mistake. While the other errors can make you look foolish or silly in the eyes of Arabic native speakers, having offensive words tattooed on your body can get you in a whole lot of trouble. Many Arab societies are highly conservative and will frown upon those insulting the culture or religion. Here are two particularly bad examples of this:

Kafir, or "unbeliever"

The Arabic reads كافر (kaafir) or “unbeliever” in English. This is an offensive term used derogatively for followers of religions other than Islam or atheists. Someone professing to be a kaafir himself would be seen as attempting to mock Islam and this is not taken lightly in most Arabic countries.

Can it get worse? Well, judge for yourself:

This lady seems to think it’s a good idea to have the Arabic word for “female dog” (bitch!) engraved on her body. Although the Arabic doesn’t quite have the same meaning as the English word “bitch”, nevertheless “dog” has a pretty negative connotation in the Arab world and is used to insult someone.

Avoid the mistakes

So, what should you do if you are thinking of getting an Arabic tattoo? Well, most importantly try to avoid the four mistakes I described. If you are really serious about getting an Arabic word tattooed on your skin, then you should consider learning the Arabic writing system. It’s much easier than it seems and it is well worth the time and effort spent on it to know with certainty that your beautiful Arabic tattoo is written correctly.

Apart from learning the Arabic script yourself, you should make sure the source for your Arabic tattoo is reliable and trustworthy. For example, you could get my Arabic Tattoos eBook or have me make a custom tattoo for you.

Related posts:

1. Reader Request For Arabic Tattoos: Happiness and Scorpio
2. Arabic Tattoos – The Latest Celebrity Must-Have
3. Arabic Tattoos, Mistakes and Art