What are Arabic short vowels and long vowels?
Arabic Long Vowels & Short Vowels
The Arabic language contains three long vowels and three short vowels, which correspond roughly in English to "a", "u", and "e/i".
The short vowels and other pronunciation and grammatical markers – called diacritical marks – do not generally appear in printed and written text, such as in newspapers, books and magazines, unless they are needed to eliminate ambiguity. The exception to this is the Holy Qur’an, which includes all vowel markings.
Therefore, since most texts are now voweled, it is important when you learn new vocabulary that you pay close attention to short vowels so as to memorize the proper pronunciation.
Long Vowels
Long Vowel Pronunciation
| Long Vowel Name
| Long Vowel
|
|---|---|---|
aa
| alif
| ا
|
oo
| waaw
| و
|
ee
| yaa
| ي
|
Short Vowels
Short Vowel Pronunciation
| Short Vowel Name
| Short Vowel
|
|---|---|---|
a
| fatHa
| َ
|
u
| Damma
| ُ
|
i
| kasra
| ِ
|
The length of long vowels and short vowles
alif: aaa (three counts)
fahHa: a (one count)
waaw: ooo (three counts)
Damma: u (one count)
yaa: eee (three counts)
kasra: i ِ (one count)
Short & Long Vowel Examples
Pronunciation
| Short Vowel
| Pronunciation
| Long vowel
|
|---|---|---|---|
تََب / tab
| َ
| تاب / taaab
| ا
|
تُب / tub
| ُ
| توب / toobo
| و
|
تِب /tib
| ِ
| تيب / teeeb
| ي
|
