Writing & Pronouncing of Arabic names

	Web hejleh.com

---

In Arabic, there are certain signs or marks that are added to the top or bottom of letters to give them certain sounds. They are:
1-fat-ha: َ   for the ah sound and is presented as "a" e.g Hamad حَمَد
2-damma: ُ   for the oh sound and is presented as "o" or "u" e.g. Dunia دُنيا or Sobhi صُبحي
3-kassra: ِ   for the eh or ih sound and is presented as "e" or "i" e.g. Adel عادِل or Jihad جِهاد
4-shaddah: ّ   which is presented as "double constant letter" e.g. Waddah' وضّاح
5-sukoon: ْ   which is presented as "two consecutive constants" e.g. Bahjat بهْجت or Yusra يسْرى

Letters Arabic to English

Arabic Alphabet	In English written as	sounds as in	example
alef            Aleph with hamza and fat-ha أَ Aleph with hamza and damma أُ Aleph with hamza and kasra إِ	a a u i	ram ago Uno inn	Mazen Ahmad Usama Ismael
ba	b ba bu be/bi	tab bat bush bet/bit	Abd Basem Burhan Jaber/Belal
ta	t ta tu te/ti	bat tab tush ten/tip	Fathi Tayseer Tunis Rateb/Ibtisam
tha	th tha thu the/thi	breath thanks theft/think	Othman Thabet Thuraya Nawather
jeem	j ja jo/ju je/ji	taj ajar job/jude jet/jin	Areej Jamal Jomana/Juma' Majed/Jihad
ha	h'/h ha hu he/hi	hand humos hen/him	Inshirah' Hamad Husain Helweh/Hilal
kha	kh kha khu khe/khi	loch ness	Akhras Khaled Khulood Khitam/khemeh
dal	d da du de/di	good dad dude den/din	Ahmad Dana Dunia Adel/Izdihar
thal	th tha thu the/thi	breathe that then/this	latheeth thahab thurah Munther
ra	r ra ro/ru re/ri	jar ran Rome/rude red/rim	Mansoor Randa Roma/Rubhi Fares/Rida
zain	z za zu ze/zi	blitz zap Zulu zen/zip	Azhar Yazan Zuhair Mazen
seen	s sa su se/si	mass sad suit send/sip	Asma Samer Sumaya Yousef/Basima
sheen	sh sha shu she/shi	crash shall sure shell/ship	Ayesh Shamel Shukri Rashed/Inshirah
sad	s sa so se/si	heavy seen sudden soda send/sip	Mostafa Wisal Sodqi Naser
dad	d da do de/di	heavy dal dark dose depth	ard Nedal Dome Fadel/Dirar
tah	t ta to te/ti	heavy ta task tore	Fatmeh Mostafa Taleb
thah	th/z tha/za tho/zo the/ze/thi/zi	heavy thal those	Nathmiyeh Hafeetha/Nezam
ain	a/a' a/a'/ya o/o' e/ee/e'	ago Over Eve/eel	Motaz/Saad/Taye' Adel/Suad Omar Emad/Esam/Saeed/Ismael
ghain	gh gha gho ghe/ghi	Ghana	Taghreed Ghassan Ghosh Ragheb
fa	f fa fu/fo fe/fi	stuff far full/fore fed/fin	Atef Fadel Fuoad/Fawzi falafel/Firyal
qaf	q qa qu qe/qi	heavy k Qatar quote	Rafeeq Qadri Quran Saqer
kaf	k ka ku ke/ki	Mark karate Kudos Kent/kiss	Malak Kareem Kurdiyeh Baker/Kifah'
lam	l la lo/lu le/li	fill lamb lock/Lucy lent/list	Amal Lateef Lora/Lubna Khaled/A'dliyeh
meem	m ma mo or mu me/mi	sum mark more/move men/mist	Haytham Mazen Mona/Muna Fatmeh/Methqal
noon	n na nu ne/ni	ran nasty noon next/nip	Wijdan Naser Nuha Amneh/Nezam
waw	w wa o/oo/ou/wou we/wi	down Washington John/cool/pour/would went/wist	Sawsan Fadwa Joseph/Mansoor/Yaqoub/Wooud Helweh/Wijdan
hah	h ha hu he/hi	blah hand hoot hen/him	Majida or Majidah Hala Huda Maher/Hiba
Ta Marbouta (at end of word)	ta	as hah or ta above
ya	i/y/ee/ai ya/ia yu ye	yahoo yuo yet	Fadi/Ayman/Reem/Mai Yahia/Hadaya Yusra Fawziyeh
hamza	~ a/a~ u/u~ e/e~	ago end	Ala~ Fuoad/Luai Nael

See Notes & Rules below for further clarification.

Learning Material

Books

Ahlan Wa Sahlan Functional Modern Standard Arabic for Beginners By Mahdi Alosh	Alif Baa Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds Book with Multimedia By Kristen Brustad, Mahmood Al-Batal Abbas Al-Tonsi	Alif Baa Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds Answer Key By Kristen Brustad, Mahmood Al-Batal Abbas Al-Tonsi	Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya A Textbook for Beginning Arabic Part One with DVDs By Kristen Brustad, Mahmood Al-Batal Abbas Al-Tonsi
Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya Answer Key By Kristen Brustad, Mahmood Al-Batal Abbas Al-Tonsi	The Arabic Alphabet How to Read and Write It By Nicholas Awde, Putros Samano	Arabic-English Dictionary The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic By Hans Wehr	Arabic For Dummies Language & Literature By Amine Bouchentouf
Arabic Verbs and Essentials of Grammar A Practical Guide to the Mastery of Arabic By Jane Wightwick, Mahmood Gaafar	A Basic Course in Moroccan Arabic By Richard S. Harrell, Mohammed Abu-Talib William S. Carroll	Fun with Arabic Learn Arabic the Fun and Easy Way By Naglaa Ghali	Gulf Arabic Complete Course By Jack Smart, Frances Altorfer
An Introduction to Koranic and Classical Arabic An Elementary Grammar of the Language By Wheeler M. Thackston	Mastering Arabic By Jane Wightwick, Mahmood Gaafar	Moroccan Arabic Phrasebook With complimentary dictionary By Dan Bacon, Bichr Andjar	A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language By John A. Haywood, H. M. Nahmad
Read and Speak Arabic for Beginners By Jane Wightwick, Mahmood Gaafar	Standard Arabic An Elementary-Intermediate Course By Eckehard Schulz	A Student Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic By Eckehard Schulz	Teach Yourself Beginner's Arabic Script By John Mace
Your First 100 Words in Arabic Beginner's Quick & Easy Guide to Demystifying Non-Roman Scripts By Jane Wightwick

Al-Kitaab Audio on the Go By Kristen Brustad, Mahmood Al-Batal Abbas Al-Tonsi	Basic Arabic A Complete Beginner's Converstional Course By Berlitz Publishing Company	Arabic Start Speaking Today Audio CD By Language 30	Just Listen 'N Learn Arabic The Fastest Way to Real Arabic By Nadira Auty, Clive Holes, Rachael Harris
Pimsleur Instant Conversation Arabic Speak Arabic Instantly! By Pimsleur	Teach Yourself Gulf Arabic Complete Course Audiopackage By John Mace, Frances Altorfer	Travel Talk Moroccan Arabic Audio CD By Penton Overseas

Instant Immersion Arabic

Rosetta Stone Arabic Explorer

Notes:
The following will be used as standard through out my pages:
Note 1: "A", "E" and "O" when used for "ain" they are considered as vowels at the beging of a word e.g. Omar (O-mar), and
           a double letter in the middle; the first is considerd a constant and the second a vowel depending on the mark e.g.
           Sae'd (Sa-eed), Sua'd (Su-aad). Exception is if the mark is "skoon" or at the end where it may be marked by " ' " e.g.
           Sad (Saad), Taye' (Ta-ye'), Juma' (Jum-a').
Note 2: At the begining of a word, "alef" with kassra is written as English "I" and is pronounced as in "inn" to differentiate it
           from "ain" with kassra which is written as English "E" or "E' " and is pronounced as in "ego" e.g. :
           Iman (E-man), Esam or Esam (E-sam).
Note 3: At the begining of a word, "alef" with damma is written as English "U" and is pronounced as in "Uno" to differentiate it
           from "ain" with damma which is written as English "O" or "O' " and is pronounced as in "own" e.g. :
           Usama (U-sa-ma), Omar or O'mar (O-mar).
Note 4: All the vowels with a hamza are considered as constants and the rules below apply e.g Fua~d or Fuoad (Fu-ad),
           Raed or Raed (Ra-ed)..
Note 5: When placed at the begining, "ai" and "ay" are interchangable; they almost sound like "eye" e.g. (Ai-man or Ay-man).
           Any where else the rules below apply.
Note 6: "ia" and "ya" are interchangable and are considered as a syllable e.g. (Fad-ia or Fad-ya), (Mun-ia-ti or Mun-ya-ti).
Note 7: "H" is always considered as a constant and is silent when placed at the end of a name.
Note 8: sh, kh, th and gh are considered as one constant e.g. Morshed (Mor-shed), Khaled (Kha-led) otherwise if they are to
           be pronounced separetly, rule 4 below applies.
Note 9: A name of foreign origin used here may be written in that language rather than how it sounds in Arabic e.g. :
           Sue not Soo, Joseph not Josef, Isabelle not Izabel, Maryam not Maryam ....
Note 10: In some cases numbers replace letters. The only numbers used here are: