Letters ا ب ت ث ج ح خ — four positional forms
Can recognize and write the first 7 Arabic letters in all positional forms
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
باب
door
بَيْت
house
ثَلاثَة
three
حَب
love / seed
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Arabic has 28 letters, all consonants. Each letter has 4 forms depending on position: isolated, initial, medial, final.
| Letter | Isolated | Initial | Medial | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| bāʾ | ب | بـ | ـبـ | ـب |
| tāʾ | ت | تـ | ـتـ | ـت |
| jīm | ج | جـ | ـجـ | ـج |
Alif (ا) is special — it carries vowels but has no sound of its own. ح (ḥāʾ) is a voiceless pharyngeal — not like English H. خ (khāʾ) sounds like Scottish "loch".
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesWrong positional form of a letter
Review the 4 forms (isolated/initial/medial/final) for each letter
Confused similar letters differing only in dots (ب/ت/ث)
Practice distinguishing dot placement: ب=1 below, ت=2 above, ث=3 above
باب
door
bāb — uses ب in initial and final form, with alif in the middle.
بَيْت
house
bayt — ب initial, ي medial, ت final.
ثَلاثَة
three
thalātha — ث makes the 'th' sound as in English 'think'.
حَب
love / seed
ḥabb — ح is a deep pharyngeal h, distinct from هـ (regular h).
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises