Welcome to the foundation of the Arabic language. The first thing to know is that Arabic is written from right to left. It might feel backward at first, but you'll get used to it quickly.

The alphabet has 28 letters. Many of these letters represent sounds that don't exist in English, so it's important to listen to their pronunciation as you learn. Unlike English, Arabic script is cursive, meaning the letters in a word connect to each other.

Here are the letters, their names, and the sounds they generally make. Don't worry about memorizing them all at once. Just get familiar with their shapes and sounds.

You might have noticed that most of the letters in the alphabet are consonants. So, where are the vowels?

In Arabic, there are short vowels and long vowels. The short vowels aren't letters themselves; they're small marks written above or below the consonants. These marks are called ḥarakāt.

There are three main short vowels:

There's one more important mark: the sukūn (◌ْ). It's a small circle above a letter that indicates no vowel sound follows. It simply means you pronounce the consonant sound by itself.

Long vowels are easier. They are represented by letters of the alphabet. In fact, you've already seen them: Alif (ا), Yā’ (ي), and Wāw (و). They work together with the short vowel marks to stretch the sound out.

This is one of the trickiest parts of learning to read Arabic. Because the letters connect, their shape changes depending on where they are in a word. Most letters have four forms: isolated, initial, medial, and final.

• Isolated: When the letter stands alone.
• Initial: When it's the first letter of a word.
• Medial: When it's in the middle of a word, connected on both sides.
• Final: When it's the last letter of a word, connected only to the letter before it.

Let's look at the letter Bā’ (ب) as an example. Its core shape, a boat-like curve with one dot below, stays consistent.

Notice how the initial and medial forms have a small tail to connect to the next letter. Most letters follow this pattern. However, there are six letters that are sometimes called "non-connectors" or "one-way connectors." They only connect to the letter before them, but never to the letter after them.

These letters are: Alif (ا), Dāl (د), Dhāl (ذ), Rā’ (ر), Zāy (ز), and Wāw (و).

For example, in the word دَار (dār - house), the Dāl (د) does not connect to the Alif (ا), and the Alif does not connect to the Rā’ (ر). All three letters are in their final/isolated forms, even though they form a single word.

Time to check your understanding.

Learning the alphabet is the biggest first step. With these fundamentals, you are now ready to start reading and writing your first Arabic words.