Tap any letter or word to hear it. The consonants are laid out the way Arabic is built: from the lips at the top to the throat at the bottom. Every clip is spoken by a native Modern Standard Arabic voice, so it sounds the same on any device.
Pick a letter to see where it's made and hear it in a syllable and a word. More than a third of Arabic's consonants are made behind the point where English stops.
Each card is a minimal pair: two words that differ by one sound. Play both back to back and listen for the single difference.
Arabic has three vowel qualities, each short or long, plus two diphthongs. Short vowels are usually left unwritten, so reading depends on knowing the word.
The l of the article ال "the" blends into a following consonant made with the tongue tip (sun letters), which then doubles. Before other consonants (moon letters) the l is pronounced. The spelling never changes.
The audio above is standard Arabic. Spoken dialects replace some sounds in regular ways. This table is for reading only.
| Word | Standard | Cairo | Beirut / Damascus | Gulf |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| قلب heart | qalb | ʔalb | ʔalb | galb |
| جمل camel | jamal | gamal | ʒamal | jamal / yamal |
| ثلاثة three | θalāθa | talāta | tlēte | θalāθa |
| بيت house | bayt | bēt | bēt | bēt |