The Arabic alphabet consists of 28 letters: Three of them are long vowels, the rest are all consonants. Auxiliary signs can be used for short vowels.

The three long vowels are:

• long a: Alif ا (in the final position also short a: ى )
• long i or e: Ya ي
• long u or o: Waw و

Ya and Waw are also called semivowels and semiconsonants, respectively, because they are pronounced at the beginning of a syllable like the German j ي and like the English w و, respectively.

In Arabic, letters are written and read from right to left. Although there is no distinction between upper and lower case, the individual letters are nevertheless of different sizes.

The Arabic alphabet is also used for other non-Arabic languages such as Persian and Urdu, only with slight changes and additions to the alphabet. For example, the Persian alphabet includes four additional letters. In addition, two letters of the basic Arabic alphabet have been slightly modified. See Persian keyboard.

The auxiliary signs have different functions, they are placed above or below the Arabic letter.
As auxiliary signs there are:

3 Vowel signs

1 Gemination sign

3 signs for nominal endings

Other signs

Examples with vocalization

Each letter has up to four different shapes: Isolated shape, initial shape, medial shape and final shape.

For example, the letter kāf ك has these four shapes, depending on where it is in the word:

• Isolated shape: ك
• Initial shape: كـ
• Medial shape: ـكـ
• Final shape: ـك

For example, the letter Alif ا has only two shapes: One shape, which is isolated and used for the beginning of a word, because Alif is basically not connected to the left, and a second shape ﺎ, which is used in the medial and at the end of the word.

Other letters that have only two shapes (isolated/initial vs. medial/final) are: Dhāl ذ, Dāl د, Zāy ز, Rā’ ر und Wāw و

So the mentioned 6 letters have no explicit initial and medial shape. At the beginning and in the middle of the word, the isolated shape without the connecting stroke to the left is used instead. The writing flow, of the otherwise continuous italic writing, is interrupted. This serves to be able to distinguish the individual letters from each other when reading the word:

If, for example, the Alif ا existed with an initial shape (with a connecting stroke to the left), then it would not be possible to distinguish it from the initial shape of the Lām لـ.

All other letters have four shapes. They are presented in the next section.

Knowing these shapes is important when reading or handwriting the Arabic script. When writing on the computer, it is not necessary to know the different shapes, because the font provided by the browser or the program automatically takes over the transformation of the isolated shape into the correct shape.

By far the most commonly used Arabic letters are:

• Alif ﺍ (ca. 12 %)
• Lām ﻝ (ca. 12 %)

It is the two letters that appear in the word Allah الله.

Ligature Lām-Alif

In an Arabic word, when the Lām ﻝ is directly followed by the Alif ﺍ, together they form the ligature لا (Lām-Alif). The font handles the conversion of Lām and Alif to Lām-Alif. The Lām-Alif also exists with auxiliary signs. You can find this ligature as a separate key on the keyboard.

This ligature is obligatory in the printed script. In handwritten script, other ligatures are used that allow for smoother writing.

Other common letters with a frequency of 4-7% are:

Before the introduction of Indian numerals into the Arabic script in the 9th century, the Arabic letters were also used for numerical values. Some letters stood for digits, some for tens, some for hundreds.

Today's Arabic numerals are written from left to right in Arabic. Our Arabic numerals (0..9) in the Latin alphabet come from the Western Arabic numerals of that time. The numerals in the Arabic script, on the other hand, come from the Eastern Arabic numerals of the time - which is why they look somewhat different from the numerals in the Latin alphabet.

The table shows examples of English words of Arabic origin.

There are numerous other words of Arabic origin in English, including Alcohol, General, Hashish, Coffee, Mattress, Magazine, Sofa.