Arabic for Beginners Mastering Long Vowels Lesson 7

By now we know what the short vowels are. For example this letter is meem, if it has fatha it becomes ma if it has kasra it becomes mi and if it has dhamma it becomes mu. Apart from the short vowels we also have long vowels which lengthens the short vowel, they are known as letters of madd in Arabic. So instead of will become aa, will become ii, and will become uu. These three letters are the long vowels the letters of madd we mentioned them briefly in previous lessons. These three long vowels stretch the short vowel on the letter before it if the right conditions are present. Let's have look at an example. This is the letter dal with fatha it becomes da, the alif stretches the fatha and it will read daa and not da, daa. You pronounce the aa for two counts. If the dal has dhamma it is du, the waw stretches the dhamma and it will read duu and not du, duu. You pronounce the uu sound for two counts. If the dal has kasra it will read as di, the ya stretches the kasra and it will read dii and not di, dii. You pronounce the ii sound for two counts. Another example this is the letter seen, with fatah it is sa. The alif will stretches the fatha and it will become saa, You pronounce the aa for two counts. If the seen has dhamma it is su, the waw stretches the dhamma and it becomes suu. You pronounce the uu sound for two counts. If the seen has kasra it will read as si, the yaa stretches the kasra and it becomes sii. You pronounce the ii sound for two counts. So how do you know if these letters are vowel or not. The common rule is that the long vowel does not have any mark on it, not fatha not dhammah not kasra. Also fatha must be present on the letter before the alif, dhamma must be present on the letter before the waw, kasra must be present on the letter before the yaa. Let's do some examples. We see an alif that might be long vowel or consonant let's look through the rules, does the alif have mark on it? No. Does the letter before the alif have fatha? Yes, so it's long vowel, it reads as Qaala not Qala, Qaala stretching it for two counts. We see yaa that might be long vowel or consonant. Let's look for the rules, does the yaa have mark on it No. does the letter before the yaa have kasra? Yes, so it's long vowel it reads Qiila, not Qila, Qiila stretching it for two counts. We see waw that could be long vowel or consonant. Let's look through the rules. Does the waw have mark on it? No. Does the letter before the waw have dhamma? Yes, so it's long vowel, it reads as yaquulu not yaqulu, yaquulu stretching it for two counts. Sometimes in different style of writings the long vowels are written differently, for example instead of writing this like this it is written like this. It is still pronounced the same but instead of the long alif they place this small looking alif here. They both read as taa stretching them for two counts. Instead of writing this like this it is written like this, it is pronounced the same but instead of the long yaa, they place this small looking yaa here, they both read as tii, stretching them for two counts. Instead of writing this like this it is written like this, it is pronounced the same but instead of the long waw they place this small looking waw here. They both read as tuu stretching them for two counts. Okay which one is the long vowel out of these examples? Is it the first one? the yaa has no mark, but what should come before the yaa? kasra, this is dhamma it can't be long vowel yaa. What about this one? The waw has no mark but what goes with the waw? damma, this is kasra the waw isn't long vowel. Okay the alif has no mark, what goes with the alif? fatha, this has fatha therefore it's long vowel, it reads as shaa and not sha, shaa. Let's see these examples which one do you think is the long vowel? It can't be this because the letter before the waw doesn't have dhamma. It can't be this one because the alif has mark on it. It's this one, the long vowel yaa has kasra before it. it reads Bii and not bi, bii. Okay last example which one is the vowel? Not this one. Not this. That's right well done. Sometimes the long alif vowel is written like this. This is called the alif maqsura as explained in our alphabet series. For example we see this word, the alif does not have mark on it and the letter before it has father therefore the alif is long vowel, it reads yaraa. Now this same word is written like this, it reads exactly the same yaraa. How come it's not ya ra ya? The same rule applies as the alif. Does the alif maqsura have mark? No. Does the letter before it have fatha? Yes, therefore it's long vowel, it reads yaraa. Here are some more examples. They all have fathas before the alif maqsura and the alif maqsura does not have fatha dhammah or kasra on it. They read Muusaa, Iisaa, Sajaa In some writings they place little alif on the letter, this reminds the person to pronounce it as long vowel