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Lesson Transcript

Ahlan bikom, ana Carole! Welcome to Arabicpod101.com’s Abjadiyyah Made Easy!
The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn the Arabic alphabet: the Abjadiyyah!
In the first two lessons, we covered the 5 letters أ, ن, ب, ت and ث in the Arabic alphabet. Now we're going to take a look at some Arabic letters that are slightly more difficult to pronounce. I’ll try to explain them in a simple way. Ready to go? Let’s get started!
In this lesson, we'll learn how to read and write 3 letters that look alike. Writing them should be easy, but pronouncing them is the most challenging part.
Our first letter is “ج”!
This one is easy to pronounce. It’s somewhere between a G and a J, depending on the accent - for example, Standard Arabic, Syrian, or Egyptian. In standard Arabic and Syrian Arabic, it should sound like the J in the word “jam”, while in Egyptian Arabic it sounds like the G in the word “game”. They’re both quite easy to pronounce though!
Now let's handwrite the isolated form.
ج
Here are the initial, medial, and final versions of ج
Now we’ll write them.
ج
The second letter we'll learn in this lesson is “ح”. As you can see, it looks like the ج, but without the dot in the hook. But of course, it doesn’t sound like it. ح is the first letter of the second group, meaning that it has no counterpart in English. It sounds like the sound you make when trying to cool your mouth and throat after eating something very spicy. The closest English counterpart to the sound is “H”, the only difference is that it comes from a point deeper down in your throat. Just like this [demonstrate sound] Just try it!
Here’s how to write the isolated version.
ح
Here are the initial, medial, and final versions of ح
Now we’ll write them.
ح
The last letter we’ll learn here is the “خ”. This letter, like the “ح”, has no English counterpart. خ is a sound some people make when they laugh. It’s also similar to the sound people make when they snore. According to phonetic charts ح is pronounced in a deeper part of the throat than خ. "Listen and repeat. خ (slowly) خ
Both خ and ح have no English counterparts. They’re a bit tricky to pronounce, so let’s practice these two letters in some words:
First, here's a word which has خ is خد.
خد
means ‘cheek’ in English.
And one that has ح is حد.
حد
means ‘limit.’
Can you hear the difference between خد (and) حد? It might take some time before you can hear the differences clearly, so don’t worry about it too much.
Here’s how to write the isolated version.
خ
Like its two friends, it has three other forms.
Initial, Medial, and Final
Now we’ll write them.
خ
Let’s learn a word using some of these letters.
“تاج”.
Repeat after me. تاج “taj” means “crown”. That’s ت in the initial form, ا in the final form, and ج in the isolated form, disconnected from the alef before it, because as we learned in the first lesson, the alef connects differently.
Now let's try writing it!
تاج (cursive)
First write the ت. The boat, the 2 dots, connected to the A, then the J in the isolated form. Nice work!
Now it's time for Carole's Tips.
You may feel that Arabic cursive is difficult and has a lot of rules. It might feel foreign at first, but you’ll get used to it if you start reading written Arabic frequently. Practice writing some words from the letters we’ve learned so far. Try the following:
نجح meaning “to succeed”
جنب meaning “side”
حج meaning “pilgrimage”
Good job!
Well that's all for this lesson – we'll continue next time with a few more letters that look alike. Don’t worry, next lesson’s letters are very easy to pronounce! I’ll see you in the next Abjadiyyah Made Easy lesson!
Salam!

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