How to Join Arabic Letters: Start, Middle and End

Arabic is always written joined up, a bit like English handwriting. When letters join, many of them change shape, and that's the point where a lot of beginners feel they're learning the alphabet all over again. You aren't. Most letters keep their main shape, every letter keeps its dots, and the changes follow a few simple patterns, and once you see them, words start to fall into place.

This guide covers the four forms a letter can take, the six letters that never join forward, and some real words to practise on. It assumes you know the letters and the short vowel marks.

The four forms of a letter

Because Arabic reads right to left, a letter can join to the letter before it (on its right), the letter after it (on its left), both, or neither. That gives up to four forms:

On its own, not joined to anything.
At the start of a word, joined only to the letter after it.
In the middle, joined on both sides.
At the end, joined only to the letter before it.

Here's Ba in all four, from on its own to the end form:

ب   بـ   ـبـ   ـب

The boat shape shrinks to a small tooth at the start and in the middle, then opens out again at the end. The one dot below never moves. That's the habit to build: when a letter looks unfamiliar, find its dots first.

Five letters that look identical in the middle of a word

This surprises most people. At the start or in the middle of a word, ب, ت, ث, ن and ي all shrink to the same small tooth. The only difference is the dots:

بـ   تـ   ثـ   نـ   يـ

One below, two above, three above, one above, two below. If you've learned these letters by their dots, as on our alphabet page, you can read them in any position.

The six letters that never join forward

Six letters join to the letter before them but never to the letter after them:

ا   د   ذ   ر   ز   و

Alif, Dal, Dhal, Ra, Zay and Waw. After one of these, the next letter starts fresh, as if it were at the beginning of a word, even though it's still the same word. That's why some Arabic words look like they have gaps in them.

دَرَسَ

da + ra + sa = darasa, "he studied". The د doesn't join to the ر, and the ر doesn't join to the س, so all three letters sit apart, but it's one word. Learning these six by heart will save you from reading one word as three.

Letters that change the most

Most letters only lose or gain a tail when they join. A few change more and are worth practising on their own:

ع (Ayn): its open head becomes a small closed loop in the middle of a word: ع   عـ   ـعـ   ـع.
ه (soft Ha): it has quite different shapes at the start, middle and end: ه   هـ   ـهـ   ـه.
ك (Kaf): the end form has a small mark inside, while the start and middle forms are taller and simpler: ك   كـ   ـكـ   ـك.

And one special pair: when Lam is followed by Alif, they combine into a single shape, لا, read "laa". You'll see it constantly in the Quran.

Practise on real words

Read each word slowly. Find the dots, name each letter, then add the vowels.

بَيْت

ba + y + t = bayt, "house". Ba at the start, Ya in the middle, Ta at the end.

كِتَاب

ki + taa + b = kitaab, "book". The ا doesn't join forward, so the final ب stands on its own.

بِسْمِ

bi + s + mi = bismi, "in the name of", the first word of the Quran. Ba, Seen and Meem joined in one smooth line.

نُور

nuu + r = nuur, "light". The و stretches the "u" sound and doesn't join forward, so the ر sits apart.

How to practise joining

Write the words, even if your handwriting is rough. Writing a letter in its start, middle and end forms fixes the shapes in your memory faster than looking at them. Trace the word from right to left.

Take apart words you already know. Bismillah is a good one. Split it into letters, name each one, then read it as a whole again.

Look for the six non-joining letters in every line you read. Spotting them tells you where the "gaps" in a word will be.

Keep it daily and short. Five joined words a day, read out loud, does more than a long session once a week.

Where joining fits

Joining is usually the third step: letters, then vowels, then joined words. After this you're ready for real lines of the Quran, starting with short chapters. The beginner guide shows the full order, and reading correctly and fluently covers what comes after. The 30-day course has a full lesson on connected letters, with audio for every word.

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