Confused about the arabic alphabet

[Waseem203]

:salam2:
Eid mubar'ak

I have just began to learn to read and write in arabic and i'm confused about how the letters take form in a word.

Like in Arabic, the letter ayyin- how does this fit in a word. If I wanted to write A'ad would I start with aleph or ayyin? Does aleph-aleph-dal equate to A'ad?
Or is it only ayyin when the word starts with ay?
If I wanted to write noor = would I start with the letter nun? Does the english letter U from the arabic letter nuun?
Is lahem spellt with - laam aleph-ha-ayyin-meem?

So confusing

Thanks if anyone can help

 

[aelshamy]

:salam2:

Brother Waseem, إن شاء الله I will try to help but before that just I want to say that Arabic language is not so confusing if you learn it directly through a person who knows Arabic, but learning it using Latin alphabet is very confusing for the following reasons :

1- Not every letter in arabic alphabet has an equal latin alphabet, there are more than one arabic letter may be represented by the same latin letter, for example ayyin ع and aleph ا are usually represented by the same letter A . Actually pronunciation of ayyin is far from pronunciation of A.
2- Every arabic letter is pronounced in three ways for example baa ب can be pronounced Ba, Bu or Be (Ba, Bu and be each of them is composed of two letters, so it is the nearest not the accurate presentation to simulate the pronunciation of Baa ب but actually the duration of it should take the duration of one letter only not two). Also Taa ت can be pronounced Ta, Tu or Te and Dal د can be pronounced Da, Du or De and so on.
To know which pronunciation you should use. there are three (Alamat aldhabet) forming marks (actually there are total five marks) which are used above or under each letter to determine how it is pronounced.
3- there are no vowels in arabic letters. instead there are three (horouf almad) elongation letters they are used to elongate the duration of pronouncing the letter before them (some times they are used not as elongation letters and this depends on the (alamat aldhabet) forming marks).
These letters are aleph ا , waw و and yaa ى

About the first and third examples which you mentioned, they are not clear when you used the latin alphabet, so if you got them from Quraan write the whole aayat or write the english meaning so that I may guess what you mean.
About the word 'noor' which means light it is نور composed of three letters nuun ن waw و (this is harf mad elongation letter) and raa ر The word is written: نور.

I hope this will help and please don't hesitate to ask more questions. I would be glad to answer إن شاء الله

N.B: I wrote some arabic letters, so I think it will be correct only if your operating system and browser support arabic language

 

[amaal30]

:salam2:

Is lahem spellt with - laam aleph-ha-ayyin-meem?

So confusing

Thanks if anyone can help

in "lahem" you don't need a ayyin. its just lam aleph ha and meem

 

[palestine]

brother there is this website called www.an-nahdah.org it has many classes offered on sundays. it includes arabic. 4 hours of arabic, 39 dollars per month. it's a live teacher. so check it out sometime inshaAllah. i take that class. and i have learned so much alhamdulillah from reading, to writing, to spelling and now in the process of speaking.