Arabic letters for "D" and "DH" [How to Read Arabic]

[00:00:00]This is the letter dal. And the letter dal sounds like the English D. So, for example, that D sound in the word Medina is the letter dal. Now, we want to make sure that we differentiate the dal from another Arabic letter that we learned, dad. Dad it also sounds like the English D, except it's a heavy version.

[00:00:22]Therefore, when we pronounce the letter dad with a fatha, we're going to pronounce it more like dad because the dad is heavy and that's why we put a dot underneath the D in the transliteration.

[00:00:33]Whereas the letter dal is not heavy. So, for example, if there's a fatha above the letter dal, it's going to be pronounced more like da. And we're not going to put a dot underneath the D for the transliteration. And one very important characteristic of the letter dal is that it's part of a new category of letters that we're going to learn today, which are letters that do not connect to letters coming after it. So, this is how the letter dal looks alone.

[00:00:57]This is how the letter dal looks when it's in the beginning. And then this is how it's written in the middle or end of a connection. So, any letter coming after dal, if it's part of the same word, then the letter will be written close to it, but it won't connect. And next we have the letter thal. And the letter thal, it sounds like a soft version of DH, similar to the first two letters of that. For example, the Arabic word dhikr begins with the letter thal.

[00:01:23]And just like it was important to differentiate the letter dal from the letter dad, it's important to differentiate the letter thal from the letter thal. Thal is a heavy version of DH. So, for example, if there is a fatha, we would pronounce it more like thal because it's heavy and that's why we write it with a capital DH. Whereas the letter thal, it would be pronounced more like tha because it's soft and therefore the transliteration has a lower case DH. And as we can see, it looks exactly like the letter dal except there is one dot above and it will also never physically connect to a letter coming after it. So, let's try number 10 together. Step one is we identify the letter. This shape here that does not connect to a letter after it and has one dot above is the letter vahl. So, we're going to write a lower case d h for the letter vahl. Next, above the letter vahl, we see a fatah, so we write an a for the fatah. Next, in between a connection, we see this shape with one dot beneath. This is of course the letter bah. So, we write a b for the letter bah. And underneath the letter bah, we see a kasrah, so we write an i for the kasrah. And finally, ending a connection, we see this shape here with no dot above, meaning this is the letter dahl. So, we're going to write a d for the letter dahl. Above the dahl, we see a dammah, so we write a u for the dammah. So, finally, if we read these three letters in how to cat out loud together, it would be tha bi du.

[00:02:56]Tha bi du.