# reading Arabic without vowels تشكيل



## marcelvinicius

Olá!!

I had just started to learn arabic here in São Paulo, Brasil, at a Syrian Cutural Center.

We are learning everything with vowels, but how can read something without vowels? 

My teacher said that with time we will recognize the words, so we should first learn with vowels and then be able to see the word and know what it mean and how to read without vowels...

But... I think its impossible to learn all the words with vowels at school... how do I know the sound of the letter without vowel?

Is it normally "a" ??


Obrigado,

Marcel


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## elroy

Unfortunately, you just have to memorize what the vowels are.  It is not usually "a."  It can be "a," "u," or "i" and there's no way to tell if you don't know the word.  In reality, though, it's like that in every other language; the inner vowels are just part of the word's semantics.  For example, you just have to learn that the word for "book" is "kitab" even though you write only "ktab."  In fact, the written language does not always correspond to the spoken language in all languages.  Consider English "put" and "but."  Even though the "u" is written, you have to know how it's pronounced in each of the respective words.  It may as well not be written!     It can get even worse: in the words "cough," "bough," "rough," and "thought," each of the "ough"s is pronounced differently!

One piece of consolation: you can always know what the final vowel will be if you know the grammar!


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## niña

> One piece of consolation: you can always know what the final vowel will be if you know the grammar!



consolation? hahah..I don't know what is worse   (just kidding) But yeah.. Don't be afraid, Marcel...I agree 100% with elroy, with some basic knowledges of grammar, in the course of time you'll be able to "guess" some vowels at the end of the word... and sometimes at the beginning and in the middle too  
But in the meanwhile, don't despair...try to memorize as much vocabulary as possible and repeat every word in a loud voice in order to fix the pronunciation. Don't forget to practise your writing too and...Good Luck!!

مع السلامة


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## elroy

Well, for the end of the word you shouldn't have to "guess," now should you?     There are rules for that!


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## niña

You're right, I shouldn't, oops!    But sometimes grammar is so difficult to remember...


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## Whodunit

Well, I'm a learner of Arabic as well. And I guess the vowels. I usually put in "a" first, just to get a good sound. If it sounds bad, I try to put in "i", and finally "u". I don't know how to know the exact vowels by knowing the grammar without any context. If you have a text, it's much easier to get the correct vowels, but if not, it's almost impossible.

So you both, صحانى!


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## marcelvinicius

Obrigado Todos!!  =)

So i got it!! I have to memorize the words... At beggining, its seems to be something from other world... and, in fact, it is... another vocabulary, another "alphabet", another way of speaking... can be really considered extraterrestrial  =)  =)

just kidding...!!  =)

after all, in portuguese is the same, we have a lot of vowels, but today, if I see a word without a vowel, I will know what it means......  =)

The secret is practice! Speak, write, read!!

Again... Thank you all!!!


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## elroy

Whodunit:
There's no way to tell; you really just have to know the word.

The correct word would be صححاني.

marcelvinicius:
Exactly.  Y mght b abl t undrstnd ths txt wtht vwls!


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## Whodunit

elroy said:
			
		

> There's no way to tell; you really just have to know the word.
> 
> The correct word would be صححاني.



Ok, I'm sorry. Thank you for your correction.


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## Andrew___

Can I add that if the word begins with the letter م , then it is statistically more likely that a damma will follow.  So if you are a gambler and the odds are even, then put your money on a damma


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## suma

Hi Marcel,
Trust your teacher, he/she is right. With time,  more practice, more exposure and familiarity with the language you get a feel for how words sound, along with certain grammar structures which dictate certain vowel patterns, it all comes together beautifully.

_Smply rd ths nd y gt a hng of hw thngs wrk n Arbc. Wrtng nd rdng wtht vwls is nt as hrd as it snds._


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## Fractal7

It is usally easy to read without vowels but there are some important situations that causes trouble. First, it is not like english. Because, in arabic, the change of a sound can cause a lot of change in the meaning. In english, you can't change all meaning with a change of one sound. I wonder how they can understand these things:

1) The person of the verb: Is كتبت read as katabat, katabtu, katabta, katabti?
2) Active or passive verb: Is قتل read as katala or kutile?
3) Subject or object in the sentence: If I can't see the last sound as _u, a_ how will I know that it is subject or object.
4) And the biggest trouble, shaddah: Is علم read as 3alima or 3allama?
5) Do I need to read the whole sentence to be able to read one word, if it is understood from the context?

Looking at the arabic newspapers, I see not even a shaddah in the writings. I am sure there are some rules to read without vowels or shaddah but they are written nowhere.
Thanks


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## elroy

The answer is context.   Also, shaddas and diacritics are often added where ambiguity is possible.  It is very frequently done with the passive voice (قُتل, for example).

And for the record, misreadings _do_ occasionally happen.  Just the other day I misread a word because of a missing diacritic.  But I quickly realized what it was based on the context.


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## suma

Yep yep, Elroy's right.
A single word in isolation yes can be hard to determine how it should be read, but unvowelized words mostly occur within the context of a meaningful sentence.


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## Outsider

One advantage of omitting vowels in writing is that words from different dialects, which are similar but pronounced a bit differently, can be written the same way. And Arabic has plenty of different dialects.


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## wallieR

This thread is pretty old; but, for the sake of new readers let it be known that there are rules to reading without the vowels. It you visit youtube, search Madina Arabic and choose Madina Arabic book 1 lessons 1-4, and watch from 30:19 to about 20 minutes in, you will learn about marfu, mansub, and majrur. Then you can skip to 3:27:26 and the teacher will begin explaining how marfu, mansub, and majrur will help you determine the pronunciation of nouns. This is a long series; but, it will show you other rules of pronunciation for non-nouns as well. On that site, in the comments you will find a link with a pdf of the solutions. Download the solutions and jump to page 61 chapter 23.


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