These dots are an integral part of a letter, since they distinguish between letters that represent different sounds.

Many letters look similar but are distinguished from one another by dots ( ʾiʿjām) above or below their central part ( rasm). Unlike Greek-derived alphabets, Arabic has no distinct upper and lower case letterforms. Forms using the Arabic script to write other languages added and removed letters: for example Persian, Ottoman Turkish, Kurdish, Urdu, Sindhi, Azerbaijani, Malay, Acehnese, Banjarese, Javanese, Pashto, Punjabi, Uyghur, Arwi and Arabi Malayalam all have additional letters in their alphabets. The basic Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters. The Arabic alphabet is considered an abjad, with only consonants required to be written due to its optional use of diacritics to notate vowels, it is considered an impure abjad. It is written from right-to-left in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters, of which most have contextual letterforms. The Arabic alphabet ( Arabic: الْأَبْجَدِيَّة الْعَرَبِيَّة, al-ʾabjadiyyah l-ʿarabiyyah or الْحُرُوف الْعَرَبِيَّة, al-ḥurūf al-ʿarabiyyah), or Arabic abjad, is the Arabic script as specifically codified for writing the Arabic language. 18 CE (derived from Eastern Arabic numerals and Brahmi numerals) BCEĪdlam (slight influence from Arabic) 1989 CE Caucasian Albanian (origin uncertain) c.Cherokee (syllabary letter forms only) c.You can practice the “rr” sound more by using the oral exercise lesson, Consonant: RR. However, the “rr” is not a letter in the alphabet.Ī good example of the “rolling r” sound in Spanish is the word “ perro.” Notice the slight vibration in the “r” sound when spoken. When two r’s appear together in Spanish they mandate that the sound be changed to what is called a “rolling r,” where the tongue produces a vibrating “r” sound. The double “r” (rr) in Spanish is somewhat of a mystery to many people.

These combinations of letters and the sounds they produce are still used in the language, of course, but they are no longer considered separate letters. They are provided below as examples, though you should no longer consider them separate letters. In 2014 the Spanish Royal Academy removed the “ch” and “ll” letters from the Spanish alphabet. If you’ve studied Spanish in the past you may recall that there used to be more letters in the alphabet. Click on a letter or example word to hear the pronunciation. In Spanish, the alphabet is called the “abecedario.” Below you will find all 27 letters, along with an example word. That’s one more than the English alphabet, with the letter “ ñ” being the additional one found only in Spanish.Īll the other 26 letters that are in the English alphabet are also represented in the Spanish alphabet, but with different names and pronunciation. There are 27 letters in the Spanish alphabet.

Spell a word in alphabetical order