Arabic Letters Faa, Qaaf and Kaaf

The Letters Faa, Qaaf and Kaaf

·        The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Faa, Qaaf and Kaaf

·        These letters don’t really look the same
And only two of them sound the same
But they are typically grouped together anyways

·        Faa is equivalent to the English letter F
Qaaf is represented by the letter Q; it sounds like K except it’s “deeper”
Kaaf is equivalent to the English letter K or C

Listening & Pronouncing

·        Faa sounds exactly like F

·        Exercise: do you hear a Faa in the following recordings?

·        The sound of Qaaf is close to the sound of K
But here’s how you really pronounce it:
Make the K sound
Note which part of your tongue hits the roof of your mouth
Don’t use this part; use a part of your tongue further back than this
The back of your tongue should be hitting the opening of your throat

·        Exercise: repeat the words you hear

·        Kaaf sounds exactly like K
The same part of your tongue hits the same area on the roof of your mouth as when you pronounce K

·        Exercise: which recording in each pair has the Qaaf, and which has the Kaaf?

Reading & Writing

·        Faa and Qaaf look the same in 2 of the 4 cases (a small loop)
But remember, sometimes you differentiate letters by the body, and sometimes you differentiate them by the number and position of the dots
Faa has 1 dot and Qaaf has 2 dots

·        Plus, when the letter is by itself or at the end, the Faa tail is long and the Qaaf tail is round

·        Kaaf is like a backwards L

·        Kaaf has a special squiggle instead of a dot
This squiggle goes away when it’s in the middle or beginning of a sequence

·        When Kaaf is in the middle or beginning, the body kind of changes
It looks like a giant < (less than) sign
Or kind of like an S

·        Exercise: read the following words to the best of your ability
Some letters will be new
Learn to recognize what you’ve seen and what you haven’t

·        Exercise: write the word you hear

Proceed to lesson 18