The Arabic Letters Daal & Dhaal

The Letters Daal & Dhaal

·        The next letters of the alphabet are Daal and Dhaal

·        Daal and Dhaal look very similar except that Daal has no dots and Dhaal has one dot on top

·        Daal sounds somewhat like the letter D in English
Dhaal sounds kind of like the letter Z in English, but not really

Listening & Pronouncing

·        Daal sounds like D except it is much softer
Pronounce D and check where your tongue hits the top of your mouth
Now, instead of hitting it there, hit your tongue closer to your teeth

·        Some people pronounce the word “December” with a soft D that sounds like a Daal

·        Dhaal sounds like Z except it is much softer
Dhaal sounds like the TH in words like “This” and “That”

Source: http://www.gtchild.co.uk/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=39&Itemid=66

·        This is how you pronounce Dhaal:
Put the tip of your tongue below your top central incisors
Now breathe out with force
Your tongue should shiver against your teeth

·        Dhaal sounds very similar to THaa
To compare THaa and Dhaal, compare the words “Bath” and “That”

·        Click on each of the words below to hear the Daal and Dhaal in them

·        Exercise: repeat the words you hear

Reading & Writing

·        Daal and Dhaal have the same body

Daal has no dot
But Dhaal has one dot on top

·        Daal and Dhaal do NOT connect to the following letter
But the space between them and the next letter is really small most of the time

·        When there’s no letter before them, Daal and Dhaal are a simple angle

·        When there is a letter before them, Daal and Dhaal look like the letter U in English except with the left side cut off
(The dot of the Dhaal goes on top of the right side of the U)

·        Exercise: how many Daal and Dhaal do you see in the following texts?

أقلي اللوم عاذل والعتابن وقولي إن أصبت لقد أصابن

Answer [1 Daal, 1 Dhaal]

دع ذا وعجل ذا وألحقنا بذال بالسحم إنا قد مللناه بجل

Answer [2 Daal, 3 Dhaal]

·        Daal/Dhaal and Jeem/Haa/KHaa are not hard to differentiate
But let’s compare them just to be safe

·        Exercise: copy the following words

داب

ذبح

Proceed to lesson 9