Vowels in Arabic

 Vowels in Arabic

In Arabic short vowels are not a part of the Arabic alphabet, instead they are written as marks over or below the consonant and sometimes over or below a long vowel.

There are just six vowels in Arabic. Three short vowels: a, i and u. The short vowels in Arabic are: a, i and u. They are normally not written.

The long vowels in Arabic are aa, ii and uu. They are written by using three of the letters in the Arabic alphabet.

The letter Alef is used in the long vowel aa

The letter yaa is used in the long vowel ii

The letter waw is used in the long vowel uu

The letters we just looked at, alef, ya and waw, has a double functionality. Sometimes they are consonants, and sometimes they are long vowels.

Alef functions as the long vowel "aa" when it comes after a and has no vowel after. Ya functions as the long vowel "ii" when it comes after i and has no vowel after. Waw functions as the long vowel "uu" when it comes after u and has no vowel after.

In all other cases, the letters functions as consonants. The letter ya sounds like "y" when it is a consonant and the letter waw sounds like "w" when it is a consonant.