Harakat: the short vowels
Arabic · Key Stage 1 · The School
Vowels that float
Arabic writes its short vowels as little marks floating above or below letters, called harakat. A small slanted dash ABOVE (ــَ, fatha) says "a": بَ = "ba". The same dash BELOW (ــِ, kasra) says "i": بِ = "bi". A tiny و shape above (ــُ, damma) says "u": بُ = "bu". One letter, three little marks, three different sounds.
The stop sign
A small circle above a letter (ــْ, sukoon) means: say the letter’s sound and stop — no vowel. So بْ is just the "b" sound closing a syllable. مِنْ reads "min": mī... then n with a full stop. Sukoon is what makes syllables end crisply.
Sound out a word
Now you can read real words. كَتَبَ: kāf-fatha "ka", tā-fatha "ta", bā-fatha "ba" — kataba, which means "he wrote". Try قَمَر (qamar, moon) and كِتاب (kitāb, book). Slide right to left, letter plus its haraka, and the word appears like magic — except it is not magic, it is you reading Arabic.
Take ك ت ب. With fatḥas: كَتَبَ (kataba) — he wrote. With a ḍamma and a kasra: كُتِبَ (kutiba) — it was written. As كُتُب (kutub) — books. As كِتاب (kitāb) — a book. The consonants never changed. Everything that changed was the marks, which is why they are the vowels and not decoration.