My first Arabic words
Arabic · Early Years · The School
Words you can already read
باب (bāb) — door. دار (dār) — house. سَرَ (sara) — he was happy. رَأْس (ra's) — head. Every letter in these you already know. Point to a door and say bāb; the word attaches to the thing, not to a translation, and that is how a language starts to live in you.
Greetings that never change
السَّلامُ عَلَيْكُمْ (as-salāmu ʿalaykum) — peace be upon you. And the reply: وَعَلَيْكُمُ السَّلام (wa ʿalaykumu s-salām) — and upon you peace. Muslims across the whole world greet with these exact words, so learning them means you can greet anyone, anywhere.
Say it, then read it
Say the word out loud first, then look at it, then read it. Your ear learns before your eye. Practise five words a week — that is 250 words a year, which is enough to understand a great deal of the short surahs you already hear in salah.
Look at the letters first: ب ي ت. Now read the marks. The ب has a fatḥa above it, so it says 'ba'. Then يْ carries a sukūn, so it is a plain 'y' joined to what came before: 'bay'. Then تْ, also with sukūn: 't'. Put it together: bayt — house. Try the same with بِنْت (bint, girl): the mark under the ب is a kasra, so it is 'bi', not 'ba'.