Arabic Alphabet for Kids: How to Teach the 28 Letters at Home

The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters, written from right to left, with no capital letters. In Arabic they are called the hijā'ī letters. That sounds like a lot for a small child, but most of the letters come in look-alike families, and once your child sees the pattern, half the work is done.

What your child needs to learn for each letter

1. Its shape. Recognizing it on the page, even when it is not next to its neighbours in the alphabet.
2. Its name. Alif, baa, taa and so on.
3. Its sound. The sound is what matters for reading the Quran later. Use a recording, not a guess. Our Noorani Qaida Lesson 1 page has every letter with audio.

Writing comes later and is optional for reading. A four-year-old can recognize and name letters long before they can draw them neatly.

Teach the letters in families

Many Arabic letters share exactly the same body and differ only in their dots. Teaching a family together, and asking "how many dots, and where?", turns 28 separate shapes into a handful of patterns.

The letters left over each have a shape of their own: ا ك ل م ن ه و ي (alif, kaaf, laam, meem, noon, haa, waaw, yaa). These are often the first ones children remember.

Activities by age

None of these need you to read Arabic. Keep each one to a few minutes, and stop while your child still wants more.

Ages 3 to 6

• Trace in a tray. A thin layer of salt, sand or flour in a baking tray. Your child traces a letter with a finger while saying its name.
• Playdough letters. Roll the body of baa, then add one, two or three "dots" to make baa, taa and thaa.
• Letter of the day. One letter on the fridge. Every time your child walks past, they say its name.

Ages 6 to 10

• Spot the dots. Show a letter from the table above and ask which family it belongs to and how its dots differ from its siblings.
• Cards out of order. Write the letters on cards, shuffle them and name them one at a time. Naming letters out of order is the real test. Singing the alphabet from the start does not count.
• Letter hunt. Arabic text is all around: food packaging, a mosque sign, a calendar. Ask your child to find three letters they know.

Ages 10 and up

• Write each family. Older children enjoy copying the letters neatly, family by family, right to left.
• Teach the parent. Let your child teach you two letters a night. Explaining a letter is the fastest way to know it, and many parents pick up the alphabet this way.

Letters change shape when they join

In words, Arabic letters join to the next letter, and most of them change shape depending on whether they come at the start, middle or end of a word. Six letters never join to the letter after them: ا د ذ ر ز و (alif, daal, dhaal, raa, zaay, waaw).

Your child does not need to learn the joined shapes yet. Learn each letter on its own first. In Noorani Qaida, the joined forms come in Lesson 2.

How long does it take?

There is no fixed timetable. With ten minutes a day, many children know the letters by shape and name within a few weeks; some take longer, and that is fine. A good sign your child is ready to move on: you point at letters out of order, and they name them without hesitating.

Is the Arabic alphabet the same in the Quran?

Yes, the letters are the same. The Quran adds small vowel marks above and below the letters, and rules for how sounds are said, called tajweed. Those come later in Noorani Qaida, once the letters themselves are secure. If your child is starting from zero, our guide on teaching your child Quran when you can't read Arabic covers the daily routine.