The Letters Faa, Qaaf and Kaaf

 

·        The next letters of the Arabic alphabet are Faa, Qaaf and Kaaf

 

 

·        These letters don’t really look the same
And only two of them sound the same
But they are typically grouped together anyways

 

·        Faa is equivalent to the English letter F
Qaaf is represented by the letter Q; it sounds like K except it’s “deeper”
Kaaf is equivalent to the English letter K or C

 

Listening & Pronouncing

 

·        Faa sounds exactly like F

 

·        Exercise: do you hear a Faa in the following recordings?

 

 

·        The sound of Qaaf is close to the sound of K
But here’s how you really pronounce it:
Make the K sound
Note which part of your tongue hits the roof of your mouth
Don’t use this part; use a part of your tongue further back than this
The back of your tongue should be hitting the opening of your throat

 

·        Exercise: repeat the words you hear

 

 

·        Kaaf sounds exactly like K
The same part of your tongue hits the same area on the roof of your mouth as when you pronounce K

 

·        Exercise: which recording in each pair has the Qaaf, and which has the Kaaf?

 

 

 

 

Reading & Writing

 

end	middle	beginning	by itself
ـف	ـفـ	فـ	ف
ـق	ـقـ	قـ	ق
ـك	ـكـ	كـ	ك

 

·        Faa and Qaaf look the same in 2 of the 4 cases (a small loop)
But remember, sometimes you differentiate letters by the body, and sometimes you differentiate them by the number and position of the dots
Faa has 1 dot and Qaaf has 2 dots

 

·        Plus, when the letter is by itself or at the end, the Faa tail is long and the Qaaf tail is round

 

·        Kaaf is like a backwards L

 

·        Kaaf has a special squiggle instead of a dot
This squiggle goes away when it’s in the middle or beginning of a sequence

 

·        When Kaaf is in the middle or beginning, the body kind of changes
It looks like a giant < (less than) sign
Or kind of like an S

 

·        Exercise: read the following words to the best of your ability
Some letters will be new
Learn to recognize what you’ve seen and what you haven’t

 

عَقْعَقِ	فُرْقانَ	تَضَرُّعْ
كَفالَةِ	سَفَرْجَلْ	طُفْرُ
إِشْتَبَكَ	سُكَّرْ	كافَّ
فِرْقَتُكْ	حَبَطِقْطِقْ	سُرادِقُ

 

·        Exercise: write the word you hear

 

 

Proceed to lesson 18