The Letters Daal & Dhaal

 

·        The next letters of the alphabet are Daal and Dhaal

 

 

·        Daal and Dhaal look very similar except that Daal has no dots and Dhaal has one dot on top

 

·        Daal sounds somewhat like the letter D in English
Dhaal sounds kind of like the letter Z in English, but not really

 

Listening & Pronouncing

 

·        Daal sounds like D except it is much softer
Pronounce D and check where your tongue hits the top of your mouth
Now, instead of hitting it there, hit your tongue closer to your teeth

 

·        Some people pronounce the word “December” with a soft D that sounds like a Daal

 

·        Dhaal sounds like Z except it is much softer
Dhaal sounds like the TH in words like "This" and "That"

Source: http://www.gtchild.co.uk/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=39&Itemid=66

 

·        This is how you pronounce Dhaal:
Put the tip of your tongue below your top central incisors
Now breathe out with force
Your tongue should shiver against your teeth

 

·        Dhaal sounds very similar to THaa
To compare THaa and Dhaal, compare the words "Bath" and "That"

 

·        Click on each of the words below to hear the Daal and Dhaal in them

 

مبادرة	ذرب	دراجة
حينئذ	بليد	حاذق

 

·        Exercise: repeat the words you hear

 

 

Reading & Writing

 

·        Daal and Dhaal have the same body

Daal has no dot
But Dhaal has one dot on top

 

·        Daal and Dhaal do NOT connect to the following letter
But the space between them and the next letter is really small most of the time

 

end	middle	beginning	by itself
ـد	ـد ـ	د ـ	د
ـذ	ـذ ـ	ذ ـ	ذ

 

·        When there’s no letter before them, Daal and Dhaal are a simple angle

 

·        When there is a letter before them, Daal and Dhaal look like the letter U in English except with the left side cut off
(The dot of the Dhaal goes on top of the right side of the U)

 

·        Exercise: how many Daal and Dhaal do you see in the following texts?

 

أقلي اللوم عاذل والعتابن          وقولي إن أصبت لقد أصابن

Answer [1 Daal, 1 Dhaal]

 

دع ذا وعجل ذا وألحقنا بذال          بالسحم إنا قد مللناه بجل

Answer [2 Daal, 3 Dhaal]

 

·        Daal/Dhaal and Jeem/Haa/KHaa are not hard to differentiate
But let’s compare them just to be safe

 

end	middle	beginning	by itself
ـد	ـد ـ	د ـ	د	د/ذ
ـح	ـحـ	حـ	ح	ج/ح/خ

 

·        Exercise: copy the following words

 

داب

ذبح

 

Proceed to lesson 9