Sun and Moon Letters in Arabic: How to Pronounce Al

01Moon letters keep the l

The first letter of qamar is ق, a moon letter. Adding al gives alqamar: the l remains audible. A moon letter does not turn into a different letter when al is added.

• Find the noun after al.
• Check its first letter.
• With a moon letter, keep the l sound.

02Sun letters double the next consonant

ش is a sun letter. Say ashshams, with a longer sh sound, instead of separately pronouncing l followed by sh.

In شّ, the small mark above the letter is a shadda. It marks a doubled consonant. Think of holding the consonant a little longer, not adding a new vowel between two copies.

The article is still written with alif and lam. The change happens in pronunciation.

03Keep spelling and sound separate

Do not rewrite the Arabic word using the letters of its English reading aid. The spelling carries al even when your voice joins its l to the next consonant.

Many everyday texts omit short vowel marks and shadda. The pronunciation rule still applies. Identify the noun’s first letter rather than relying only on visible marks.

04Try two familiar objects

• ك is a moon letter. Kitab keeps the l in alkitab.
• س is a sun letter. Sayyara takes a doubled s at the beginning: assayyara.
• The doubled y inside sayyara belongs to the word itself. The article causes the doubled s.

A word’s meaning does not decide its group. Look at its first letter. A word about the sky can have either pattern, just like any other word.

05Use a two-step check

1. Set al aside. Find the first letter of the actual noun, such as q in qamar or sh in shams.
2. Choose the sound. A moon letter keeps l; a sun letter takes the doubled consonant.

There are fourteen letters in each group. Open the reference below when you meet an unfamiliar starting letter; you do not need to memorise all twenty-eight at once.

The examples here begin at the start of an utterance. In connected speech, the initial vowel of al can disappear after a preceding word; that is a separate joining rule. The plain reading aids show the contrast without pronunciation symbols.