A Linguistic Approach to Arabic Pronunciation/ي's short= ـِ

ِـ>

makes the "ee" sound in "greet" or the "ih" sound in "kit".

The English Speaker's Guide

Ee

You know this sound already. Just say ي>. The difference is that ـِ >is pronounced much more quickly.

To understand this difference, say "I object!" Then say "My object!"

The significance of this exercise is that the verb in "I object!" has a short sound for the "o". The noun in " My object!" has a long sound for the "o". The difference between ـِ> and ي >is the same, respectively.

ـِ >is finicky. You'll need to hear the word out loud to know if the native speaker makes it an "ih" sound instead.

Ih

Sometimes, ـِ >takes on a "ih" sound, like "mit", "kit", "sip", or any other word with a short "i" sound.

ـِ >is finicky. You'll need to hear the word out loud to know if the native speaker makes it a short ي >sound instead.

The Linguist's Guide

This section will need help from a professional.

Additional Notes

This letter is written below any letter in the Arabic alphabet. It is not usually written in text.

Practice

Read the following out loud. Try to figure out what the English word would be. (For the purposes of this quiz, the ـِ should be pronounced as "ih" in "tip".)

Encouragement

Letter number two. That wasn't so bad, was it? You are well on track for learning Arabic sounds!

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