Review the Arabic alphabet with this English-to-Arabic mnemonic, created for our director’s Masters of Education thesis on teaching Arabic pre-reading skills to learners of Arabic as a foreign language. Mnemonics are memory tools that link known items with unknown ones, making the unfamiliar easier to remember. Most Arabic textbooks and worksheets use an Arabic-to-Arabic pictorial mnemonic system, which isn't very helpful for Arabic language learners and incorrectly applies the mnemonic technique.

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How to interact with the alphabet chart above

If you don’t quite understand the connection between the pictures to the images, click on arrow on the right hand side to go to the second page and all will be made clear. After enjoying our creative connections, take advantage of the image's interactive features. Each letter is clickable, bringing up two videos. One video is from the textbook Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds, showing close-ups of mouths pronouncing the letter. The second video, made by the Critical Language Service team, demonstrates how to write the letter in its different forms and provides examples in words. We made these videos on an iPad 2 before the Apple Pencil was available, so we’re proud of how well they've stood the test of time despite the availability of better tools now.

This page is great place to review the Arabic alphabet!

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Test your knowledge

Test how well you know the Arabic letters by using the flashcards below.

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