1. Abjad Writing System
2. Romanization of the Arabic Abjad
3. Cursive Features of Arabic Letters
4. Vowels in Arabic
5. Stressed Consonants
6. Hamzah
7. Open-T vs. Tied-T
8. Syllable Stress in Arabic
1. The Definite Article الـ (al)
2. Double Vowel Ending – تَـنْويـن (Tanwīn)
3. Gender
4. Personal Pronouns
5. Word Patterns in Arabic
6. Introduction to Grammatical Cases
7. Dual & Plural
1. Sentences
2. Demonstrative Pronouns
3. Phrases
4. Grammatical Cases of Nouns & Adjectives
5. Past Tense
6. Adjectives
7. Cardinal Numbers
1. Present Tense
2. Negation
3. Prepositions
4. Interrogatives
5. Relative Pronouns
6. Conjunctions
7. Active & Passive Participles
8. Ordinal Numbers
1. Giving Commands & The Imperative
2. Irregular Verbs I
3. Verbal Nouns
4. Degrees of Comparison
5. Special-Use Particles, Nouns, & Pronouns
6. Progressive & Perfect Tenses
7. Nouns of Place, Instrument, & Intensity
8. Adverbs
1. Passive Voice
2. Irregular Verbs II
3. Impersonal Verbs & Expressions
4. إِنَّ (’inna), كـانَ (kāna), كـادَ (kāda) & ظَـنَّ (ẓanna)
5. Specification & Disambiguation
6. The Five Nouns
7. Circumstantial Adverb
8. Absolute Object & Causal Object
In this lesson, we cover stressed consonants in Arabic. A consonant can be stressed (or doubled) and is often denoted by a حَـرَكَـة (ḥarakah) ‘diacritic,’ called شَــدَّة (shaddah). The شَــدَّة (shaddah) resembles a small written Latin ω placed on top of the stressed letter. It is effectively a contraction of a consonant with سُـكـون (sukūn), followed by the same consonant with a vowel:
| ـــْــ | + | ـــَــ | = | ـــَّــ |
| ـــْــ | + | ـــُــ | = | ـــُّــ |
| ـــْــ | + | ـــِــ | = | ـــِّــ (or) ــﱢـــ |
Stressed Consonants with Short Vowels
Here are some examples of stressed consonants with short vowels in Arabic:
| Short | Romanized | Example |
| ـكَّـ | kka | سُـكَّـر (sukkar) ‘sugar’ |
| ـمُّـ | mmu | حُـمُّـص (ḥummuṣ) ‘hummus’ |
| ـيِّـ | yyi | جَـيِّـد (jayyid) ‘good’ |
Stressed Consonants with Long Vowels
Similarly, the stressed consonant can be followed by a long vowel. For example:
| Long | Romanized | Example |
| ـجّـا | jjā | نَـجّـار (najjār) ‘carpenter’ |
| ـبّـو | bbū | يُـحِـبّـون (yuḥibbūn) ‘they love’ |
| ـوّي | wwī | يُـقَـوّي (yuqawwī) ‘he strengthens’ |
To practice stressing consonants, think of phrases like “goodday,” “one note,” or “bookcover.” Notice the difference between the pronunciation of “one oat” versus “one note.”
Other lessons in Level I: