Arabic Vocabulary Lists > Arabic Alphabet Quiz
This free Arabic alphabet quiz tests all 28 letters in four ways: naming a letter, matching it to its sound, picking its initial, medial or final form, and telling apart letters that differ only in their dots. Each round is ten random questions, scored as you go, with a review of what you missed at the end.
The answers come from the same 28-letter table behind our printable Arabic letter worksheets, and the names and sounds match the ones given on our Arabic alphabet chart with all four forms: a line over long vowels (ā, ī, ū), a dot under the heavy consonants (ḥ, ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, ẓ), ʻ for ʻayn and ʼ for hamza.
What each kind of question tests
Sounds and forms matter most for reading: the sound tells you how to say a letter, and the forms let you find it inside a word. Names are for spelling a word aloud.
| Mode | You see | You choose | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Letter names | a letter | its name | ش is shīn |
| Letter sounds | a letter, or a sound | its sound, or the letter | ش is written sh |
| Positional forms | a letter and a position, or a letter in disguise | the right shape, or the letter | the final form of mīm is م |
| Look-alikes | a letter in any of its forms | which of its look-alikes it is | ث is thāʼ, not bāʼ or tāʼ |
Six letters never join the letter after them: ا alif, د dāl, ذ dhāl, ر rāʼ, ز zāy and و wāw. They have only two shapes, so the quiz never asks for an initial or medial form they lack.
Which Arabic letters look alike?
Twenty-two of the 28 letters fall into nine groups that share a body shape and differ only in their dots, at least at the start and in the middle of a word. The look-alike mode drills them; repeat it until you score ten out of ten.
| Group | Letters (read right to left) | Names | Sounds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ب ت ث ن ي | bāʼ, tāʼ, thāʼ, nūn, yāʼ | b, t, th, n, y |
| 2 | ج ح خ | jīm, ḥāʼ, khāʼ | j, ḥ, kh |
| 3 | د ذ | dāl, dhāl | d, dh |
| 4 | ر ز | rāʼ, zāy | r, z |
| 5 | س ش | sīn, shīn | s, sh |
| 6 | ص ض | ṣād, ḍād | ṣ, ḍ |
| 7 | ط ظ | ṭāʼ, ẓāʼ | ṭ, ẓ |
| 8 | ع غ | ʻayn, ghayn | ʻ, gh |
| 9 | ف ق | fāʼ, qāf | f, q |
Group 1 is the hardest. At the start of a word, ب ت ث ن ي (bāʼ, tāʼ, thāʼ, nūn, yāʼ) are the same small tooth, and the number and place of the dots is the only difference. Only in their final and isolated forms do nūn and yāʼ take shapes of their own.
How to learn the letters with this quiz
Start with the sounds, then the forms, then the look-alikes, one short round a day.
The site's owner started the same way: "I started learning from a book called Al-Qaidah An-Noraniah," then "I used a workbook to practice writing the Arabic letters," and "I used this space repetition technique for every step along the way: Alphabet, reading words, learning vocabulary, and memorizing grammar rules" (from the owner's account of learning Arabic as an adult). The review list at the end of a round tells you which letters to write out by hand.
Once the letters hold, move on to reading whole Arabic words, step by step. The quiz uses your device's Arabic font, so look at the same letters in other Arabic typefaces as well. When you can read a short vowelled text, take our free Arabic level test, or pick a course or book from the Arabic learning resources hub.
Frequently asked questions
How can I test my knowledge of the Arabic alphabet?
Take the quiz at the top of this page. Each round asks ten random questions on the 28 letters: their names, their sounds, their initial, medial and final forms, and the look-alike letters that differ only in their dots. It scores you as you go, lists your misses at the end, and runs in your browser with no sign-up.
What is an easy way to memorize the Arabic alphabet?
Learn the letters by shape rather than one by one. Twenty-two of the 28 letters fall into nine groups that share a body and differ only in their dots, so once you know a shape, the dots tell you which letter it is. Learn each letter's sound before its name, write it by hand, and review in short daily sessions.
What are the 28 letters of Arabic?
In alphabetical order: alif, bāʼ, tāʼ, thāʼ, jīm, ḥāʼ, khāʼ, dāl, dhāl, rāʼ, zāy, sīn, shīn, ṣād, ḍād, ṭāʼ, ẓāʼ, ʻayn, ghayn, fāʼ, qāf, kāf, lām, mīm, nūn, hāʼ, wāw and yāʼ. Hamza, the glottal stop, has its own symbol but is usually left out of the count of 28.
Is the Arabic alphabet hard to learn?
The shapes are easier than they look. There is no upper or lower case, and 22 of the letters share nine basic shapes. The harder parts are the positional forms, since most letters change shape depending on where they sit in a word, and a few sounds English does not have, such as ḥāʼ and ʻayn. The forms and look-alike rounds of the quiz drill the first of these.
Why do some Arabic letters have only two forms?
Six letters, alif, dāl, dhāl, rāʼ, zāy and wāw, join to the letter before them but never to the letter after. Because nothing joins them on the left, their initial form is the same as the isolated one and their medial form is the same as the final one, so each has two shapes instead of four.