ب (bāʾ) is letter 2 of the 28 in the Arabic alphabet, between ا alif and ت tāʾ. Its sound is b, as in book. It joins on both sides, so it has four shapes: ب ب ب ب. It is a moon letter, and its abjad value is 2.
Hear its name, باء (bāʾ):
Bāʾ in all four positions
Bāʾ joins to the letter before it and to the letter after it, so its shape depends on where it sits in a word. Alone it is ب. At the start of a word it is ب, in the middle ب, and at the end ب.
| Position | Shape | Code point | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | ب | U+FE8F | written alone, or after a letter that does not join forward |
| Initial | ب | U+FE91 | at the start of a word or a piece of a word |
| Medial | ب | U+FE92 | between two letters that join it |
| Final | ب | U+FE90 | at the end of a word, joined from the letter before |
Typed text stores all four shapes as one character, U+0628 (ARABIC LETTER BEH); the codes in the table, U+FE8F to U+FE92, are presentation forms that the Unicode Arabic FAQ does not recommend for regular text.
Bāʾ is number 12 of the 28 letters by frequency, 3.4% of all letters, in the 50,000 most common word forms of Arabic film and TV subtitles (hermitdave/FrequencyWords, OpenSubtitles 2018), each form counted as often as it occurs; it is initial in 50%, medial in 32%, final in 13% and alone in 5% of its occurrences.
How to pronounce bāʾ
The sound of bāʾ is b, as in book, written b in the transliteration of our Arabic alphabet chart.
Arabic words with bāʾ
These 5 everyday words show bāʾ in real writing: it is initial in بيت, باب, برتقالي and بني; alone in كتاب and باب. The first three are the practice words printed on its worksheet; the others come from our list of colors in Arabic, and more words by topic are in our Arabic vocabulary lists.
| Word | Transliteration | Meaning | Bāʾ here | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| بيت | bayt | house | initial | |
| كتاب | kitāb | book | alone | |
| باب | bāb | door | initial, alone | |
| برتقالي | burtuqālī | orange | initial | |
| بني | bunnī | brown | initial |
Bāʾ with al-, and its number
Bāʾ is a moon letter, so the l of al- (the) is pronounced before it: البيت is al-bayt, the house (test any word in our sun and moon letters checker).
Its abjad value is 2 in both the Mashriqi and the Maghribi order; our abjad calculator adds up whole words. Bāʾ is also one of the five qalqalah letters of Quran recitation, ق ط ب ج د: when its vowel is cancelled, by a sukūn or by stopping on it at the end of a sentence, reciters give it a slight bounce, as the Wikipedia article on tajweed describes. Our tajweed rules chart marks it in colour.
Letters that look like bāʾ
Bāʾ, ت tāʾ, ث thāʾ, ن nūn and ي yāʾ share the same tooth, and only the dots tell them apart:
- ب bāʾ: one dot below
- ت tāʾ: two dots above
- ث thāʾ: three dots above
- ن nūn: one dot above (at the start and in the middle of a word)
- ي yāʾ: two dots below (at the start and in the middle of a word)
At the start and in the middle of a word, bāʾ rides the same tooth as tāʾ, thāʾ, nūn and yāʾ, so in بيت (bayt, house) the first two letters differ only in their dots: one below for bāʾ, two below for yāʾ.
Practise writing bāʾ
Trace it on the free bāʾ tracing worksheet (PDF, one page, 63 KB), which prints its four shapes beside بيت (bayt), كتاب (kitāb) and باب (bāb); the other 27 are on our Arabic writing worksheets page.
Words and names that start with bāʾ: what bismillah means.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pronounce the Arabic letter bāʾ?
The sound of bāʾ (ب) is b, as in book, written b in transliteration.
Does bāʾ join to the next letter?
Yes. Bāʾ joins on both sides, so it has four forms: ب alone, ب at the start of a word, ب in the middle and ب at the end.
Is bāʾ a sun letter or a moon letter?
A moon letter. Before bāʾ the l of al- is pronounced, so البيت is al-bayt (the house).
Which Arabic letters look like bāʾ?
ب bāʾ has one dot below, ت tāʾ has two dots above, ث thāʾ has three dots above, ن nūn has one dot above and ي yāʾ has two dots below. At the start and in the middle of a word they share one shape and differ only in their dots.