ه (hāʾ) is letter 26 of the 28 in the Arabic alphabet, between ن nūn and و wāw. Its sound is h, as in hat. It joins on both sides, so it has four shapes: ه ه ه ه. It is a moon letter, and its abjad value is 5.
Hear its name, هاء (hāʾ):
Hāʾ in all four positions
Hāʾ 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 ه. At the start of a word it is ه, in the middle ه, and at the end ه.
| Position | Shape | Code point | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | ه | U+FEE9 | written alone, or after a letter that does not join forward |
| Initial | ه | U+FEEB | at the start of a word or a piece of a word |
| Medial | ه | U+FEEC | between two letters that join it |
| Final | ه | U+FEEA | at the end of a word, joined from the letter before |
Typed text stores all four shapes as one character, U+0647 (ARABIC LETTER HEH); the codes in the table, U+FEE9 to U+FEEC, are presentation forms that the Unicode Arabic FAQ does not recommend for regular text.
Hāʾ is number 10 of the 28 letters by frequency, 3.7% 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 48%, medial in 24%, final in 20% and alone in 8% of its occurrences.
How to pronounce hāʾ
The sound of hāʾ is h, as in hat, written h in the transliteration of our Arabic alphabet chart. The chart's note on it reads: like English "h", pronounced everywhere in the word.
Arabic words with hāʾ
These 5 everyday words show hāʾ in real writing: it is initial in هلال, هذا and ذهب; medial in نهر; final in وجه. The first three are the practice words printed on its worksheet; the others come from other letters' worksheets, and more words by topic are in our Arabic vocabulary lists.
| Word | Transliteration | Meaning | Hāʾ here | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| هلال | hilāl | crescent | initial | |
| نهر | nahr | river | medial | |
| وجه | wajh | face | final | |
| هذا | hādhā | this | initial | |
| ذهب | dhahab | gold | initial |
Hāʾ with al-, and its number
Hāʾ is a moon letter, so the l of al- (the) is pronounced before it: الهلال is al-hilāl, the crescent (test any word in our sun and moon letters checker).
Its abjad value is 5 in both the Mashriqi and the Maghribi order; our abjad calculator adds up whole words.
How to tell hāʾ apart
Hāʾ is one of the letters with no dotted twin, so its shape alone identifies it. Hāʾ is pronounced everywhere in the word, at the end too: وجه (wajh, face) ends in a breathed h. Do not confuse it with ḥāʾ ح, the squeezed throat h, or with tāʾ marbūṭa ة, the tied t that ends most feminine nouns.
Practise writing hāʾ
Trace it on the free hāʾ tracing worksheet (PDF, one page, 65 KB), which prints its four shapes beside هلال (hilāl), نهر (nahr) and وجه (wajh); the other 27 are on our Arabic writing worksheets page.
Words and names that start with hāʾ: Henry in Arabic.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pronounce the Arabic letter hāʾ?
The sound of hāʾ (ه) is h, as in hat, written h in transliteration. Our alphabet chart notes: like English "h", pronounced everywhere in the word.
Does hāʾ join to the next letter?
Yes. Hāʾ joins on both sides, so it has four forms: ه alone, ه at the start of a word, ه in the middle and ه at the end.
Is hāʾ a sun letter or a moon letter?
A moon letter. Before hāʾ the l of al- is pronounced, so الهلال is al-hilāl (the crescent).
What is the abjad value of hāʾ?
5, in both the Mashriqi and the Maghribi order.