ح (ḥāʾ) is letter 6 of the 28 in the Arabic alphabet, between ج jīm and خ khāʾ. Its sound is a breathy h from the throat; no English equivalent. It joins on both sides, so it has four shapes: ح ح ح ح. It is a moon letter, and its abjad value is 8.
Hear its name, حاء (ḥāʾ):
Ḥāʾ in all four positions
Ḥāʾ 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 ح. At the start of a word it is ح, in the middle ح, and at the end ح.
| Position | Shape | Code point | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | ح | U+FEA1 | written alone, or after a letter that does not join forward |
| Initial | ح | U+FEA3 | at the start of a word or a piece of a word |
| Medial | ح | U+FEA4 | between two letters that join it |
| Final | ح | U+FEA2 | at the end of a word, joined from the letter before |
Typed text stores all four shapes as one character, U+062D (ARABIC LETTER HAH); the codes in the table, U+FEA1 to U+FEA4, are presentation forms that the Unicode Arabic FAQ does not recommend for regular text.
Ḥāʾ is number 17 of the 28 letters by frequency, 2.1% 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 51%, medial in 40%, final in 6% and alone in 3% of its occurrences.
How to pronounce ḥāʾ
The sound of ḥāʾ is a breathy h from the throat; no English equivalent, written ḥ in the transliteration of our Arabic alphabet chart. English has no exact match, which puts ḥāʾ among the eleven sounds covered on our Arabic pronunciation guide. Its row from that guide:
| Where it is made | The same throat squeeze as ع, with no voice |
|---|---|
| Nearest English | A loud, raspy whisper of h |
| Confused with | ه h |
| Word pair that tests it | حَرَم ḥaram, sanctuary / هَرَم haram, pyramid |
In Arabic chat writing, where speakers type Arabic in Latin letters, ḥāʾ is written 7.
Arabic words with ḥāʾ
These 5 everyday words show ḥāʾ in real writing: it is initial in حب, حرم and حفيد; medial in بحر; alone in صباح. The first three are the practice words printed on its worksheet; the others come from our Arabic pronunciation guide and our Arabic flashcards, and more words by topic are in our Arabic vocabulary lists.
| Word | Transliteration | Meaning | Ḥāʾ here | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| حب | ḥubb | love | initial | |
| بحر | baḥr | sea | medial | |
| صباح | ṣabāḥ | morning | alone | |
| حرم | ḥaram | sanctuary | initial | |
| حفيد | ḥafīd | grandson | initial |
Ḥāʾ with al-, and its number
Ḥāʾ is a moon letter, so the l of al- (the) is pronounced before it: الحرم is al-ḥaram, the sanctuary (test any word in our sun and moon letters checker).
Its abjad value is 8 in both the Mashriqi and the Maghribi order; our abjad calculator adds up whole words.
Letters that look like ḥāʾ
Ḥāʾ, ج jīm and خ khāʾ share the same belly, and only the dots tell them apart:
Ḥāʾ is the letter English speakers most often swap for hāʾ ه, a different letter near the end of the alphabet: حَرَم ḥaram is a sanctuary, هَرَم haram a pyramid. In Arabic chat writing ḥāʾ is the digit 7, which mirrors its open loop.
Practise writing ḥāʾ
Trace it on the free ḥāʾ tracing worksheet (PDF, one page, 66 KB), which prints its four shapes beside حب (ḥubb), بحر (baḥr) and صباح (ṣabāḥ); the other 27 are on our Arabic writing worksheets page.
Words and names that start with ḥāʾ: what habibi means, what habibti means, Hamza in Arabic and Hannah in Arabic.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pronounce the Arabic letter ḥāʾ?
The sound of ḥāʾ (ح) is a breathy h from the throat; no English equivalent, written ḥ in transliteration. Learners often confuse it with ه h.
Does ḥāʾ join to the next letter?
Yes. Ḥāʾ joins on both sides, so it has four forms: ح alone, ح at the start of a word, ح in the middle and ح at the end.
Is ḥāʾ a sun letter or a moon letter?
A moon letter. Before ḥāʾ the l of al- is pronounced, so الحرم is al-ḥaram (the sanctuary).
Which Arabic letters look like ḥāʾ?
ح ḥāʾ has no dot, ج jīm has a dot inside and خ khāʾ has one dot above. They share one shape and differ only in their dots.