ل (lām) is letter 23 of the 28 in the Arabic alphabet, between ك kāf and م mīm. Its sound is l, as in lamp. It joins on both sides, so it has four shapes: ل ل ل ل. It is a sun letter, and its abjad value is 30.
Hear its name, لام (lām):
Lām in all four positions
Lām 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 ل. At the start of a word it is ل, in the middle ل, and at the end ل.
| Position | Shape | Code point | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | ل | U+FEDD | written alone, or after a letter that does not join forward |
| Initial | ل | U+FEDF | at the start of a word or a piece of a word |
| Medial | ل | U+FEE0 | between two letters that join it |
| Final | ل | U+FEDE | at the end of a word, joined from the letter before |
Typed text stores all four shapes as one character, U+0644 (ARABIC LETTER LAM); the codes in the table, U+FEDD to U+FEE0, are presentation forms that the Unicode Arabic FAQ does not recommend for regular text.
Lām is number 2 of the 28 letters by frequency, 11.2% 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 65%, medial in 19%, final in 12% and alone in 4% of its occurrences.
How to pronounce lām
The sound of lām is l, as in lamp, written l in the transliteration of our Arabic alphabet chart.
Arabic words with lām
These 5 everyday words show lām in real writing: it is initial in ليل and لذيذ; medial in قلم and هلال; final in ليل and جمل; alone in هلال. 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 | Lām here | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ليل | layl | night | initial, final | |
| قلم | qalam | pen | medial | |
| جمل | jamal | camel | final | |
| هلال | hilāl | crescent | medial, alone | |
| لذيذ | ladhīdh | delicious | initial |
Lām with al-, and its number
Lām is a sun letter, so the l of al- (the) goes silent before it: الليل is said al-layl, the night (test any word in our sun and moon letters checker).
Its abjad value is 30 in both the Mashriqi and the Maghribi order; our abjad calculator adds up whole words.
How to tell lām apart
Lām is one of the letters with no dotted twin, so its shape alone identifies it. Lām is the l of the article al-, and it is a sun letter itself, so الليل (al-layl, the night) is written with two lāms and said with one doubled l. When lām is followed by alif the two fuse into one required shape, لا.
Practise writing lām
Trace it on the free lām tracing worksheet (PDF, one page, 64 KB), which prints its four shapes beside ليل (layl), قلم (qalam) and جمل (jamal); the other 27 are on our Arabic writing worksheets page.
Words and names that start with lām: Layla in Arabic and Liam in Arabic.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pronounce the Arabic letter lām?
The sound of lām (ل) is l, as in lamp, written l in transliteration.
Does lām join to the next letter?
Yes. Lām joins on both sides, so it has four forms: ل alone, ل at the start of a word, ل in the middle and ل at the end.
Is lām a sun letter or a moon letter?
A sun letter. Before lām the l of al- goes silent and the letter doubles, so الليل is said al-layl (the night).
What is the abjad value of lām?
30, in both the Mashriqi and the Maghribi order.