ن (nūn) is letter 25 of the 28 in the Arabic alphabet, between م mīm and ه hāʾ. Its sound is n, as in net. It joins on both sides, so it has four shapes: ن ن ن ن. It is a sun letter, and its abjad value is 50.
Hear its name, نون (nūn):
Nūn in all four positions
Nūn 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 ن. At the start of a word it is ن, in the middle ن, and at the end ن.
| Position | Shape | Code point | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | ن | U+FEE5 | written alone, or after a letter that does not join forward |
| Initial | ن | U+FEE7 | at the start of a word or a piece of a word |
| Medial | ن | U+FEE8 | between two letters that join it |
| Final | ن | U+FEE6 | at the end of a word, joined from the letter before |
Typed text stores all four shapes as one character, U+0646 (ARABIC LETTER NOON); the codes in the table, U+FEE5 to U+FEE8, are presentation forms that the Unicode Arabic FAQ does not recommend for regular text.
Nūn is number 4 of the 28 letters by frequency, 7.7% 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 31%, medial in 30%, final in 20% and alone in 19% of its occurrences.
How to pronounce nūn
The sound of nūn is n, as in net, written n in the transliteration of our Arabic alphabet chart.
Arabic words with nūn
These 5 everyday words show nūn in real writing: it is initial in نور, نار and نخلة; medial in بنت; final in عين. 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 | Nūn here | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| نور | nūr | light | initial | |
| بنت | bint | girl | medial | |
| عين | ʿayn | eye | final | |
| نار | nār | fire | initial | |
| نخلة | nakhla | palm tree | initial |
Nūn with al-, and its number
Nūn is a sun letter, so the l of al- (the) goes silent before it: النور is said an-nūr, the light (test any word in our sun and moon letters checker).
Its abjad value is 50 in both the Mashriqi and the Maghribi order; our abjad calculator adds up whole words.
Letters that look like nūn
At the start and in the middle of a word, nūn, ب bāʾ, ت tāʾ, ث thāʾ and ي yāʾ share the same tooth, and only the dots tell them apart:
- ن nūn: one dot above
- ب bāʾ: one dot below
- ت tāʾ: two dots above
- ث thāʾ: three dots above
- ي yāʾ: two dots below
Standing alone or at the end of a word, nūn has its own deep bowl with a dot above. At the start and in the middle of a word it shrinks to the tooth that bāʾ, tāʾ, thāʾ and yāʾ also use, and only its single dot above tells it apart.
Practise writing nūn
Trace it on the free nūn tracing worksheet (PDF, one page, 64 KB), which prints its four shapes beside نور (nūr), بنت (bint) and عين (ʿayn); the other 27 are on our Arabic writing worksheets page.
Words and names that start with nūn: Noor in Arabic and Noah in Arabic.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pronounce the Arabic letter nūn?
The sound of nūn (ن) is n, as in net, written n in transliteration.
Does nūn join to the next letter?
Yes. Nūn joins on both sides, so it has four forms: ن alone, ن at the start of a word, ن in the middle and ن at the end.
Is nūn a sun letter or a moon letter?
A sun letter. Before nūn the l of al- goes silent and the letter doubles, so النور is said an-nūr (the light).
Which Arabic letters look like nūn?
ن nūn has one dot above, ب bāʾ has one dot below, ت tāʾ has two dots above, ث thāʾ has three dots 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.