ر (rāʾ) is letter 10 of the 28 in the Arabic alphabet, between ذ dhāl and ز zāy. Its sound is a tapped or rolled r. It never joins to the letter after it, so it has two shapes: ر ر. It is a sun letter, and its abjad value is 200.
Hear its name, راء (rāʾ):
Why rāʾ has two shapes, not four
Rāʾ is one of the six letters that never join to the letter after them: ا د ذ ر ز و. It joins only from the right, so its initial form is its isolated shape, ر, and its medial form is its final shape, ر. A word breaks into a new piece after it: in رأس (raʾs, head), the letter after rāʾ starts again.
| Position | Shape | Code point | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | ر | U+FEAD | written alone, or after a letter that does not join forward |
| Initial | ر | U+FEAD (same as isolated) | at the start of a word: the isolated shape, since nothing joins it on the left |
| Medial | ر | U+FEAE (same as final) | inside a word: the final shape, and the next letter starts a new piece |
| Final | ر | U+FEAE | at the end of a word, joined from the letter before |
Typed text stores both shapes as one character, U+0631 (ARABIC LETTER REH); U+FEAD and U+FEAE are presentation forms that the Unicode Arabic FAQ does not recommend for regular text.
Rāʾ is number 7 of the 28 letters by frequency, 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 final in 68% and alone in 32% of its occurrences.
How to pronounce rāʾ
The sound of rāʾ is a tapped or rolled r, written r in the transliteration of our Arabic alphabet chart. The chart's note on it reads: tapped or rolled "r", as in Spanish "pero". Rāʾ is on our Arabic pronunciation guide as well, because the English r is the wrong sound for it in every position. Its row from that guide:
| Where it is made | Tongue tip tapping the ridge behind the upper teeth, trilled when doubled |
|---|---|
| Nearest English | The Spanish r; a single tap is close to the tt of American butter |
| Confused with | The English r, or غ for French and German speakers |
| Word pair that tests it | رَيْب rayb, doubt / غَيْب ghayb, the unseen |
Arabic words with rāʾ
These 5 everyday words show rāʾ in real writing: it is final in قمر; alone in رأس, نار, رمادي and ريب. The first three are the practice words printed on its worksheet; the others come from our list of colors in Arabic and our Arabic pronunciation guide, and more words by topic are in our Arabic vocabulary lists.
| Word | Transliteration | Meaning | Rāʾ here | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| رأس | raʾs | head | alone | |
| قمر | qamar | moon | final | |
| نار | nār | fire | alone | |
| رمادي | ramādī | grey | alone | |
| ريب | rayb | doubt | alone |
Rāʾ with al-, and its number
Rāʾ is a sun letter, so the l of al- (the) goes silent before it: الرأس is said ar-raʾs, the head (test any word in our sun and moon letters checker).
Its abjad value is 200 in both the Mashriqi and the Maghribi order; our abjad calculator adds up whole words.
Letters that look like rāʾ
Rāʾ and ز zāy share the same curve, and only the dots tell them apart:
- ر rāʾ: no dot
- ز zāy: one dot above
A single rāʾ is one quick tap of the tongue tip, close to the tt of American butter. A doubled rāʾ, written with a shadda, is a real trill like the Spanish rr in perro. Learners whose own r sits at the back of the throat, as in French or German, should test themselves on رَيْب rayb (doubt) against غَيْب ghayb (the unseen).
Practise writing rāʾ
Trace it on the free rāʾ tracing worksheet (PDF, one page, 66 KB), which prints its two shapes beside رأس (raʾs), قمر (qamar) and نار (nār); the other 27 are on our Arabic writing worksheets page.
Words and names that start with rāʾ: Rachel in Arabic.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pronounce the Arabic letter rāʾ?
The sound of rāʾ (ر) is a tapped or rolled r, written r in transliteration. Our alphabet chart notes: tapped or rolled "r", as in Spanish "pero". Learners often confuse it with The English r, or غ for French and German speakers.
Does rāʾ join to the next letter?
No. Rāʾ is one of six letters, ا د ذ ر ز و, that join only to the letter before them. It has two shapes: ر when nothing joins it, and ر after a joining letter, and the letter after it always starts a new piece of the word.
Is rāʾ a sun letter or a moon letter?
A sun letter. Before rāʾ the l of al- goes silent and the letter doubles, so الرأس is said ar-raʾs (the head).
Which Arabic letters look like rāʾ?
ر rāʾ has no dot and ز zāy has one dot above. They share one shape and differ only in their dots.