ت (tāʾ) is letter 3 of the 28 in the Arabic alphabet, between ب bāʾ and ث thāʾ. Its sound is t, as in ten. It joins on both sides, so it has four shapes: ت ت ت ت. It is a sun letter, and its abjad value is 400.
Hear its name, تاء (tāʾ):
Tāʾ in all four positions
Tāʾ 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 ت. At the start of a word it is ت, in the middle ت, and at the end ت.
| Position | Shape | Code point | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | ت | U+FE95 | written alone, or after a letter that does not join forward |
| Initial | ت | U+FE97 | at the start of a word or a piece of a word |
| Medial | ت | U+FE98 | between two letters that join it |
| Final | ت | U+FE96 | at the end of a word, joined from the letter before |
Typed text stores all four shapes as one character, U+062A (ARABIC LETTER TEH); the codes in the table, U+FE95 to U+FE98, are presentation forms that the Unicode Arabic FAQ does not recommend for regular text.
Tāʾ is number 6 of the 28 letters by frequency, 4.7% 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 35%, medial in 37%, final in 20% and alone in 8% of its occurrences.
How to pronounce tāʾ
The sound of tāʾ is t, as in ten, written t in the transliteration of our Arabic alphabet chart. The chart's note on it reads: like English "t", tongue on the teeth.
Arabic words with tāʾ
These 5 everyday words show tāʾ in real writing: it is initial in تمر, تين and تراويح; medial in كتاب; final in بنت. The first three are the practice words printed on its worksheet; the others come from our Arabic pronunciation guide and our page of Islamic phrases in Arabic, and more words by topic are in our Arabic vocabulary lists.
| Word | Transliteration | Meaning | Tāʾ here | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| تمر | tamr | dates | initial | |
| كتاب | kitāb | book | medial | |
| بنت | bint | girl | final | |
| تين | tīn | figs | initial | |
| تراويح | tarāwīḥ | Ramadan night prayers | initial |
Tāʾ with al-, and its number
Tāʾ is a sun letter, so the l of al- (the) goes silent before it: التمر is said at-tamr, the dates (test any word in our sun and moon letters checker).
Its abjad value is 400 in both the Mashriqi and the Maghribi order; our abjad calculator adds up whole words.
Letters that look like tāʾ
Tāʾ, ب bāʾ, ث thāʾ, ن nūn and ي yāʾ share the same tooth, and only the dots tell them apart:
- ت tāʾ: two dots above
- ب bāʾ: one dot below
- ث thāʾ: three dots above
- ن nūn: one dot above (at the start and in the middle of a word)
- ي yāʾ: two dots below (at the start and in the middle of a word)
Tāʾ has a second written form that ends most feminine nouns: tāʾ marbūṭa ة, a "tied t" pronounced as a light a when you stop on it and as a t when the sentence carries on. Keep tāʾ apart from ṭāʾ ط, its emphatic partner: تِين tīn is figs, طِين ṭīn is mud.
Practise writing tāʾ
Trace it on the free tāʾ tracing worksheet (PDF, one page, 64 KB), which prints its four shapes beside تمر (tamr), كتاب (kitāb) and بنت (bint); the other 27 are on our Arabic writing worksheets page.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pronounce the Arabic letter tāʾ?
The sound of tāʾ (ت) is t, as in ten, written t in transliteration. Our alphabet chart notes: like English "t", tongue on the teeth.
Does tāʾ join to the next letter?
Yes. Tāʾ joins on both sides, so it has four forms: ت alone, ت at the start of a word, ت in the middle and ت at the end.
Is tāʾ a sun letter or a moon letter?
A sun letter. Before tāʾ the l of al- goes silent and the letter doubles, so التمر is said at-tamr (the dates).
Which Arabic letters look like tāʾ?
ت tāʾ has two dots above, ب bāʾ has one dot below, ث thāʾ has three dots above, ن nūn has one dot 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.