Free Arabic Writing Worksheets for All 28 Letters

Arabic Vocabulary Lists > Arabic Writing Worksheets

These are 28 free Arabic writing worksheets, one printable PDF per letter, plus one file with all of them. Each sheet shows the letter's four forms, with rows to trace it and then write it yourself, and three real words that contain it. No sign-up needed. They print on US Letter paper.

Most Arabic alphabet worksheets online are made for children. These are for adults teaching themselves, with a large-print kids pack too. Transliteration matches the sheets: a macron marks a long vowel, a dot under a letter marks a heavy consonant, ʻ is ع ʿayn and ʼ is hamza.

Download the Arabic alphabet worksheets

• All 28 Arabic letter worksheets in one PDF (28 pages, 544 KB)
• Large-print Arabic alphabet pack for kids (28 pages, 287 KB)

Or pick one letter below. A dagger (†) marks the six letters that never join to the next letter, so their initial form is the isolated one.

What is on each worksheet

One page per letter, same layout from alif to yāʼ, top to bottom:

1. The letter printed large, with its name and sound.
2. Four boxes with the isolated, initial, medial and final forms.
3. One row of the letter to trace, then one row of its initial, medial and final forms.
4. Two empty rows to write it on your own.
5. Three practice words, each with a tracing row. Together they place the letter at the start, middle and end of a word where Arabic allows.
6. A reminder: right to left, body first, dots last.

The words have no short-vowel marks (harakat), the way you will see them on signs and in most books. The transliteration in the table shows the vowels. The kids pack prints each letter much bigger, with one practice word and no form boxes.

How to write Arabic letters

Arabic runs right to left, and you draw a letter's body before its dots. The sheets follow five rules:

1. Start on the right. Every row on the sheet begins at the right-hand edge.
2. Draw the body first and the dots and hamza last. Finish the shape of the letter or the joined word, then add the dots. At the start of a word ب ت ث ن ي share one body, and only the dots tell them apart.
3. Six letters never join forward: ا د ذ ر ز و (alif, dāl, dhāl, rāʼ, zāy, wāw) join the letter before them, never the one after. ورد ward (roses) is three separate pieces.
4. Keep to one line. Most letters sit on it. The tails of ر ز و, the bowls of ج ح خ at the end of a word, and final forms such as ن and ق dip below.
5. Learn all four forms, because a letter changes shape with its neighbours. Check any shape against the four letter forms on our alphabet chart.

How to use the worksheets as an adult learner

Say the sound out loud every time you write the letter, and do a few letters a day, not all 28 at once. Start with ب ت ث ن ي, which share one body, then the six non-joiners, which decide where a word breaks.

When I relearned Arabic as an adult, I studied pronunciation from Al-Qaidah An-Noraniah, practised writing in a separate workbook, and reviewed the letters in Anki. These sheets do the workbook's job for free. For a bound book with more drills, see our list of Arabic alphabet workbooks and books.

Once you can write all 28 without looking, copy out whole sentences. Try Arabic proverbs worth copying out by hand. Words written with numbers, like 7abibi, are Arabizi, and our guide to Arabizi and the other transliteration systems explains how they work. After that, move on to typing Arabic on a keyboard.

Frequently asked questions

How do you write Arabic letters?

Right to left, with the letters sitting on a line. Draw the main shape of each letter, or of the whole joined word, first, and add the dots or hamza once the shape is finished. Inside a word, each letter takes one of four forms depending on whether it joins the letters on either side, so practise all four forms, not only the isolated one.

Which direction do you write Arabic?

Right to left, for both letters and words. The page starts at the top right and each line runs leftward. Numbers are the one exception: a multi-digit number is written left to right even inside a right-to-left sentence.

Do you write the dots first or last?

Last. Write the whole connected shape of a word first, then go back and add the dots, the hamza and any short-vowel marks. Lifting the pen for a dot in the middle of a word breaks the flow of the joined letters, which is why every sheet on this page repeats the rule: body first, dots last.

Are these Arabic worksheets free to print?

Yes. All 28 single-letter sheets, the 28-page all-letters pack and the 28-page large-print pack are free PDFs with no sign-up and no email form. Print as many copies as you like, for yourself or for a class.

What paper size are the worksheets?

US Letter (8.5 by 11 inches), one letter per page. They also print on A4: choose fit to page in your print dialog so nothing at the edges is cut off.

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