Arabic vocabulary
How to say “letter” in Arabic, with pronunciation and real example sentences from OpenArabic texts.
كَمَا كَانُوا يستعملون الْحَرْف فِي الِاسْم فَيَقُولُونَ هَذَا حرف غَرِيب أَي لفظ الِاسْم غَرِيب
Just as they used the term 'letter' in place of 'word', saying: 'This is a strange letter,' meaning the word is unusual.
الحَرْفَ — the letter. 'the letter, particle', accusative as the object of 'use'. al- makes it the term 'harf' as a label; used loosely for a word.
From: Small Deeds, Great Reward →كَمَا كَانُوا يستعملون الْحَرْف فِي الِاسْم فَيَقُولُونَ هَذَا حرف غَرِيب أَي لفظ الِاسْم غَرِيب
Just as they used the term 'letter' in place of 'word', saying: 'This is a strange letter,' meaning the word is unusual.
حَرْفٌ — a letter. 'a letter', nominative indefinite — the predicate, 'this is a [strange] harf'. But they mean a whole word.
From: Small Deeds, Great Reward →وَقَسم سِيبَوَيْهٍ الْكَلَام إِلَى اسْم وَفعل وحرف جَاءَ لِمَعْنى لَيْسَ باسم وَلَا فعل،
And Sibawayh divided speech into noun, verb, and a particle that conveys a meaning and is neither a noun nor a verb.
وَحَرْفٍ — and a particle. 'and a particle', joined by 'wa', genitive — the third class. 'harf' is the grammarians' function-word, not an alphabet letter.
From: Small Deeds, Great Reward →وكل من هَذِه الْأَقْسَام يُسمى حرفا لَكِن خَاصَّة الثَّالِث أَنه حرف جَاءَ لِمَعْنى لَيْسَ باسم
And each of these categories is called a particle, but the distinguishing feature of the third is that it is a particle that conveys a meaning and is not a noun.
حَرْفًا — a particle. 'a particle', accusative — the naming-complement after the passive 'is called X'. Even passive, the complement keeps its accusative.
From: Small Deeds, Great Reward →وكل من هَذِه الْأَقْسَام يُسمى حرفا لَكِن خَاصَّة الثَّالِث أَنه حرف جَاءَ لِمَعْنى لَيْسَ باسم
And each of these categories is called a particle, but the distinguishing feature of the third is that it is a particle that conveys a meaning and is not a noun.
حَرْفٌ — a particle. 'a particle', nominative as the predicate of 'anna...' — 'that it is a harf [which...]'.
From: Small Deeds, Great Reward →وأجمعوا على أن من جحد منه حرفا مما أجمع عليه أو زاد حرفا لم يقرأ به أحد وهو عالم بذلك فهو كافر
And they unanimously agree that whoever denies any letter upon which there is consensus or adds a letter not recited by anyone, while being aware, is a disbeliever.
حَرْفًا — a letter. An indefinite noun 'a letter', the object of 'denied', in the accusative as what is rejected. The lack of al- keeps it general, 'even a single letter'. The accusative ending marks it as the thing the denial falls on.
From: Honoring the Quran →وأجمعوا على أن من جحد منه حرفا مما أجمع عليه أو زاد حرفا لم يقرأ به أحد وهو عالم بذلك فهو كافر
And they unanimously agree that whoever denies any letter upon which there is consensus or adds a letter not recited by anyone, while being aware, is a disbeliever.
حَرْفًا — a letter. An indefinite noun 'a letter', the object of 'added', in the accusative as the thing inserted. With no al- it stays general, 'even one letter'. The accusative marks it as what the adding produces.
From: Honoring the Quran →OpenArabic teaches words like حَرْف through real bilingual reading with native audio and spaced-repetition practice.
Get the app