Mīm, nūn, hā’, yā’, and the hamzah standing alone

With this lesson you have met all twenty-eight letters. It teaches the last four, and the hamzah, which is not counted among them and is written in a way of its own.

The letters

Mīm

Mīm is a small closed head on the line. At the start and in the middle of a word the head is all there is. Alone and at the end of a word, a tail drops straight down from the head below the line.

Nūn

At the start and in the middle of a word, nūn is a short hook like the hook of bā’, with one dot above it. Bā’ has its one dot below, and tā’ has two above, so the dots tell the three apart. Alone and at the end of a word, nūn is a deep round bowl that drops below the line, with its dot above; the bowl of bā’ stays on the line.

Hā’

Hā’ changes its shape more than any other letter. Alone, it is a small round loop. At the start of a word it is a loop with a smaller loop drawn inside it. In the middle of a word it is two small loops, one above the line and one below, joined where the line runs between them. At the end of a word it is a small closed loop joined to the letter before it.

Hā’ is not the ḥā’ of lesson 2: the transliteration writes hā’ as a plain h and ḥā’ with a dot beneath. The shape of hā’ with two dots above, at the end of a word, is a letter of its own, tā’ marbūṭah, taught in lesson 16.

Yā’

At the start and in the middle of a word, yā’ is the short hook of bā’ with two dots below. Alone and at the end of a word, it is a deep curve that sweeps down below the line and back under itself, with its two dots below. Like alif and wāw, yā’ also stands for a long vowel, ī; lesson 13 shows how. In this print a yā’ at the end of a word is sometimes written without its dots: that is alif maqṣūrah, taught in lesson 16.

The hamzah

The hamzah is a small sign shaped like the head of ʿayn. It is not one of the twenty-eight letters, but the text of the Qur’ān writes it as one, and this course teaches it as one. It joins no letter on either side, so it has one shape only, and it sits on the line in a gap of its own. The transliteration gives no letter for it.

In this print the hamzah is written in three ways: standing alone, as in this lesson; seated on an alif, a wāw or a yā’; or small, carried by a stretching line between two letters. The seats and the small hamzah are taught in lesson 15.

In the Qur’ān

The second verse of al-Fātiḥah holds mīm, nūn, hā’ and yā’. Its first word has mīm in its middle, drawn as a head alone. Its second word ends with hā’. Its last word ends with mīm, yā’ and nūn in a row, the nūn with its bowl below the line.

The first verse of Sūrat an-Naṣr shows the hamzah standing alone, at the end of its second word, after an alif. The alif carries a wavy mark above it, the maddah of lesson 14. The third word begins with nūn, and the fourth ends with hā’. The first word begins with an alif that carries a hamzah seated beneath it: a seat of lesson 15, not picked out here.

Recall

• How do you tell nūn from bā’ at the start of a word?
• What does hā’ look like in the middle of a word?
• To which letters does the hamzah join?

Answers: nūn's dot is above the hook and bā’'s below; two small loops, one above the line and one below; none, it stands on its own.

Next

The next lesson teaches how the letters join: the four shapes, lām-alif, and the stretching line.