arabictyper

Arabizi letters.

The whole chat alphabet in one chart. Most Latin letters map to one Arabic letter and stay out of your way. A handful double up into combos like sh and kh, and seven sounds have no Latin letter at all, which is where the famous digits come in. Rows with a digit link to that digit's own page.

The chart

Every letter, and what it stands for.

ArabiziArabicSound
aاshort or long a
bبb
tتt
thثth as in "think"
jجj (or g in Egyptian)
7حbreathy hmore on 7
5 / khخBach's chmore on 5
dدd
dh / zذth as in "this"
rرrolled r
zزz
sسs
shشsh
9صemphatic smore on 9
9' / dضemphatic dmore on 9
6طemphatic tmore on 6
6' / zظemphatic dhmore on 6
3عaynmore on 3
3' / ghغFrench rmore on 3
fفf
8 / qقdeep kmore on 8
kكk
lلl
mمm
nنn
hهh
w / o / uوw · long o · long u
y / i / eeيy · long i · long ee

Highlighted rows use a digit for some or all of the sound.

Two letters, one sound

The combos: sh, th, kh, dh, gh.

English does the same trick, so these feel natural fast. sh is ش, exactly the sound you'd guess. th covers ث (think) while dh covers ذ (this). The two throatier ones, kh for خ and gh for غ, trade places with the digits 5 and 3' depending on who's typing. Both spellings are everywhere; nobody blinks at either.

One sound, several spellings

Why the chart has slashes in it.

Arabizi grew up in text messages with no committee in charge, so the same Arabic letter picks up different Latin spellings from different people. وcan be w, o or u depending on the word it's in, and يshows up as y, i or ee. Where the chart lists options, they're all in live use. Read them as "any of these" rather than choices you have to make.

Keep going

The digits have their own pages.

Each number gets a full explainer with example words: what 3 means, why 7 isn't just an h, where the apostrophe versions come from. And when you've got an actual word to decode, the converter checks it against our whole word database.

Arabizi numbers →Arabizi → Arabic converter