assalamu 3alaykum
peace be upon youThe word, broken down.
اَلْسَّلامُ عَلَيْكُم reads right to left. Below, each letter in reading order, with its sound and the keys that type it.
A long 'a' vowel. A single upright stroke, and the first letter of the alphabet.
A short 'a', written as a small stroke above the letter.
A plain 'l'. A tall upright stroke with a curved foot.
A plain 's'. Three small teeth in a row.
Doubles the letter it sits on; hold the consonant a beat longer.
A short 'a', written as a small stroke above the letter.
A plain 'l'. A tall upright stroke with a curved foot.
A long 'a' vowel. A single upright stroke, and the first letter of the alphabet.
A plain 'm'. A small round head with a tail.
A short 'u', written as a small loop above the letter.
A voiced sound from deep in the throat. Arabizi writes it '3'.
A short 'a', written as a small stroke above the letter.
A plain 'l'. A tall upright stroke with a curved foot.
A short 'a', written as a small stroke above the letter.
A 'y', or a long 'i' vowel when it carries no vowel of its own.
A plain 'k'.
A short 'u', written as a small loop above the letter.
A plain 'm'. A small round head with a tail.
What does assalamu 3alaykum mean in Arabizi?
assalamu 3alaykum is how you write اَلْسَّلامُ عَلَيْكُم in Arabizi, the Arabic chat alphabet. It means “peace be upon you”.
The 3 stands for ع (ayn): a throaty sound. No clean English equivalent. 3 is a mirrored ع.
For the rest of the chat alphabet, see the Arabizi → Arabic guide. Got it the other way round, with Arabic script to convert? That is the Arabic to Arabizi converter.
The keystrokes, in order.
On a standard Arabic 101 / Arabic-PC layout — 21 key presses. Diacritics sit on the Shift keys. The on-screen keyboard on this site highlights each key as you go.
It sits in the greetings & introductions lesson of our Arabic typing practice course, if you would rather drill it next to the words it turns up with.
Practice typing this word →- 01H→ا
- 02Shift+Q→ـَfatḥa
- 03G→ل
- 04Shift+X→ـْ
- 05S→س
- 06Shift+`→ـّshadda
- 07Shift+Q→ـَfatḥa
- 08G→ل
- 09H→ا
- 10L→م
- 11Shift+E→ـُḍamma
- 12Space→
- 13U→ع
- 14Shift+Q→ـَfatḥa
- 15G→ل
- 16Shift+Q→ـَfatḥa
- 17D→ي
- 18Shift+X→ـْ
- 19;→ك
- 20Shift+E→ـُḍamma
- 21L→م