wa3alaykumu assalam
and upon you be peaceThe word, broken down.
وَعَلَيْكُمُ الْسَّلام reads right to left. Below, each letter in reading order, with its sound and the keys that type it.
A 'w', or a long 'u' vowel when it carries no vowel of its own.
A short 'a', written as a small stroke 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.
A short 'u', written as a small loop above the letter.
A long 'a' vowel. A single upright stroke, and the first letter of the alphabet.
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.
What does wa3alaykumu assalam mean in Arabizi?
wa3alaykumu assalam is how you write وَعَلَيْكُمُ الْسَّلام in Arabizi, the Arabic chat alphabet. It means “and upon you be peace”.
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 — 22 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 →- 01,→و
- 02Shift+Q→ـَfatḥa
- 03U→ع
- 04Shift+Q→ـَfatḥa
- 05G→ل
- 06Shift+Q→ـَfatḥa
- 07D→ي
- 08Shift+X→ـْ
- 09;→ك
- 10Shift+E→ـُḍamma
- 11L→م
- 12Shift+E→ـُḍamma
- 13Space→
- 14H→ا
- 15G→ل
- 16Shift+X→ـْ
- 17S→س
- 18Shift+`→ـّshadda
- 19Shift+Q→ـَfatḥa
- 20G→ل
- 21H→ا
- 22L→م