The Arabic Alphabet explained for the non-Arab with examples

The Arabic Language consists of 28 letters.

They are written from right to left.

Some letters are similar in shape.

When they are similar looking,

they are distinguished from one another by dots.

The dots are above or below the letters.

The writing and print form are cursive.

The alphabets can have up to four forms depending on where they occur in a given text.

The four different positions are:

the initial position of the word,
middle position of the word,
final position of the word,
the stand alone form of the letter.

Some letters vary drastically while others remain almost similar in all four positions.

Letters are written in a linked form on either sides but some letters can only be linked to the preceding letter.

Some letter combinations have special shapes.

The text is usually accompanied by vowel signs to aid the reader but they are normally not written by the native users of the language. The vowel sign at the end of each word depends on Grammar. The word may end with a Fatahah, Kasrah or a Dhammah.

It can be said that the vowel signs are not written in the text of everyday use, in general publications, and on street signs but the vowels are included to some degree in Children's books, elementary-school texts, and Arabic-language grammar books. The usage of vowels in a proper form indicates the level of understanding of grammar basics.

Attribution : This text was prepared using inputs from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_alphabet