Alif

Urdu Letter	Letter Name	Sound	Hindi Equivalent	Teacher
ALIF	Long “Ā”	अ, इ, उ, आ	Teacher Icon

Sounds

Special Note:
ALIF is the most versatile letter. Do not be discouraged by the complexities described below. Most of the other letters are simpler.

ALIF can represent several different vowel sounds, depending on where it appears in a word.
In the middle or end of a word, it always represents the long ā sound.

Example (transliteration)	Example (Urdu)	Hindi Equivalent
shām	شام	शाम
dāl	دال	दाल
Deepā	دیپا	दीपा
jā	جا	जा

At the beginning of a word ALIF functions as a “silent carrier” for all the different vowel sounds. Any word that begins with a vowel sound must begin with a silent ALIF. We distinguish between short and long vowels:

Silent ALIF as a carrier for short vowels:

The three short vowels (“a”, “i”, and “u”) have no letters of their own. Diacritic marks (Ahrāb) above or below ALIF may be used to distinguish the three short vowel sounds, but these marks are usually omitted.

Sound	Example (transliteration)	Example (Urdu)	Hindi Equivalent
short “a” as in “about” (the optional diacritic mark is called “zabar”)	agar	اَگر	अगर
short “i” as in “it” (the optional diacritic mark is called “zair”)	itnā	اِتنا	इतना
short “u” as in “put” (the optional diacritic mark is called “pesh”)	utnā	اُتنا	उतना

Since the “zabar-zair-pesh” are almost always omitted, you will have to guess which sound to use based on the context of the word.

Silent ALIF as a carrier for long vowels:

Sound	Example (transliteration)	Example (Urdu)	Hindi Equivalent
long “a” as in “father” (the sign over ALIF is called “madd-zabar”: it cannot be omitted, and it used only at the beginning of a word)	āsmān	آسمان	आसमान
like the “e” in “evil”	īmān	ایمان	ईमान
like the “a” in “ache”	ek	ایک	एक
like the “a” in “asset”	aisā	ایسا	ऐसा
like the “o” in “over”	os	اوس	ओस
like the “aw” in “awesome”	aur	اور	और
like the “oo” in “oops”	ūpar	اوپر	ऊपर

	Final	Medial	Initial	Detached
Basic Forms	ـا	Use final	Use detached	ا
In Context	جانا	Use Final	Use Detached	اور
Write in Context	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in	fill-in

Connections

ALIF is a breaker: no letter can be connected after it. Thus ALIF has only two forms: a detached and a final form:

When ALIF appears at the beginning of a word, it will be in its detached form.	agar	اگر
When ALIF appears after another breaker, it will be in its detached form.	dām	دام
When ALIF appears after a non-breaker, it will be in its final form.	tāj	تاج
ALIF with the madd-zabbar sign appears only at the beginning of a word.	āj	آج

Additional Examples of Alif

Final	Detached
چار	اچار
اچّھا	اچّھا
کھانا	میرا
ناچنا	آرام
	اونٹ