A total of about 375.4 million people worldwide speak Arabic as their mother tongue, and over 110 million people speak it as a second language. Nonetheless, for beginners of the language, some of its 28 unique letters can be hard to pronounce at first. As a result, we thought we\u2019d show you how four techniques can help you overcome any pronunciation difficulties you might run into and get you speaking Arabic the right way.<\/span><\/p>\n You might remember learning the sounds of your ABCs in grade school using phonics \u2013 that is, you matched the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters. Unfortunately, there are some sounds of letters in Arabic that have no equal in English. However, you can still use that same reliable technique you learned in school to learn the sounds of these Arabic letters. Simply write out the sounds in Latin letters. For example, you can write \u201chuuuuuh\u201d (the breathy sound you make when cleaning your glasses) for the Arabic letter <\/span>\u062d<\/span> (<\/span>Haa\u02bc<\/span>). This way it will become easier for you to pronounce it with sounds you\u2019re familiar with.<\/span><\/p>\n Try a little people-watching and pay close to how native Arabic speakers use their lips, tongue, and voice box together when they speak Arabic. This is especially useful for \u02bb<\/span>ayn<\/span> (<\/span>\u0639<\/span>), one of the more difficult sounds for foreigners to master. What\u2019s more, you can watch videos or listen to recordings of native Arabic speakers to better understand their accents, intonations, and pronunciation patterns. Copying these patterns can be helpful in overcoming hard-to-pronounce Arabic letters and their sounds.<\/span><\/p>\n Speech pathologists and other professionals describe the sounds you make when you speak as glottal (Google \u201cepiglottis\u201d ) or uvular (that punching bag-shaped thing that hangs down at the back of your throat). However, chances are most of you reading this are likely not speech pathologists. Instead try to remember two things about where the Arabic comes from in your mouth: the location and the way you breathe when you make that sound. Knowing these can help you correctly position your mouth for each letter. For example, a lot of the hard-to-pronounce Arabic letters require you to constrict the deeper parts of your throat. Understanding where these words come from improves your pronunciation quite a bit. This will considerably improve your pronunciation of those challenging characters.<\/span><\/p>\n1. Hooked on Phonics Worked for Me!<\/span><\/h1>\n
2. Stop Look and Listen<\/span><\/h1>\n
3. Map Them Out in Your Mouth<\/span><\/h1>\n
4. Use it or Lose it<\/span><\/h1>\n