Skip to content
Learn Levantine Arabic
Log inSign up

basics · grammar

شَمسية وقَمَريّة

Sun and moon letters

When the ل of ال is pronounced, and when it isn't

"ال" in front of a word means "the". It's always written — but the "ل" isn't always pronounced.

Keywords

  • functional

The first letter of the word decides. Sun letters swallow the "ل"; moon letters keep it. Nothing about the spelling changes either way.

Sun letters

9 more sections in this lesson

A membership opens the rest of this lesson and everything else — every lesson across all four levels, the whole dictionary, the vocab packs and the conjugator.

Membership options

Comments (3)

  1. Albert ·

    The "Sun letters" are Levantine Arabic's dental and alveolar consonants, for those of you who know what that means.

  2. Samiya ·

    I think it’ll also be very helpful to list down the moon letters than just saying that it’s the rest that were not mentioned.

  3. Ellena ·

    It’s hard to study because every time I scroll it asks for a free trial.

Log in to join the conversation.

Up next

  • ة

    T marboota/ Pronunciation rules

    A lesson about the t marboota letter

    basics / grammar

  • ال التَعريف

    Definite and indefinite nouns/ Nouns

    The difference between "a book" and "the book"

    basics / grammar

  • الإضافة

    Possesive nouns/ Nouns

    Why "your book" is already definite, with no ال

    basics / grammar

  • مُذَكَّر

    Masculine nouns/ Nouns

    The default gender, and how to spot it

    basics / grammar