Arabic Sun and Moon Letters: When the L in Al- Disappears

Arabic has one word for "the": the prefix ال (al-). It's always written the same way, but it isn't always said the same way. Before 14 letters, the "moon letters", you hear the l: الْقَمَر is al-qamar, the moon. Before the other 14, the "sun letters", the l disappears and the next letter is doubled: الشَّمْس is ash-shams, the sun, not al-shams. The two groups are named after these two words.

The rule in one table

	Moon letters	Sun letters
What happens to ل	Pronounced, with a sukun	Silent
What happens to the next letter	Nothing	Doubled, with a shadda
Example	الْبَيْت al-bayt, the house	النَّهْر an-nahr, the river

The spelling never changes: you always write ال. Only the pronunciation and the vowel marks do.

The 14 sun letters

Letter	Example	Said as	Meaning
ت	التُّفَّاح	at-tuffāḥ	the apples
ث	الثَّلْج	ath-thalj	the snow
د	الدَّرْس	ad-dars	the lesson
ذ	الذَّهَب	adh-dhahab	the gold
ر	الرَّجُل	ar-rajul	the man
ز	الزَّيْت	az-zayt	the oil
س	السَّيَّارَة	as-sayyāra	the car
ش	الشَّمْس	ash-shams	the sun
ص	الصَّبَاح	aṣ-ṣabāḥ	the morning
ض	الضَّيْف	aḍ-ḍayf	the guest
ط	الطَّالِب	aṭ-ṭālib	the student
ظ	الظُّهْر	aẓ-ẓuhr	noon
ل	اللَّيْل	al-layl	the night
ن	النَّهْر	an-nahr	the river

With ل itself, you see two lams in a row, اللَّيْل, and say one long l.

The 14 moon letters

Letter	Example	Said as	Meaning
ء	الْأَب	al-ab	the father
ب	الْبَيْت	al-bayt	the house
ج	الْجَامِعَة	al-jāmiʿa	the university
ح	الْحُبّ	al-ḥubb	love
خ	الْخُبْز	al-khubz	the bread
ع	الْعَيْن	al-ʿayn	the eye
غ	الْغُرْفَة	al-ghurfa	the room
ف	الْفَجْر	al-fajr	the dawn
ق	الْقَمَر	al-qamar	the moon
ك	الْكِتَاب	al-kitāb	the book
م	الْمَاء	al-māʾ	the water
ه	الْهَوَاء	al-hawāʾ	the air
و	الْوَلَد	al-walad	the boy
ي	الْيَوْم	al-yawm	the day, today

A quick way to tell them apart

You don't need to memorise two lists. Say the letter and notice where your tongue is.

Sun letters are made with the tip or front of the tongue, close to where l is made: t, th, d, dh, r, z, s, sh, n and their heavy versions. The l blends into them, the same way English speakers say "impossible" instead of "inpossible".

Moon letters are made with the lips or further back in the mouth: b, m, f, w, k, q, the throat sounds. The l has nothing to blend with, so it stays.

The one surprise is ج (j), which is made near the front but counts as a moon letter: الْجَامِعَة is al-jāmiʿa.

Where you'll hear it

Once you know the rule, you'll hear it in names you already know:

• Salah ad-Din (صلاح الدين), Saladin: د is a sun letter, so ad-Din, not al-Din.
• Nur ad-Din and Abd ar-Rahman (عبد الرحمن): ر is a sun letter too.
• Harun ar-Rashid (هارون الرشيد), the caliph who appears in the Thousand and One Nights.
• Al-Jazeera (الجزيرة) and al-Qahira (القاهرة, Cairo): both moon letters, so the l stays.

And in greetings. صَبَاحُ النُّور (ṣabāḥu n-nūr), the answer to "good morning", has a sun letter; so does السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ (as-salāmu ʿalaykum). More in our post on Arabic greetings.

Two things that trip learners up

The a of al- drops after a vowel. At the start of speech you say al-, but after a vowel only the l (or the doubled letter) remains: فِي الْبَيْت (in the house) is fil-bayt, and فِي الشَّمْس (in the sun) is fish-shams.

Unvowelled texts don't show the shadda. In most printed Arabic, الشمس is written with no marks at all. You have to know that ش is a sun letter to read it right. That's why it's worth learning the rule early, while you're still reading vowelled text.

Practise it

Our free lesson on the definite article has more examples, common mistakes and a quiz. If you're still learning the letters themselves, start with our four-week plan for the Arabic alphabet.

Our Learn Arabic app opens its 18 grammar lessons with this one, after the alphabet and harakat, and its vocabulary comes with audio so you hear ash-shams and al-qamar the way they're said. It's out on 1 December; join the waitlist and we'll let you know the day it arrives.