Letter 17 of 28

How Do You Pronounce Dhaa (ظ)?

ظ
Dhaaظَاء

A heavy th of "this". English does not have it.

No English equivalent

The sound, and why English cannot spell it

English has no ظ. Put your tongue between your teeth as if saying the th in this, switch the voice on, then say it heavy, with the back of the tongue raised and the mouth full. It is Dhal (ذ) said with weight.

This letter is why careful transliteration writes dh, not z. Al-Adheem (الْعَظِيم), the Magnificent, is often misspelled Azim, but the sound is a heavy dh between the teeth, never a z.

You will hear it in عَظِيم (adheem, magnificent) in the tasbih of ruku, subhana rabbiyal-adheem.

The four written forms

Arabic letters change shape by position, alone, at the start, in the middle, and at the end of a word.

ظ
Isolated
ظ‍
Initial
‍ظ‍
Medial
‍ظ
Final

Dhaa with harakat

The three short vowels: fatha says "a", kasra says "i", damma says "u".

ظَ
dha
Fatha · "a"
ظِ
dhi
Kasra · "i"
ظُ
dhu
Damma · "u"
Spot it in the Quran
عَظِيمٌ
adheem
magnificent, tremendous
ظُلُمَاتٌ
dhulumat
darknesses
يَظْلِمُونَ
yadhlimun
they wrong
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