Letter 6 of 28

How Do You Pronounce Haa (ح)?

ح
Haaحَاء

A deep, breathy H. English does not have it.

No English equivalent

The sound, and why English cannot spell it

English has no ح. It is an intense, whispered h pushed from the middle of the throat, the sound you make fogging a mirror or breathing on cold glasses to clean them, with the throat slightly squeezed.

It must stay airy, with no scrape. If you hear gargling you have slipped into Kha (خ). If it sounds like an ordinary English h you are making Ha (ه) instead.

Practise with الرَّحْمَٰن (ar-Rahman) and الْحَمْدُ (al-hamdu), two of the first words you will meet in Surah al-Fatiha.

The four written forms

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

ح
Isolated
ح‍
Initial
‍ح‍
Medial
‍ح
Final

Haa with harakat

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

حَ
ha
Fatha · "a"
حِ
hi
Kasra · "i"
حُ
hu
Damma · "u"
Spot it in the Quran
الْحَمْدُ
al-hamdu
all praise
الرَّحِيمُ
ar-Rahim
the Especially Merciful
حَقٌّ
haqq
truth
Keep going

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