Letter 22 of 28

How Do You Pronounce Kaf (ك)?

ك
Kafكَاف

K as in kite.

The sound

The plain English k of kite and keep, made at the front-top of the mouth.

Keep it light and forward. The deep back-of-throat version is Qaf (ق), a different letter that changes meanings.

The four written forms

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

ك
Isolated
ك‍
Initial
‍ك‍
Medial
‍ك
Final

Kaf with harakat

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

كَ
ka
Fatha · "a"
كِ
ki
Kasra · "i"
كُ
ku
Damma · "u"
Spot it in the Quran
كِتَابٌ
kitab
book
كَانَ
kana
he was
كُلٌّ
kull
every, all
Keep going

Practice with the full Quran, word by word, in the Barakah Life app

Every ayah with word-by-word meaning, transliteration, and audio you can slow down. What you just learned here, you can practise on the whole mushaf.

Get the Barakah app