Harakat

Harakat, also known as diacritical marks or short vowels, are symbols that are added to Arabic text to indicate how words should be pronounced.

Think of it like a secret code that helps you read and say words correctly. Just like how you need to know the alphabet to read English words, in Arabic, you need to know the letters and the harakat to say the words correctly.

For example, the Arabic word for "book" is "kitab". Without the harakat, it is written like this: "كتاب". But if you add the harakat, it looks like this: "كِتَابْ".

The two small marks below the first and last letters of the word are harakat. The first one is called a fatha and it makes the "i" sound. The last one is called a sukun and it tells you to not pronounce any vowels at the end of the word.

So when you add the harakat, the word is pronounced "ki-taab".

Harakat are important for Arabic speakers because unlike English, which has many words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently (like "tear" and "tear"), Arabic relies heavily on harakat to distinguish between different words with similar spellings.

So the next time you see Arabic text with lots of dots and dashes, remember that those little marks can help you unlock the secret of how to properly say the words.