In Arabic there are short vowels and long vowels.

Short Vowels:

     Vowels in Tunisian or in Arabic are some signs placed on the letters to give the right pronunciation. The short vowels are ( َ   ُ  ِ  ْ  ). Now we take an example, the letter “b" which in Arabic is ب, this same letter can be written as follows بْ ,since the

upper circle on the letter means that the letter should be silent “b".

Now see the different pronunciations of a single letter with the three arabic letters:

بَ  is pronounced "bae" 

Remember that in all of the following lessons, this vowel will be noticed as "e", the long one will be "e:", as in English words for "and, bath"

بُ  is pronounced "boo"

بِ  is pronounced "bee"

The same rule can applied to all the other letters. but  be careful, these vowels might change their pronunciation when the letter preceding is a guttural, laryngeal or an emphatic letter. See the example below:

بَ  bae   compare to    رَ  rA   Remember, in all of our lessons, this sound will be this "e", so always pronounce it that way as in "and; "

بُ  boo   compare to    رُ rOO

بِ  bee   compare to     رِ rEE

The soft letters are (ب  ت  ث  ج  د  ذ  ز  س  ش  ف  ك  ل  م  ن  ه  و  ي)

The emphatic letters are (ح  خ  ر  ص  ض  ط  ظ  ع  غ  ق)

 It is very easy to remember these letters and to know whether the letter is emphatic or soft, just try to compare the following letters (ذ // ض،ظ) , (ت // ط) , (ك // ق) , (ل // ر) , (ه // ح) , (س // ص) , (ء // ع).

So if you find it difficult to pronounce the emphatic letters, so try to make the corresponding soft letter sound harder and sharper, and you will make it.

Long Vowels:

The long vowels are the same as for the short vowels, just the sound is made longer. In English for instance, fit and feet; fit sounds shorter than feet, and feet sounds longer than fit. So to write a long letter, you just need to first write the corresponding vowel on the letter, then choose the right long sign for the vowel. With the vowel ( َ  ) the long sign would be ـَا , example :

بَ is bae, but بَا is a long (bae:).