How do you write in Arabic when learning Arabic?

Last night, I received a kind message telling me that I’d better wake up, that people were waiting for the next instalment of my lessons! So first of all, my apologies for the long silence. I am unforgivable… To ease back in gently, here’s a practical explanation: how do you write Arabic?

Computer tools for writing Arabic

This question usually means ‘how to type Arabic with a QWERTY keyboard’. How, for example, can I mix Arabic and English on this blog?
I will explain how to do this in Windows. I am not familiar with Mac, but I am sure that equivalent tools exist. We will use a visual keyboard, either by going to a website that offers one and then copying into our document, or directly on the computer.

Using Arabic characters and changing the writing direction

This visual keyboard will enable you to type Arabic characters.

It will also change the direction of writing. In computing, we talk about LTR (Left to Right) or RTL (Right to Left, the opposite). The direction is linked to the character. It’s unsettling at first when you mix them up, because the cursor changes direction depending on the characters, just like the mouse.

When you have a LTR system, mouse movements are considered from left to right. However, to select a word in Arabic, visually, on the screen, this movement will result in a selection from right to left. You have to learn to place your cursor at the beginning of the Arabic word, i.e. after the letter furthest to the right.

Virtual keyboards on the internet

This is a good temporary solution. There are two main ones

The Lexilogos Arabic keyboard: it is very ‘basic’; you click on each English letter and the Arabic transcription appears above it. So it is best for

• learning the letters
• transcribing a word on the keyboard when you have the model

Bonus feature: it allows you to enter ‘extra’ letters that have been invented to transcribe certain sounds that do not exist in Arabic (as in some advertisements in Arabic for French brands).

Yamli works the other way around: you write in English and it transcribes it into Arabic. It displays suggestions similar to existing Arabic words (try Marrakech, for example), but does not translate (try Casablanca). It is therefore better when you already know what you want to write!

The others do pure transliteration (one Latin letter / one Arabic letter) without spell checking, so you should forget about them.

Installing an Arabic visual keyboard on your PC

The method is different: we will activate the Arabic language, and, when necessary, change the input language to display Arabic characters.

Set Arabic as the language

You need to go to the Control Panel, accessible from the Windows menu, and select the ‘Time, Language and Region’ group.

You will then arrive at this screen where you can add languages (and the keyboard will come with them):

By clicking on the ‘Add’ button, you will see a list of all available keyboards:

Be sure to choose an Arabic keyboard from an English-speaking country: it will be ‘qwerty’, and if you buy a real keyboard, you will feel right at home. If necessary, Windows will add the required language pack:

Configure the visual keyboard settings

The visual keyboard is not accessible via the ‘keyboard’ (that would be too logical), but from the accessibility options.

If you don’t want to remember this key combination, you can also go to the Start menu.

But to manage how to switch between languages, go back to the language settings and click on the keyboard icon:

Which will display this window:

All you have to do is click on ‘shortcut keys’ to finally manage the key combinations.

And click on the tab on the right. There you can manage the key combinations that allow you to switch automatically from one language to another.

My advice: choose a complicated combination to switch from one language to another, and remove the combinations specific to each language. Because if you leave the default settings, you will often get surprises!

Use the Windows on-screen keyboard to switch to Arabic

The on-screen keyboard is available from the Windows menu: ‘All programmes’ / “Accessories” / ‘Ease of Access Centre’.

The on-screen keyboard is there so you can see what you’re typing! It looks like a small keyboard that you can move anywhere on the screen, and it shows you the keys in the active language.

Here, I have just activated the visual keyboard (1) and the Arabic language visible in the taskbar (2).

On the left, I have pinned the visual keyboard to the taskbar (3), which allows me to access it easily.

Clicking on the language symbol (2) brings up a list of installed languages, which I find makes it easier to switch between languages:

A real Arabic keyboard?

But if you really want to start learning Arabic, I recommend buying small stickers that allow you to see Arabic and English letters on your keyboard, or better yet, an English-Arabic keyboard!

I have selected a few that you can buy on Amazon if you are in Europe or the US (they are not easy to find). If you are in an Arabic-speaking country, you will find them very easily! (Please note that Mac keyboards are often Qwerty).

Writing Arabic by hand

This is the best way if you really want to remember the letters. When writing, you use your memory much more than when typing on a keyboard.

Without doing calligraphy, you need to use a tool that allows you to trace the letters correctly. The small ‘dots’ are theoretically diamonds, and the lines of the letters taper off at the end.

Avoid black pencils and even ballpoint pens. A thin felt-tip pen is more suitable, but the ideal is a fountain pen, which is closest to the ancient reed pen, but can be difficult to master when you are just starting out: if you are right-handed, you will discover the problems that your left-handed classmates had with ink in primary school.

My advice: start simple. Gel ink pens like Bic pens are perfect! Don’t forget that in the Arab world, everyone uses Bic pens, even in the lower grades. Once you’re really hooked, you can invest in a calligraphy pen that will allow you to write beautiful letters.

To hold your pen or Bic pen properly, try to place your hand as far below the line of writing as possible. This will prevent you from smudging the ink before it dries. And if you ever want to move on to calligraphy, this is the right position.

If you’re new to my blog and want to get started, try to write for at least twenty minutes a day! Your hand needs to get used to this style of writing; it’s like training a muscle.

A typo or syntax error? You can select the text and hit Ctrl+Enter to send us a message. Thank you! If this post interested you, maybe you can also leave a comment. We'd love to exchange with you !