Writing Arabic Vertically

Posted on: Monday, June 3rd, 2013 8 comments

Arabic is a cursive script, which means that most letters are connected, similar to handwritten English. This makes it somewhat awkward to write Arabic vertically. It’s actually pretty rare to see vertical Arabic writing, except for the occasional billboard, shop sign or in crossword puzzles. Writing Arabic vertically, with disconnected … Continue reading

“How To Write My Name In Arabic”

Posted on: Friday, May 7th, 2010 60 comments

5 crucial tips to get the correct translation of your name in Arabic Whether you are thinking about getting your name in Arabic as a tattoo or you just want to know what your name would look like written in Arabic letters, you will know exactly what to do after … Continue reading

Love Hate Calligraphy

Posted on: Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 9 comments

Through Tarek Atrissi’s excellent blog I cam accross this piece of Arabic calligraphy here that says “love hate” in Arabic: The design is written with ornamental decorations. What some might disregard as doodles underneath the writings actually consists of a repetition of exactly the same two words – “love hate”. … Continue reading

More Christmas Stuff

Posted on: Thursday, December 24th, 2009 3 comments

Ok, as you might know, one of my pet peeves is to find disconnected letters when people try to write Arabic – tattoos, in movies, or now on pullovers. This is the picture I found on CafePress when I was looking for some Christmas-related merchandise: What they were trying to … Continue reading

Developing Perfect Arabic Pronunciation

Posted on: Sunday, December 6th, 2009 0 comments

Good pronunciation is crucial for communication. Many people, who are learning Arabic, have experienced that sinking feeling when they try a well-constructed sentence only to be met with a blank face, or – even worse – with laughter. Why is this? Languages are essentially built on sounds. If I speak … Continue reading

Arabic-English Transliteration

Posted on: Sunday, November 15th, 2009 1 comments

Today I received an interesting email from a reader of this blog, asking me about software that is capable of converting Arabic text into transliterated Arabic: Dear Max, I know there are online tools where I can enter the word رسول‎ and it will tell me the translation ‘messenger’ but … Continue reading

Arabic Writing

Posted on: Monday, November 9th, 2009 2 comments

Arabic Writing Writing in Arabic is something that many beginning Arabic learners are afraid of. Many simply don’t know how to begin learning the Arabic alphabet and writing system. In this article I give you some tips on how best to approach Arabic writing and how to master it. 1. … Continue reading