arabictyper
The word
عَلى

3ala

on, about, on top of
Arabicعَلى
Arabizi3ala
Translationon, about, on top of
TypeWord
CategoryHome
Audio
Native speaker, MSA
Letter by letter

The word, broken down.

عَلى reads right to left. Below, in reading order, each letter — its sound, its shape, its place in the syllable.

01
Letter
ع
ʿayn
ʿ

A voiced sound from deep in the throat. Arabizi writes it '3'.

Type:U
02
Diacritic
ـَ
fatḥa
a

A short 'a' — a small stroke written above the letter.

Type:Shift+Q
03
Letter
ل
lām
l

A plain 'l' — a tall upright stroke with a curved foot.

Type:G
04
Letter
ى
alif maqṣūra
ā

A dotless yāʾ that sounds like a long 'a'; only ever at a word's end.

Type:N
← First letter shown leftmost; the actual word is read right-to-left in script.
How to type it

The keystrokes, in order.

On a standard Arabic 101 / Arabic-PC layout — 4 key presses. Diacritics sit on the Shift keys. The on-screen keyboard on this site highlights each key as you go.

Practice typing this word →
Sequence
  1. 01Uع
  2. 02Shift+Qـَfatḥa
  3. 03Gل
  4. 04Nى
Composedعَلى
عَلى
Practice

Type عَلى until your fingers know it.

Or practice it inside the full Home session.

Practice just 3alaStart the Home set