assa3a arrabi3a
four o'clockThe word, broken down.
اَلْسّاعة الْرّابِعة reads right to left. Below, each letter in reading order, with its sound and the keys that type it.
A long 'a' vowel. A single upright stroke, and the first letter of the alphabet.
A short 'a', written as a small stroke above the letter.
A plain 'l'. A tall upright stroke with a curved foot.
A plain 's'. Three small teeth in a row.
Doubles the letter it sits on; hold the consonant a beat longer.
A long 'a' vowel. A single upright stroke, and the first letter of the alphabet.
A voiced sound from deep in the throat. Arabizi writes it '3'.
The 'tied tāʾ'. It marks a feminine ending, sounded as a soft 'a'.
A long 'a' vowel. A single upright stroke, and the first letter of the alphabet.
A plain 'l'. A tall upright stroke with a curved foot.
A rolled 'r', closer to Spanish than English.
Doubles the letter it sits on; hold the consonant a beat longer.
A long 'a' vowel. A single upright stroke, and the first letter of the alphabet.
A plain 'b'. A tooth-shaped body with one dot below.
A short 'i', written as a small stroke below the letter.
A voiced sound from deep in the throat. Arabizi writes it '3'.
The 'tied tāʾ'. It marks a feminine ending, sounded as a soft 'a'.
What does assa3a arrabi3a mean in Arabizi?
assa3a arrabi3a is how you write اَلْسّاعة الْرّابِعة in Arabizi, the Arabic chat alphabet. It means “four o'clock”.
The 3 stands for ع (ayn): a throaty sound. No clean English equivalent. 3 is a mirrored ع.
For the rest of the chat alphabet, see the Arabizi → Arabic guide. Got it the other way round, with Arabic script to convert? That is the Arabic to Arabizi converter.
The keystrokes, in order.
On a standard Arabic 101 / Arabic-PC layout — 20 key presses. Diacritics sit on the Shift keys. The on-screen keyboard on this site highlights each key as you go.
It sits in the time lesson of our Arabic typing practice course, if you would rather drill it next to the words it turns up with.
Practice typing this word →- 01H→ا
- 02Shift+Q→ـَfatḥa
- 03G→ل
- 04Shift+X→ـْ
- 05S→س
- 06Shift+`→ـّshadda
- 07H→ا
- 08U→ع
- 09M→ة
- 10Space→
- 11H→ا
- 12G→ل
- 13Shift+X→ـْ
- 14V→ر
- 15Shift+`→ـّshadda
- 16H→ا
- 17F→ب
- 18Shift+A→ـِkasra
- 19U→ع
- 20M→ة