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Moroccan Arabic Vowels

The Vowels – with audio

a

The arabic letter “ta mabuta” [ة], which can be found at the end of feminine nouns and adjectives, or the short vowel [ َ ] which has the phonetic symbol /a/. This sound is pronounced like the “a” in “cat”.
Examples:

a Audio
mdrasa [مدرَسة] (school), Tbla [طبلة] (table), bSla [بصلة] (onion)

aa

The arabic letter “alif” [ى/ﺍ ], represented by the phonetic symbol /aː/. A long “a” sound which doesn’t exist in English.
Examples:

aa Audio
raas [راس] (head), baan [بان] (appear), daar [دار] (do)

ee

The arabic letter “ya” [ﻱ ], represented by the phonetic symbol /iː/. Pronounced like the “ee” in “seen”.
Examples :

ee Audio
saafee [صافي] (it’s enough), beet [بيت] (room), mtshrfeen [متشرفين] (pleased to meet you)

o

[ُ ] in Arabic, represented by the phonetic symbol /u/.
Examples:

o Audio
modeer [مُدير] (director), Tomoobeela [طُموبيلة] (car), momil [مُمِل] (boring)

oo

The Arabic letter “waw” [ﻭ ], represented by the phonetic symbol /uː/. Pronounced like the “oo” in “boot”.
Examples:

oo Audio
‘ashnoo [أشنو] (what), joo3 [جوع] (hunger), faboor [فابور] (free)

e

Several Moroccan Arabic words are composed entirely of consonants. So to help with the pronunciation, we have added the letter “e”. Pronounced like the “e” in «the».
Examples:

e Audio
tleb [طلب] (ask / beg), bHer [بحر] (see)