ARABIC LANGUAGE RULES

Section EN AR
Punctuation . , ! ? : ; ‘ “ ( ) ) ( ! ’ : "، ‫ ؟‬.
used

Characters : Characters used a-z ‫أ_ي‬

Special % & / º (15ºC) Better to spell out

characters

Ordinals 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th… Spell out

21st, 22nd,
23rd....

Decades 20s, 30s, 40s… :Spell out as

‫ الثالثينيات‬، ‫العشرينيات‬

Time period the tenth century ‫العاشر القرن‬

the 15th century ‫القرنعشر الخامس‬
*‫ القرن‬١٥
Numbers:
Year in 1996 ١٩٧٨
Abbreviated ‘92, '92 ١٩٩٢
years ١٩٧٨

Decimal 1.2 ١,٢

and 500 5,000 50,000 *)٥,٠٠٠ or( ٥٠٠٠ ٥٠٠
Large numbers 500,000 5,000,000 ٥٠,٠٠٠
) ٥٠ ‫ مليون‬or(

Date April 15, 2002 ٢٠٠٢ ‫ أبريل‬١٥

Time Better to spell out or if

8:30 there is no space in the
a.m. :box, use
p.m. *)٨ ‫ والنصف‬or( ٨،٣٠
‫صباحا‬
‫الظهر بعد من‬

1
 ‫مساء‬

Money $25 ٢٥ ‫دوالرا‬

Measurement 10 km ١٠ ‫كيلومتر‬
or
١٠ ‫كلم‬
١٠٠ ‫متر‬
100 m or
‫ م‬١٠٠
Abbreviations: Dr. Spell out or, if there is no
‫ د‬:space in the box, use

etc. ‫إلخ‬

B.C. spell out or, if there is no

A.D. :space, use
‫مق‬
‫مب‬
If a sentence Titles which continue end
continues from one with no punctuation
subtitle to the
next, place the
appropriate
Ellipsis: punctuation or no
punctuation at the
end of the first
subtitle
Incomplete speech The same
ends “...”
(3 dots)

A sentence which is The same

interrupted by a
second speaker and
then continues must
have “...” before
and after the
interruption

-When I first - ‫البداية في‬، ‫حضرت عندما‬

came here... ‫…إلى هنا‬
-To this town? - ‫البلدة؟ هذه إلى‬
-...I worked in the - …‫ المعامل في عملت‬.

2
 labs. There is no space after(
the ellipsis at the beginning
)of the box

Speaker hyphens: Used when there Used when there are 2

are 2 speakers in .speakers in the same box
the same box. There is a space after the
There is no space
.hyphen
after the hyphen.

Quotes+ Direct speech is Direct speech is introduced

Final punctuation: introduced by a *by colon or comma
comma

*Either may be used, but must be used CONSISTENTLY throughout the file.

FURTHER RULES:

- One space is needed after all punctuation [‫ ؟‬, ( only final quotes)" ’ ! :] and not

before.

- The speaker hyphen is positioned in the middle of the line, not below.

- Use double quotes or parenthesis to wrap all foreign names: proper names of person

and all place names. Do not insert any space between these two symbols and the name

they wrap.

If there is a name inside a quotation, the name has a single quote.

- Use Kasheeda (shift+J) at the end of single letters before quotes and parenthesis:

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i.e. ‫ﺒ‬
‫ﻠ‬
‫ﻜ‬
These particular letters should take the style of the quoted words, to avoid

overlapping characters. i.e ‫( "صحيفة اﻠ"تايمز‬not ‫) "صحيفة اﻠ"تايمز‬

- Pay attention to numbers: Arabic numbers follow the European order!

The numbers from one to ten are written in this way:

٠ ٩ ٨ ٧ ٦ ٥ ٤ ٣ ٢ ١

After a number, the word that follows is ‫تمييز منصوب‬

But if the number ends with hundred or thousand, then the word is ‫مضاف إليه مجرور‬
Ex.:
‫ ستون دوالرا‬،‫ أربعون حصانا‬،‫خمسون رجال‬
‫ دوالر‬600 ،‫ خمسون ألف دوالر‬،‫ مئة حصان‬،‫ألف رجل‬

- Keep in mind the correct spelling of the word ( ‫ )شيء‬and the word ( ‫)سيئ‬.

USE OF CHARACTERS:

- Do not forget the use of the Hamza (/ ), which can be written on top, below the
Alef, or by itself .
To decide whether a hamza needs to be written under the alef or not, conjugate the
word to the past tense of its verb. If the past tense is composed of four letters
only, a hamza has to be used with the alef. If the past tense is composed of less
than or more than four letters, the ALEF is written without any hamza.

Examples:
‫أرجعه لنا‬
‫أسمعنا صوتك‬
‫أطلعنا عليه‬

-The Alef of a noun takes a Hamza only if the origin of this noun is a 4 letter verb.
Examples:
‫ اإلطالع‬،‫ اإلسماع‬،‫اإلرجاع‬

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 -The following words do not take a Hamza:
‫ اسم‬،‫ اثنان‬،‫ امرأة‬،‫ابن‬

N.B: Please pay close attention to the fact that some letters in the Arabic language
are considered “double” letters, and count as two letters. (eg: The past tense of the
verb for the word ‫ اتصال‬is ‫اتصل‬, which seems to be composed of four letters.
However, the second letter “TAA” is “double”, and counts as two letters, hence the
past tense of the verb is composed of FIVE letters and the word does not take a
hamza under the ALEF.

After ‫قول‬ ‫ قسم‬hamza goes

and always under the ALEF, so we say ‫قال إن‬ and ‫أقسم إن‬
rather than ‫ قال أن‬and ‫أقسم أن‬.

- Do not to use the accent Al Harakat, unless it is strictly necessary for the
comprehension of a specific word.

- Always keep in mind the difference between the Yia and the Alef maqsura.
e.g. ‫ على‬- ‫علي‬

- Remember to not add a space after the conjunction “and” (waw).

)‫وقال (صواب‬
)‫و قال (خطأ‬

- The Arabic word “LABOD” can be written with or without a space between “LA” and
“BOD”, according to the translator’s preference, since both are grammatically
correct.

- The Arabic words “MA ZAL”, “LA ZAL”, etc.; must ALWAYS have a space between
their two parts. (i.e. ‫ ال زال‬-‫)ما زال‬

Also the following words are separated by a space:

‫ ها هي‬-‫ها هو‬- etc…