Sun and Moon Letters in Arabic, Explained

Where the Names Come From

The names aren't arbitrary. The Arabic word for sun, shams, itself starts with a sun letter, sheen, which is why it's pronounced ash-shams rather than al-shams. The Arabic word for moon, qamar, starts with a moon letter, qaf, which is why it's pronounced al-qamar with the laam clearly heard. The two example words that give the rule its name are also its clearest illustration.

The Fourteen Moon Letters

Before any of these letters, the laam in "al-" is pronounced clearly: alif, ba, jeem, ha (ح), kha, ain, ghain, fa, qaf, kaf, meem, ha (ه), waw, and ya. A traditional memory aid strings several of them together in the phrase "ابغ حجك وخف عقيمه" (ibghi hajjaka wakhaf 'aqeemah), which contains all fourteen moon letters in sequence.

The Fourteen Sun Letters

Before any of these letters, the laam in "al-" is silent, and the letter itself is doubled instead: ta, tha, dal, dhal, ra, zay, seen, sheen, sad, dad, tta, dha, laam, and noon. Together with the fourteen moon letters, this accounts for the entire twenty-eight letter Arabic alphabet.

How to Pronounce Each Correctly

A Simple Way to Remember Sun Letters

Rather than memorising fourteen letters in a list, many students find it easier to picture the mouth position: sun letters are mostly pronounced from the tip or front of the tongue, close to where the laam itself is produced, which is exactly why they blend into it so easily. Moon letters tend to come from further back in the mouth or from the lips, further from the laam's own position, so they don't blend and stay separate and clear instead.

Common Mistakes

• Pronouncing the laam before a sun letter, saying al-shams instead of ash-shams.
• Forgetting to double the sun letter, softening it instead of giving it the fuller, doubled sound the rule calls for.
• Second-guessing moon letters, silencing a laam that should actually be pronounced clearly.

How This Connects to Laam Sakinah

Sun and moon letters are really one specific case of the laam sakinah rules: the laam in the definite article is a laam with no vowel, and its pronunciation depends entirely on which letter follows it, exactly the pattern that applies across laam sakinah more broadly.

If you're still learning the letters themselves, our Arabic letters reference guide lists all 28 with their names, and our Noorani Qaida course introduces the definite article gently before any rule names come in.

How Mariam Quran Tutor Teaches This

Sun and moon letters come up constantly once you start reading real text, so they're practised with plenty of live examples as part of our Tajweed course, until spotting them becomes automatic. You can book a free trial lesson with no card required, or see our Tajweed rules overview for how this fits with the wider set of rules.