Sun Letters and Moon Letters: A Full Guide

In Arabic, the word "the" is the prefix ال (al-), attached directly to the front of a noun. But when you attach it, the ل (lām) doesn't always get pronounced the same way — it depends entirely on the very first letter of the word that follows it.

If that first letter is a moon letter, the ل is pronounced clearly, just as written. If it's a sun letter, the لis silent — it "disappears" in pronunciation, and the sun letter itself is doubled (pronounced with a shaddah) instead.

This isn't random: every one of the 28 Arabic letters falls into exactly one of these two groups, and once you know the rule you can read it correctly on sight, every time.

Why "sun" and "moon"?

The names come from the two words traditionally used to teach the rule:

The full list — 14 and 14

All 28 Arabic letters split evenly between the two groups.

More examples

A tip for remembering them

Sun letters are exactly the letters pronounced with the tongue at or near the teeth and gum ridge (the "dental," "sibilant," and related sounds) — which is why the tongue naturally merges the ل into them instead of pronouncing it separately. Moon letters are simply everything else.

Many learners memorize the shorter list first — the 14 moon letters — using a classic phrase that contains each one exactly once:

Every letter used in that phrase is a moon letter — once you can recognize those 14, the sun letters are just whatever's left.