Fablingo / Fablingo Arabic / Level pre-A1
Episode 09 · The last letters — ل م ه (and "hello")
Duration: 5:43
After this lesson you can:
I can read the final three letters, so I now know all 28 — and I read "hello" and "good morning" off the page.
In this episode
Three letters left, then he'll know them all. Umm Nadia — who greets the whole street from behind her coffee-pot — is the right teacher for the last of them, because the moment the mīm and hāʾ land, the word that spills out is marḥaban: hello, the first true thing Sam can both say and read. He greets her; she answers ṣabāḥ al-khayr, and means it.
Welcome back to the Book Quarter. It’s been quite a journey for Sam. A few weeks ago, he arrived with a suitcase and stared at a wall of impossible shapes. Since then, he's conquered the tooth-letters, survived the heavy consonants, and even made peace with the qāf that turned his heart into a dog.
Today is a big day. He has exactly three blank slots left on his master list. Twenty-five letters down. Three to go. And he is determined to finish them before his first cup of coffee.
Umm Nadia walks over with her gleaming brass coffee pot. She’s seen him struggling here every morning. She glances over his shoulder at the empty spaces at the bottom of his page.
ل م ه
ل م ه — laam · miim · haa — l · m · h (a soft, plain breath — not the chest-ḥ, not the scrape-kh) · LAAM MEEM HAA
There they are. The final three puzzle pieces. Let's look at them: ل م ه. Say them with me.
ل م ه — laam · miim · haa — l · m · h (a soft, plain breath — not the chest-ḥ, not the scrape-kh) · LAAM MEEM HAA
The first is like a tall fishhook. The second is a little loop with a tail. And the last one? That is a simple, soft breath. We've practiced the deep chest-letter and the scratchy throat-letter, but this one is just your everyday, normal sigh of relief. Try them out loud: ل م ه.
ل م ه — laam · miim · haa — l · m · h (a soft, plain breath — not the chest-ḥ, not the scrape-kh) · LAAM MEEM HAA
Sam carefully draws the loop of the middle letter, then the little butterfly shape of the last one. He whispers them to himself. ل م ه.
ل م ه — laam · miim · haa — l · m · h (a soft, plain breath — not the chest-ḥ, not the scrape-kh) · LAAM MEEM HAA
Umm Nadia taps the table. She takes his pencil and writes a single word. It starts with that little loop, connects to a letter from last week, then our chest-letter, a tooth-letter, and a tall stick at the end with two little dashes.
Sam stares at it. He knows all these pieces now. The loop is an 'm'. The slide is an 'r'. The chest-breath is a 'ḥ'. The dot below is a 'b'. He sounds it out, putting the vowels in.
مَرْحَبًا
مَرْحَبًا — MAR-ḥa-ban — hello · mar-HA-ban
He did it! That is the very first word he can truly both read and say. It means hello. Let's make it yours, too. Say: مَرْحَبًا.
مَرْحَبًا — MAR-ḥa-ban — hello · mar-HA-ban
Let's look at the pieces. It uses that deep chest sound in the middle. Give it a nice, crisp breath. And those two little dashes at the very end make the 'an' sound. Try it again, nice and welcoming: مَرْحَبًا.
مَرْحَبًا — MAR-ḥa-ban — hello · mar-HA-ban
مَرْحَبًا
مَرْحَبًا — MAR-ḥa-ban — hello · mar-HA-ban
Let's pause and lock these in. The final three letters of the alphabet, nice and simple: ل م ه. Again: ل م ه. And the best word to make with them, hello: مَرْحَبًا. Once more: مَرْحَبًا.
Sam sits back, feeling like a king. He just read a word off a page and greeted the matriarch of the café. But Umm Nadia isn't done. She slides the coffee cup to him.
صَباحُ الخَيْر
صَباحُ الخَيْر — ṣa-BAA-ḥul-KHAYR — good morning (lit. "morning of goodness") · sa-BAA-hul KHAYR
This is a beautiful phrase. Literally, it means 'morning of goodness'. We use it all the time for good morning. Say it with me: صَباحُ الخَيْر.
صَباحُ الخَيْر — ṣa-BAA-ḥul-KHAYR — good morning (lit. "morning of goodness") · sa-BAA-hul KHAYR
It has some of the great sounds we learned. A heavy 's' at the start, a chest-breath in the middle, and that scratchy throat sound in the second word. Don't rush it. Let it flow. صَباحُ الخَيْر.
صَباحُ الخَيْر — ṣa-BAA-ḥul-KHAYR — good morning (lit. "morning of goodness") · sa-BAA-hul KHAYR
صَباحُ الخَيْر
صَباحُ الخَيْر — ṣa-BAA-ḥul-KHAYR — good morning (lit. "morning of goodness") · sa-BAA-hul KHAYR
He nailed the heavy 'ṣ', and he didn't choke on the throat scratch! Umm Nadia nods in total approval. She points to his notebook, gives a little thumbs up, and heads back to her customers.
Sam looks down at his notebook. The alphabet is done. He looks up at the street. The signs above the shops aren't just shapes anymore. He can see the letters. He can piece them together. The wall has become a door.
He picks up his notebook, finishes his coffee, and looks over at Ustadh Farid's table. Sitting on the top shelf behind Farid is that old, closed book from his very first day here. The one he couldn't read a single mark of. He's ready to see what's inside.
Before we go see what's in that book, let's review what we learned today. The final three letters: ل م ه. Again: ل م ه. Our first full word, hello: مَرْحَبًا. Once more: مَرْحَبًا. And a proper good morning: صَباحُ الخَيْر. Again: صَباحُ الخَيْر.
You've learned to read! Next time, we actually open the book and start building sentences. We're here every Tuesday and Friday. Take a breath, celebrate the milestone, and I'll see you in the Book Quarter.
Vocabulary
| Phrase | Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|
| ل م ه | laam · miim · haa — l · m · h (a soft, plain breath — not the chest-ḥ, not the scrape-kh) | |
| مَرْحَبًا | MAR-ḥa-ban — hello | |
| صَباحُ الخَيْر | ṣa-BAA-ḥul-KHAYR — good morning (lit. "morning of goodness") |
Grammar in this lesson
The connectors ل lām, م mīm and ه hāʾ — the soft plain breath, set against the chest-ḥ (E04) and the loch-kh so the three "H-ish" sounds are finally sorted. These are the last three of the 28: every letter is now known, and marḥaban (with the tanwīn ending previewed) and ṣabāḥ al-khayr read straight off the page.