Makharij al huruf: where each Arabic letter comes from

The five main areas

Area	Points	Letters
Al-jawf: the empty space of the mouth and throat	1	The long vowels ا و ي (as madd letters)
Al-halq: the throat	3	ء ه ع ح غ خ
Al-lisan: the tongue	10	18 letters, from ق at the back to ث at the tip
Ash-shafatan: the lips	2	ف ب م و
Al-khayshum: the nasal passage	1	The ghunnah of ن and م

That makes 17 points of articulation in total, the system set out by Imam Ibn al-Jazari.

Throat letters

The throat has three points, from deepest to nearest the mouth:

• Deepest part: ء and ه
• Middle: ع and ح
• Nearest the mouth: غ and خ

These six are also the letters of izhar: a noon sakinah before them is always pronounced clearly.

Tongue letters

The tongue has ten points of articulation, working from the back of the mouth to the front:

Where	Letters
Back of the tongue, against the soft palate (deepest)	ق
Back of the tongue, slightly further forward	ك
Middle of the tongue, against the hard palate	ج ش ي
One or both sides of the tongue, against the upper molars	ض
Front edges of the tongue, against the gums of the upper front teeth	ل
Tip of the tongue, just in front of the lam	ن
Tip of the tongue, slightly behind the noon, with part of its top	ر
Tip of the tongue, against the roots of the upper front teeth	ط د ت
Tip of the tongue, close to the lower front teeth (whistling letters)	ص س ز
Tip of the tongue, against the edges of the upper front teeth	ظ ذ ث

Lip letters

• Inside of the lower lip against the upper front teeth: ف
• Both lips together: ب and م (lips closed), and و (lips rounded, not closed)

Common mistakes for English speakers

Most mistakes come from replacing an Arabic sound with the nearest English (or Urdu) one. These are the pairs teachers correct most often:

Letter	Often said like	The difference
ح	ه	ح is a firm breath from the middle of the throat; ه is a soft, light breath from deep in the throat.
ع	(missing)	ع is often skipped or replaced with a plain vowel. It is a real letter, produced by tightening the middle of the throat.
ق	ك	ق comes from further back, against the soft palate, and sounds heavier.
ص	س	ص is a heavy s with the back of the tongue raised; س is light.
ط	ت	ط is a heavy t; ت is light, closer to an English t.
ض	د or ز	ض comes from the side of the tongue and is heavy. It is not a d, and not a z.
ذ ظ	ز	Many learners who grew up with Urdu say all of these like z. ذ and ظ need the tongue tip out against the upper teeth; ز does not.
ث	س	ث is like the English "th" in "think", not an s.

Heavy and light letters (such as ص versus س) are explained further in tafkheem and tarqeeq.

Makharij are the foundation of every other rule in our tajweed rules guide. They are also taught from the first page of Noorani Qaida. A teacher can hear in seconds which letters need work: practise them in our tajweed course, or see all our online tajweed classes.