Arabic Keyboard Online

Letters people mix up: hamza, alif maqsura and taa marbuta

Most errors in typed Arabic come from picking the wrong one of two similar letters:

• ى and ي. Alif maqsura (ى, on the N key) has no dots. Ya (ي, on the D key) has two. على "on" and علي "Ali" are different words. Many Egyptian writers type ى for every final ya.
• ة and ه. Taa marbuta (ة, on the M key) ends feminine nouns: مدرسة, not مدرسه.
• Bare alif for every hamza. Writing اسلام for إسلام or امل for أمل is common online but wrong in formal text. Use أ when the hamza carries fatha or damma at the start of a word, إ when it carries kasra, and آ for alif madda. On the Shift layer, أ is Shift+H, إ is Shift+Y and آ is Shift+N.

Lam-alef. When you type ل followed by ا, they join into the لا ligature automatically. The لا key on B types those same two letters, as do the Shift keys for لإ, لأ and لآ (Shift+T, G and B), so search engines and spellcheckers read the text correctly.

Harakat, shadda and Quranic marks

The short-vowel marks are on the Shift layer, as on the standard Arabic (101) layout. Fatha is Shift+Q, damma Shift+E, kasra Shift+A, and sukun Shift+X. The tanwin forms are Shift+W (ً), Shift+R (ٌ) and Shift+S (ٍ). Shadda (ّ) is Shift plus the ذ key, left of 1. Type the letter first, then its marks. For a doubled letter with a vowel, type letter, shadda, then the vowel: د + ّ + َ gives دَّ.

The AltGr layer (Alt on mobile) goes further than most system layouts. It has alif wasla (ٱ) on the key left of 1, and dagger alif (ٰ) plus the small Quranic annotation signs (ۖ ۗ ۚ ۛ and others) along the top letter row.

Typing Arabic with Latin letters (Arabizi mode)

If you write Arabic in "chat alphabet" (Arabizi), turn on transliteration and type as you would in a chat: shokran, salam 3likom, mosta9bal. Letters appear in Arabic as you type, and when you press space each word takes its usual spelling from a list of Arabic words: shokran becomes شكرا, mosta9bal مستقبل, inshallah إن شاء الله. The other possible spellings appear above the keyboard, including the letters exactly as typed; tap one to use it. If a word changes when it shouldn't, press Backspace right away and it goes back to what you typed. Digits stand for the sounds with no English equivalent: 2 ء, 3 ع, 5 خ, 6 ط, 7 ح, 8 غ, 9 ق, 0 ة, and 3' غ; sh, ch, kh and gh are understood. A number on its own stays a number (2026, 07700 900123). It works with any keyboard, including your phone's.

To force a letter, type it as a capital: S ش, T ث, D ذ, C ض, Z ظ. The word then keeps exactly the letters you typed: fi Sms gives في شمس. A capital at the start of a sentence is an ordinary capital.

Setting up an Arabic layout on Windows, macOS, Android and iPhone

• Windows 11: Settings > Time & language > Language & region > Add a language > Arabic, choosing your country. For most countries the default is Arabic (101), the layout shown here. Arabic (102) AZERTY is for French-style keyboards in the Maghreb.
• macOS: System Settings > Keyboard > Text Input > Edit > + > Arabic. Choose Arabic – PC to match Windows keyboards.
• Android (Gboard) and iPhone: add Arabic under Languages / Keyboards and switch with the globe key.

Persian and Urdu use different code points for ی and ک, and add پ چ ژ گ. Use the Farsi keyboard or the Urdu keyboard for those languages.