If you are interested in learning Arabic, there are many online correspondence courses that help you to learn Arabic or you can start taking home tuitions. No matter what you do, learning of Arabic alphabets is how you get started with. Arabic alphabets are very different when compared to English alphabets and may look like some erratically written script.
The first alphabet in Arabic is ‘Alef’ and the symbol for this letter somewhat looks like ‘T’ in English language. It has a ‘S’ like symbol over it which tells how to pronounce the alphabet. The ‘S’ shape is known as ‘hamzeh’ and is an accent mark. Sometimes the hamzeh appears beneath the alphabet that apprises you to pronounce it differently.
The second letter of the Arabic alphabet is called baa. The symbol for the alphabet differs according to the positioning of the alphabet in the word. Baa is one of the joined letters in the Arabic language. Baa has two forms- a short form and a long form. The long form of the alphabet is used when the word ends with baa and the short form is used when the word starts with baa or it comes in between two letters.
In the initial stages you are only required to start with learning and mugging up the shapes and sounds of the alphabet. You may not worry about writing the alphabet till you have mastered the shapes and sounds of all the alphabets and some typical words that are often used in the language. As in English language Arabic also has a song that can be used to learn the alphabets easily. Even though this seems to be a childish method of learning the language, you have to start in a way akin to children when they first learn their mother tongue. There are no vowels in Arabic language but analogous to English vowels there are alphabets in Arabic that serves similar purpose and helps in determining the pronunciation of different words in Arabic.
Mentioned earlier, the symbols that are placed above and below the character act as the vowel and determine how the word or the alphabet is suppose to sound. Kasr-aa is one of these symbols that is notated as slanted lines beneath some letters. Fat-haa is another such symbol that is placed above a letter. When these symbols are encountered a sound is added to the letter.