The sukun is another diacritical mark in Arabic. Sukun is the Arabic word for silence. It is marked with a small circle above a letter, indicating the absence of a short vowel. Instead, adjoining consonants will be pronounced together. Like the short vowels (fatha, damma, kasra), the sukun is normally not written. The sukun can also come at the end of a word, making a word end in a consonant sound. In these situations, the sukun is less likely to be written, though will be marked at the end of words in fully vowelled texts, such as the Quran.

Examples:

قَلْب (qalb) - heart

غُرْفة (ghurfa) - room

كُرْسي (kursi) - chair

يَيْم (youm) - day

Shadda is a diacritical mark, indicated with a small “w” shaped mark above Arabic letters. A shadda indicates a double consonant or long consonant.

شَقّة (shaqa) apartment - with a shadda on the qaf (ق)

شُقَق (shuqaq) apartments (pl) - without a shadda

The presence of a shadda can cause a word to take on a very different meaning, than what it would be without the shadda. For example, “darasa” (دَرَسَ) means he studied. “darrasa” (دَرَّسَ) means he taught.

- darasa

- darrasa

If there is a damma or fatha, along with the shadda, those go above the shadda. If there is a kasra on the same letter, the kasra goes beneath the shadda, with both above the letter.