The letter sin

The letter sin is a part of the the Arabic alphabet. Here you will learn how to pronounce and write sin.

How sin is pronounced

The Arabic letter sin is pronounced s just like in English.

In the phonetic alphabet, the pronunciation of sin is written [s]. On this website, I write the pronunciation s.

How sin is written

The letter sin has four shapes: isolated, initial, medial and final.

finalmedialinitialisolerad
ـﺲـﺴـﺳـ

Which of the shapes to use depends on the letter's position in the word and surrounding letters. Do not forget that Arabic is written from right to left.

The letter sin is dual joining. That means that it wants to connect to both right and left. If there is a letter before, that also is dual joining, then sin will connect with it. If there is a letter after, then sin will connect with it. How to write with Arabic dual joining letters.

sin isolerad form

This is how the Arabic letter sin is written in its isolerad form:

This form is used in the following situations:

sin alone

When sin stands by itself, the isolated form is used.

sin in the end after right joining letter

When sin is the last letter of a word and comes after a right joining letter, the isolated form is used. It is free to the right since the letter before it does not connect to the left. It is also free to the left since there is no letter after.

sin initial form

This is how the Arabic letter sin is written in its initial form:

ﺳـ

This form is used in the following situations:

sin in the beginning of words

When sin is the first letter of a word, the initial form is used. It is free to the right and has a tail to the left to connect with the letter after it.

sin in the middle after right joining letter

When sin is in the middle of a word and follows a right joining letter, the initial form is used. It is free to the right since the letter before it does not connect to the left, and it has a tail to the left to connect with the letter after.

sin medial form

This is how the Arabic letter sin is written in its medial form:

ـﺴـ

This form is used in the following situation:

sin in the middle of words

When sin is in the middle of a word, e.g. when sin is neither the first nor the last letter, the medial form is often used. It has tails in both directions to connect with both the letter before it and the letter after it.

sin final form

This is how the Arabic letter sin is written in its final form:

ـﺲ

This form is used in the following situation:

sin in the end of words

When sin is the last letter of a word, the final form is often used. It has a tail to the right to connect with the letter before it, and it is free to the left since there is no letter after.

Conclusion: how sin is written

The letter sin has four forms.
The isolated form is used when sin stands by itself and in the end of words (after a right joining letter). In other words: When there is no letter before that wants to connect and there is no letter after.
The initial form ﺳـ is used in the beginning of words and in the middle of words (if the letter before is right joining). In other words: When there is no letter before that wants to connect and there is a letter after.
The medial form ـﺴـ is used in the middle of words (if the letter before is not right joining). In other words: When there is a letter before that wants to connect and there is a letter after.
The final form ـﺲ is used in the end of words (if the letter before is not right joining). In other words: When there is a letter before that wants to connect and there is no letter after.

That's it!
The rules you have learned can be applied to all Arabic dual joining letters, which is most of them.

sin is a sun letter

You get the definite form of a word by putting the definite article al in front of it.

اَل

The Arabic letter sin is a sun letter. That means that the l in al is assimilated with sin and thereby pronounced as s In other words: The definite article for words that start with sin is pronounced as, and not al.

For example the Arabic word for magic is pronounced siHr and written ﺳِﺤﺮ. In definite form, it is pronounced assiHr and written اَل‍ﺳِﺤﺮ.

Read more about definite form

All letters