Arabic pronunciation generator: hear Arabic script read aloud

Type or paste Arabic and hear how it's said, from the throat sounds ع and ح to the heavy ص. Free, no sign-up.

44/500

Join the teams making the switch to Cartesia

Ranked #1

in Speech Arena leaderboard & Speech to Text leaderboard by Artificial Analysis

How to pronounce Arabic words

For longer Arabic audio and more voices, see Arabic text to speech. To spell out an English word by sound, use the phonetic spelling generator.

Type Arabic

Type or paste up to 500 characters in Arabic script, or pick a sample. Add short-vowel marks where a word could be read more than one way.

Press play

Listen to the whole phrase, then pick a sample to hear one hard sound on its own.

Say it back

Repeat the phrase aloud, then play it again and listen for the sounds you missed.

Arabic sounds English has no match for

Arabic makes several sounds deeper in the throat than English does, and pairs that sound alike to English ears are different words.

ع (ayn)

ع is a voiced squeeze in the throat. Dropping it, as English speakers often do, changes the word.

عين [ʕajn] (eye) · عربي [ʕa.ra.bij]

ح and ه

ح is a breathy h pushed from a tightened throat; ه is an ordinary h.

حب [ħubb] (love) · هو [hu.wa] (he)

Heavy consonants

ص, ض, ط and ظ are heavy versions of s, d, t and the th in this, said with the back of the tongue raised. They darken the vowel next to them. سيف is sword; صيف is summer.

سيف [sajf] · صيف [sˤajf]

ق and ك

ق is a k made further back, against the uvula. قلب is heart and كلب is dog.

قلب [qalb] · كلب [kalb]

خ and غ

خ is the ch in Scottish loch. غ is its voiced partner, close to a French r.

خبز [xubz] (bread) · غريب [ɣa.riːb] (strange)

Custom Arabic pronunciation for developers

Arabic text often mixes in brand names written in Latin letters. A pronunciation dictionary maps each one to the Arabic spelling of how you say it, such as Wi-Fi to واي فاي.

A pronunciation dictionary is a list of words and how to say each one. Cartesia swaps every match for its sounds-like spelling before the text is read, on sonic-3 and newer.

Get an API key Read the pronunciation guide

pronunciation-dictionary.json

// Create the dictionary once, through the API or the Playground.
[
  { "text": "Wi-Fi", "pronunciation": "واي فاي" }
]

// Then pass its ID with each text-to-speech request.
{
  "model_id": "sonic-3",
  "language": "ar",
  "pronunciation_dict_id": "<your dictionary ID>"
}

Pronunciation in other languages

All languages

Chinese pronunciation

The four tones, tone changes and retroflex sounds, in a Mandarin voice.

Try it

French pronunciation

Nasal vowels, liaison and the French r, in a Parisian or Canadian French voice.

Try it

German pronunciation

Umlauts, ich and ach, and z, in a Standard German voice.

Try it

Italian pronunciation

Double consonants, gli and gn, read by an Italian voice.

Try it

Japanese pronunciation

Kanji and kana read aloud, with long vowels and small tsu, in Standard Japanese.

Try it

Korean pronunciation

Plain, tense and aspirated consonants and the sound changes between syllables.

Try it

Polish pronunciation

Sz and ś, cz and ć, rz and ł, and the nasal ą and ę.

Try it

Portuguese pronunciation

Nasal ão, the Brazilian t and d, and the r, in a Brazilian voice.

Try it

Spanish pronunciation

Rolled r, ñ and the jota, in a voice from Mexico or Spain.

Try it

Explore more voice tools

All free tools

AI voice generator

Type a script and hear it read by a lifelike AI voice. Free to try, no sign-up.

Explore

Realistic text to speech

Speech that sounds recorded, from the model ranked first in blind listening tests on Artificial Analysis.

Explore

AI voiceover generator

Realistic narration from any script, for videos, courses, and podcasts.

Explore

Arabic pronunciation FAQs

How do you pronounce Arabic letters?

Most letters match an English sound. The ones to practice are ع, ح, خ, غ, ق and the heavy ص, ض, ط and ظ, which are made further back in the throat. Type a word with each into the generator above to hear it.

Is there a free Arabic pronunciation tool?

Yes. The generator on this page reads up to 500 characters of Arabic aloud, free and with no account.

How do you pronounce the letter ع?

Tighten the muscles deep in your throat, as if starting to gag, and voice a vowel through them. The IPA symbol is [ʕ]. Play the عين sample above to hear it at the start of a word.

How do you say thank you in Arabic?

شكرا (shukran), said [ʃuk.ran], with the stress on the first syllable. Press the شكرا sample above to hear it.

Can I download the Arabic audio?

Yes, with a free Cartesia account. Make an MP3 or WAV of the same text in the Cartesia Playground, or request it from the text-to-speech API.

Can Cartesia read longer Arabic text?

Yes. Cartesia's text-to-speech model speaks 44 languages. For Arabic voiceovers and apps, see the Arabic text to speech page.

Get started today

Talk to an expert.

Connect with a member of our team and learn how Cartesia can help you build world-class voice experiences.

Contact Sales

Start building.

Access our models via API and bring a voice agent into production in minutes.

Try Cartesia