Arabic vowels, similar to English ones, give a voice to the language. What’s a language without vowels, right? In Arabic, however, there are fewer vowels than English.  

The rules concerning helping vowels are broken down into three. Once you recognize them, helping vowels are an easy A. It is all about the haraka of the proceeding vowel and the helping vowel. The Arabic Alphabet: Vowels lesson right here.

What is a helping vowel?

When there is a word that begins with a hamza, and it has no vowel, or a silent vowel, that is when the helping vowel comes in.

So why does this happen?

It guarantees a smooth shift from word to word.
This means that a definite article must be involved.
Let’s take a look at the three cases. 
The first case is when the arranged vowel has the kasra haraka, and in which case, there would be a fatha on the helping vowel.

For example: هَلِ الولد هنا؟

Transliteration: /haliel waladu hona?
Meaning: Is the boy here?
It is originally هلْ with a sukoon, but in this case, it turns into a kasra.

Case two turns the helping vowel into a fatha because the proceeding vowel has a kasra.

This can be seen through the following example:
هذه الفتاة مِنَ السودان
Transliteration: /hathihi al fataa mina asudan/
Meaning: This girl is from Sudan.
Originally, the word منَ is written like this منْ with a sukoon.

Case three is the only one where both the proceeding and helping vowels are united with the same haraka: the damma.

Let’s see how this happens:
لماذا كتبتمُ القصيدة؟
Transliteration: /limatha katabtomo al qas’eeda/
Meaning: Why did you write the poem?
This is used to refer to a plural male case.
Originally, the word كتبتمْ /katabtom/ is written with a sukoon. So, in this case, it turns into a damma.


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