Hello and welcome to our blog where today we’ll touch on what is perhaps one of the most misunderstood symbols in Arabic – the sukoon/ سُكون.

The sukoon/سُكون is the symbol ° which, as you can see, sort of looks like the symbol for “degrees” in English. In Arabic, the sukoon/سُكون represents an absence of the vowel on a letter.   

Also known jazm/(جَزم), sukoon/سُكون is a short letter case, and since letters with vowels cannot be read by themselves, they are read with vowel letters. The sukoon/سُكون means that the letter has no Harakaat/حَرَکَات above or below the letter, thus it is “still”. 

When you see the ° symbol, the letter assigned to it is called a saakin/ساكِن letter. saakin/ساكِن letters cannot start words and they can’t be read alone without a letter before them.

In today’s lesson, we will learn the meaning of sukoon/سُكون in Arabic and how to pronounce it.

The Meaning of Sukoon in English and Arabic

In English, sukoon/سُكون means “rest”, “motionless”, or “ease”. In Arabic, it is a vowelless diacritic or symbol that is used above the letter to show that there is no vowel, and does not really represent any sort of grammar. 

In other words, sukoon/سُكون is free from any Arabic vowel and remains unchanged when you stop and continue reading in written form and after.

Though it is a letter or combination of letters that is not pronounced at the beginning of a word, you can also find sukoon/سُكون in the middle or at the end of the word. Moreover, it also occurs in phrases and particles, but only at the end of a word. 

Finally, each one of the Arabic letters can have sukoon/سُكون and can be written with no vowels on them.

How to Pronounce SUKOON

Here is how to pronounce letters with sukoon/سُكون :

Position: when pronouncing sukoon/سُكون, your tongue should be kept in a neutral position.

Pause: After saying the sukoon/سُكون, pause for a second. Be sure the pause is a bit shorter than the pause for a saakin/ساكِن letter (non-vowel letter) followed by a consonant.

Breath Control: Once you pause, you want to maintain the reading flow so take a few breaths before going on to the next letter after sukoon/سُكون. 

Listen to the Professionals: Today, you’ll find many famous reciters of the Quran such as Mishary Rashid Alafasy, Sheikh Sudais, and Saud Shuraim who you can listen to and see how sukoon/سُكون is pronounced. Try to emulate what you hear and reproduce their style. 

Practice Makes Perfect: Of course, you don’t have to sound exactly like those who have mastered the art of Tajweed (the rules of reading the Qur’an). However, as they say, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it, so practice often to improve your Arabic speaking skills. 


Of course, there is more to sukoon than this, so keep checking back here on our blog for more. It’s all a part of helping you to learn Arabic the right way when you learn it with Kaleela.

And as always, if you want to learn more about Arab culture and the Arabic language, visit our website at kaleela.com, download the app, check out our blog, and join us on social media where there’s always something new to learn about Arabic.

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