Laam

Arabic /l/ — and the carrier of the definite article.

Sound

Laam is /l/, a voiced alveolar lateral — same sound as English l in love. Straightforward for English speakers; pronouncing it as you would in English will not introduce errors.

One narrow exception: in the word الله (Allaah), the laam is pronounced "darker" or "thicker," resembling an emphatic /lˤ/, when preceded by an /a/ or /u/. This is the only context in standard Arabic where laam is realized as emphatic, and it is never written any differently — the rule is implicit and applies only to that word.

The definite article in Arabic is الـ (al-), written with alif followed by laam. Because al- is the most common bound morpheme in the language, laam is one of the most frequent letters on the page.

Forms

Connecting behavior

Laam connects on both sides.

Laam has one special behavior worth knowing: when laam is followed by alif, the two letters fuse into the ligature لا (laam-alif). This is the only mandatory ligature in modern Arabic typography. It must be written as a single connected shape — writing the two letters separately is wrong. Laam-alif looks like a slanted V with the bottom point sitting on the baseline, and connects on the right (to whatever precedes the laam) but not on the left (alif is itself a non-connector to the left).

Easy to confuse with

Alif (ا). Both are tall vertical strokes. The difference is at the bottom: alif is a clean straight stroke ending on the baseline; laam (in isolated and final position) has a hook curling left below the baseline. Without the hook, the letter would read as alif.

Examples in common words

A note on handwriting

The hook at the bottom of isolated and final laam is its key marker. Without the hook, the body of the letter would read as alif. In handwriting, the depth and curl of the hook vary considerably, but it must be present. The laam-alif ligature is sometimes drawn as a near-vertical V, sometimes as a wide V — both are accepted.