When chatting online Arabs often use the Latin letters to write in Arabic instead of the Arabic alphabet. And, because certain sounds in the Arabic alphabet don’t have a counterpart in Western languages, there are a number of symbols used to represent these special sounds.
So don’t be surprised to see numerals such as 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 being used online – these numbers represent distinct sounds in the Arabic language. For instance تحكي عربي؟, or “do you speak Arabic?” becomes “ta7ki 3arabi?”.
Below is a table that summarizes how the numbers are used to replace certain Arabic sounds. I also suggest some mnemonics for how to remember which number corresponds with which letter.
| Arabic Letter | Transcription | Comments |
| ح | 7 | the letter Haa’ looks quite similar to a 7 |
| خ | 5, 7’ | the apostrophe represents the dot on the letter khaa’; alternatively the numeral <5> is used |
| ص | 9 | imagine a <9> lying on the side, in which case the numeral looks very similar to the letter Saad |
| ض | 9, 9’ | the apostrophe represents the dot on the letter Daad |
| ط | 6 | the shape of the numeral <6> is not too different from the shape of the letter Taa’ |
| ظ | 6, 6’ | the apostrophe represents the dot of the letter Zaa’ |
| ع | 3 | the letter ‘ayn looks like a mirrored <3> |
| غ | 3’ | the apostrophe represents the dot on the letter ghayn |
| ق | 8 | imagine that the two dots of the letter qaaf closed the top, which would result in an eight lying on its side |
Update: See my new article on the Arabic chat alphabet where I dissect two sample sentences and translate them into normal Arabic script.
