Writing the Haa# حاء

The basic shape of the letter Haa# حاء is a crocodile mouth. The mouth should be one and a half grid squares wide, maybe two. The upper jaw can be straight or slightly wavy, and may be level or lean to the right.

When this letter is last in the word, the lower jaw lengthens and turns down, forming a big tail (like the tail of the ع). When it's not last, the lower jaw becomes slightly S-shaped and joins the next letter.

First draw, in pencil, two dots on the baseline, one square and a half apart.

Add two further dots one square over them (or slightly lower).

Then draw the crocodile's mouth. Note that the corner is halfway between the two dots at right. It's definitely NOT at the lower right dot.

To join the crocodile mouth to the next letter, first draw these three lines in pencil. This actually can be read, but the second corner is ugly.

Draw over the lines with a marker, smoothing the second corner, and that's it.

the Haa# حاء S Tail

Draw these lines in pencil. The arrow shows in which direction the tail must take off.

Draw with the marker a straight first stroke, then an uppercase C covering the other pencil strokes. Unlike when drawing a Roman C, the marker should not stop where the arrow is, but should take off there.

Newbies always draw too small a tail, that's why I told you to use pencil strokes at the beginning. The tail should be big enough to contain a full grid square, or a two-squares-high #alif ألف.

Copyright (c) 2001-2009 Jordi Mas Trullenque.
email: jordimastrullenque at gmail dot com
http://purl.oclc.org/net/arabe/escribir_h.en.html
Last revised: 2006-05-05

Joining a Letter to a Following Haa# حاء

letter Haa# حاء

writing_arabic -> alphabet -> Writing the Haa#