Sukūn and shadda
The sukūn — a small circle meaning "no vowel here" — and the shadda, a small w that doubles its letter.
Sukūn: stop on the letter
A small circle above a letter — ـْ — means no vowel. You close the syllable on it: , not aba.
A letter with sukūn always leans on the syllable before it. That’s how Arabic makes closed syllables like bah-r or qal-b:
The grid pairs each letter with a vowel (left) and with a sukūn after a (right) so you can hear the difference:
Shadda: say it twice
A small w-shape above a letter — ـّ — doubles it. The first copy closes the syllable before, the second opens the next one: ḥam-mām, mu-ʿal-lim. Hold the consonant a moment longer.
The shadda still wears a vowel: fatḥa above it, kasra just under it (or under the letter), ḍamma above.
Notice how many of these Uzbek kept: hammom, muallim, do‘kon. The doubled consonant is why muallim has that long middle.
10 sounds. Listen, then pick what you heard — no reading the answer first.
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