How to Transliterate Latin Script to Arabic: Complete Guide

If you've ever typed "marhaba", "3aysh", or "7abibi" to represent Arabic text on a Latin keyboard, you've already been using Arabizi — the informal romanization system that hundreds of millions of Arabic speakers use every day. This guide gives you the full picture: every character mapping, the logic behind the number substitutions, and the context rules that determine which Arabic letter a given sequence actually represents.

What Arabizi Is and Why It Works the Way It Does

Arabizi (also called Franco-Arabic or chat Arabic) isn't a random system — it has an internal logic. Most Latin-to-Arabic character mappings are phonetically obvious: "b" is ب, "m" is م, "n" is ن. The challenge arises with Arabic sounds that simply don't exist in English or other Latin-alphabet languages.

For these sounds, Arabic speakers in the 1990s devised a clever workaround: use numbers whose visual shapes resemble the corresponding Arabic letters. The numeral 3 looks like a backwards ع (ain). The numeral 7 is said to resemble ح (ha). The numeral 9 resembles ق (qaf). This is why the system is sometimes called "3arabizi" — the word "Arabic" in Arabizi, starting with 3 for the ع sound.

The Complete Latin-to-Arabic Character Table

Here is the full reference mapping. For letters with multiple possible Arabic renderings, the most common is listed first:

Arabizi	Arabic letter	Name	Example word
a	ا / أ	Alef / Alef with hamza	ana = أنا (I/me)
b	ب	Ba	beit = بيت (house)
t	ت / ط	Ta / emphatic Ta	tayyib = طيب (good); ta3am = طعام (food)
th	ث / ذ	Tha / Dhal	thalatha = ثلاثة (three); dhalika = ذلك (that)
j	ج	Jim	jamal = جمال (beauty)
7	ح	Ha (heavy) — no Latin equivalent	7abibi = حبيبي (my beloved)
kh or 5	خ	Kha — like German "Bach"	khobar = خبر (news)
d	د / ض	Dal / emphatic Dad	dar = دار (house); da7ek = ضاحك (laughing)
r	ر	Ra	rabi3 = ربيع (spring)
z	ز	Zay	zamaan = زمان (time)
s	س / ص	Sin / emphatic Sad	salaam = سلام (peace); sabr = صبر (patience)
sh	ش	Shin	shams = شمس (sun)
3	ع	Ain — no Latin equivalent	3ein = عين (eye)
gh	غ	Ghain — voiced Kha	ghali = غالي (precious)
f	ف	Fa	fajr = فجر (dawn)
9 or q	ق	Qaf — deep k sound	9alb = قلب (heart)
k	ك	Kaf	kitab = كتاب (book)
l	ل	Lam	layl = ليل (night)
m	م	Mim	mawater = ماء (water)
n	ن	Nun	noor = نور (light)
h	ه / ح	Ha (soft) / Ha (heavy)	hawa = هوى (air); h7 = no — use 7 for ح
w	و	Waw	ward = ورد (roses)
y	ي	Ya	yom = يوم (day)
2	ء / أ / إ	Hamza (glottal stop)	2anta = أنت (you); 2akl = أكل (food)

Context Changes Everything

The table above gives you the defaults — but Arabic phonology is contextual. Several mappings depend on the word, its root, or surrounding letters. Here are the most important cases where context determines the correct Arabic character:

• "t" — ت vs ط: In most common words "t" maps to ت. However, words from roots associated with emphasis (words relating to food, strength, ground) often use ط. For example, "tareeq" (road) = طريق, not تريق. Without knowing the root, a rule-based tool can't make this call correctly.
• "s" — س vs ص: "s" is almost always س in everyday Arabizi. But in words like "sabr" (patience = صبر) or "sawt" (sound = صوت), the emphatic ص is correct. Arabic speakers who know the word will naturally write the right form, but automated tools often miss this.
• "d" — د vs ض: Standard "d" is usually د. The emphatic ض appears in words like "da7k" (laughter = ضحك) and "dar" in some dialects. Context — specifically root knowledge — is required.
• "h" at start of word — ه vs ح: When "h" starts a word and is clearly a soft aspirated sound (like English "h"), it's ه. When it's the deep pharyngeal ha sound, use "7" instead. The distinction is clear to speakers but ambiguous in Arabizi without dialect markers.

Step-by-Step: Transliterating a Sentence

Let's walk through a complete example: "ana b7ebak ktir" (أنا بحبك كتير) — "I love you very much" in Levantine Arabic.

The Most Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Using "h" when "7" is correct: "habibi" typed with a regular h produces هبيبي — wrong. The correct form is "7abibi" = حبيبي. When in doubt about whether it's the deep ح sound, use the number 7.
• Skipping emphasis: Writing "tayyib" as ت when it should be ط. This is the most common error in manual transliteration. AI handles this by recognizing the word in context.
• Omitting vowels entirely: Arabizi often omits short vowels, which can create ambiguity. "ktb" could be kataba (he wrote), kitab (book), or kutub (books). When clarity matters, add the vowels: "katab", "kitab", "kutub".
• Mixing dialect spellings: "shu bedak?" (Levantine) and "eih illi 3awzoh?" (Egyptian) have different dialectal spellings for the same question. Don't mix conventions in the same text.

When to Use a Tool Instead of Doing It Manually

Manual transliteration works for short, well-known phrases. But it becomes error-prone and time-consuming at scale. An AI-powered tool like Omlyar handles the full mapping automatically — including the context-dependent cases that rule-based tools get wrong. It processes full sentences, recognizes dialect patterns, and produces output that a native speaker would actually write.

The best workflow: type your Arabizi naturally, exactly as you would in a message, and let the tool handle the script conversion. You get accurate Arabic output in seconds, without needing to know every rule in this guide.

Putting It All Together

Arabizi follows a consistent internal logic once you understand the number system and the concept of emphatic letters. The system maps Arabic sounds to available Latin characters as closely as possible, with numbers covering the sounds that Latin simply can't represent. Context — dialect, root, word position — determines which Arabic letter is correct when multiple options exist.

For everyday use, the character table in this guide covers the vast majority of what you'll encounter. For the context-dependent cases, an AI-powered transliterator fills in what rules alone cannot.