Noorani Qaida Lesson 6: Standing Fatha, Standing Kasra and Inverted Damma

What does lesson 6 teach?

In lesson 4 the child learned three short vowels, each lasting one quick beat. Lesson 6 adds three long vowels. They look like the short marks, but they are standing upright (or turned over), and they are held for two counts. In the Urdu names used in many homes, the short marks are zabar, zer and pesh, and the long ones are khari ("standing") zabar, khari zer and ulta ("upside-down") pesh.

No extra letter is written. The mark itself tells the reader to stretch the sound, so a child should not look for an Alif, Waw or Yaa. (When those letters are written, that is lesson 7.)

Practice table: short and long side by side

Read across each row. The best way to hear the difference is to say the short vowel in one beat and the long vowel in two beats.

Printed Qaida editions draw these marks slightly differently. Follow the edition your teacher uses; the sounds are the same.

Standing fatha in the Quran

The standing fatha is common in the Quran, and you already know several words that use it from Surah Al-Fatiha. These come directly from the Tanzil Uthmani text:

The long "oo" and "ee" sounds on a pronoun appear in the Madinah-style Quran as a small Waw or Yaa written after the Haa: لَّهُۥ (lahoo, 112:4) and بِهِۦ (bihee, 78:15). Qaida editions printed in South Asia usually show the same sounds with the inverted damma and the standing kasra. Do not worry about the difference now; your teacher will show which style your Quran uses.

How long is two counts?

Teachers measure length in counts (harakat). One count is about the time it takes to fold or open one finger. A short vowel is one count, a long vowel is two. Tap two fingers slowly while saying "baa": the sound should start when the first finger moves and end with the second. Two counts is not very long: stretching to four or six is a different rule, taught later.

Common mistakes in lesson 6

1. Cutting it short. Reading بٰ as "ba". The child must hear the difference between بَ and بٰ.
2. Stretching too much. "Baaaaa" is as wrong as "ba". Two steady counts, no more.
3. Changing the vowel while stretching. The sound must stay the same from start to end ("ee" must not turn into "ay").
4. Mixing standing fatha with fathatan. Fathatan has two marks and ends in "n" (lesson 5). The standing fatha is one upright mark with no "n".
5. Losing the heavy letters. ص, ط and ق stay full and deep even when long.

A two-week plan

• Days 1-4: standing fatha only. Say short, then long, for each letter in the table.
• Days 5-8: add the standing kasra, then the inverted damma.
• Days 9-12: read the table in random order and mix all six vowels.
• Days 13-14: read the four Fatiha words above, then go on to lesson 7.

Ten to fifteen minutes a day is enough. A teacher who hears the length of every vowel makes this lesson much quicker: see our Noorani Qaida course or book a free trial. You can also follow the whole series on the Noorani Qaida lessons page.