Tanwīn: fatḥatān, kasratān and ḍammatān

Each of the three short vowels of lesson 9 can also be written twice. The doubled mark is called tanwīn, and it has a name of its own for each vowel: fatḥatān, kasratān and ḍammatān. A tanwīn marks an ending said with an n sound, though no nūn is written. It is written only at the end of a word, and in this text it stands nowhere else.

The marks

Three marks for three vowels

• Fatḥatān is two fatḥahs, one above the other, above the letter.
• Kasratān is two kasrahs, one below the other, beneath the letter.
• Ḍammatān is two ḍammahs above the letter. Many typefaces draw them as one ḍammah with a small tail.

How an ending with a tanwīn is recited is taught in the library's Tajwīd title. This lesson teaches only how to see the mark.

The alif after fatḥatān

In this print the fatḥatān is written on the last letter that carries a mark, and an alif is written after it. That alif carries no mark: it is part of the spelling of the ending, not a letter with a vowel of its own. In some words the letter written after the fatḥatān is instead alif maqṣūrah, the dotless shape of yā’ that lesson 16 teaches. Two kinds of word take no alif: a word that ends in tā’ marbūṭah, a form of tā’ that lesson 16 teaches, and a word that ends in a hamzah standing after an alif. After a kasratān or a ḍammatān no alif is added, apart from three words of the muṣḥaf's own spelling, where a ḍammatān is followed by an alif carrying a small circle, a sign of lesson 19.

Sometimes the muṣḥaf writes a small mīm above or below a tanwīn. It is one of the muṣḥaf's own signs, taught in lesson 19, and the Tajwīd title explains it.

In the Qur’ān

The fourth word of this verse ends with a dāl that carries a fatḥatān, and an alif after it with nothing on it.

In this verse every alif is picked out. Six are picked out, and two of them stand after a fatḥatān at the end of a word, carrying nothing: the alif of the fourth word, and the last alif of the sixth. The other four write long vowels, which the next lesson teaches.

A kasratān, beneath the last letter of a word.

A ḍammatān, above the last letter of a word.

Recall

• Where in a word is a tanwīn written?
• Which of the three marks is followed by an alif in this print?
• Which two kinds of word take no alif after a fatḥatān?

Answers: at the end; fatḥatān; a word ending in tā’ marbūṭah, and a word ending in a hamzah that stands after an alif.

Next

The next lesson teaches the long vowels, written with alif, wāw and yā’, and the small alif the muṣḥaf writes where no alif is.