Shedda and Doubled Consonants

Lesson objective

In this lesson, you will understand how doubled consonants change pronunciation and meaning.

What is a shedda?

In Arabic script, a symbol called a shedda shows that a consonant is doubled. In transcription, this is simply shown by writing the same character twice — and a doubled consonant must be pronounced longer than a single one.

Example 1

mra — meaning: woman. Here the letter r appears only once and is pronounced normally and briefly.

Example 2

mrra — meaning: time / one occasion (e.g. “I saw him one time”). Here the letter r appears twice, and the doubled r must be pronounced longer.

Why doubled consonants matter

mra and mrra are not the same word — they are written differently, pronounced differently, and mean different things.

For this reason, always pay close attention whenever the same transcription character appears twice.