Study Words

Challenge Words

1 Double consonants are often seen in words from Arabic. More often than not, they occur in the middle of a word as in mummy, cotton, and henna. When they are at the end of a word (albatross or tariff), this is usually because of the spelling conventions of English or some other language that the word passed through to get here.
2 A typical word in Arabic has three consonant sounds, with or without vowels between them: Gazelle, safari, talc, carafe, tahini, alkali, and hafiz are typical examples.
3 Note how many words on this list begin with al: This spelling can be traced to the definite article al ("the") in Arabic, which sometimes gets borrowed along with a word. Most of the time the spelling is al in English, but note el in elixir.
4 A long e sound (\ē\) at the end of an Arabic word is often spelled with i as in safari and other words in the list but may also be spelled with y as in alchemy.
5 The schwa sound (\ə\) at the end of an Arabic word is usually spelled with a as in henna, tuna, algebra, and alfalfa.