Arabic Transliteration Converter

Paste fully vocalized Arabic and get accurate Latin letters instantly — in the academic ALA-LC style (kitāb, ḥarf) or an easy ASCII scheme (kitaab, harf). Free, instant, and private: the rule engine runs in your browser.

Scheme:
Transliteration appears here as you type — nothing leaves your browser.

Worked examples

ArabicAcademicEasy ASCII
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِbismi Allāhi ar-Raḥmāni ar-raḥīmibismi Allaahi ar-Rahmaani ar-rahiimi
اَلْكِتَابُ الْجَدِيدُal-kitābu al-jadīdual-kitaabu al-jadiidu
وَالشَّمْسُ وَالْقَمَرُwa-ash-shamsu wa-al-qamaruwa-ash-shamsu wa-al-qamaru
مَدْرَسَةٌ كَبِيرَةٌmadrasatun kabīratunmadrasatun kabiiratun
أَهْلًا وَسَهْلًاahlan wasahlanahlan wasahlan
اِسْتَغْفَرَ يَسْتَغْفِرُistaghfara yastaghfiruistaghfara yastaghfiru

Every example above is produced by the converter itself at render time — what you see is exactly what the tool outputs.

The letters that differ between schemes

Most Arabic consonants map to the same Latin letters in both schemes (b, t, d, r, s…). These are the ones that differ — the academic scheme keeps the standard dots-and-macrons symbols, the easy scheme folds them to plain ASCII:

LetterAcademicEasy ASCII
ثthth
جjj
حḥh
خkhkh
ذdhdh
شshsh
صṣs
ضḍd
طṭt
ظẓz
عʿ'
غghgh
قqq
ءʾ'
ـَا / ـِي / ـُوā / ī / ūaa / ii / uu

Rules the converter applies

Frequently asked questions

What is Arabic transliteration?
Transliteration writes Arabic words with Latin letters so learners can read them before they are fluent in the Arabic script — e.g. كِتَاب becomes kitāb (academic) or kitaab (easy ASCII).
What scheme does the academic output follow?
A learner-friendly ALA-LC-style scheme: ḥ ṣ ḍ ṭ ẓ for emphatic letters, ā ī ū for long vowels, ʿ for ʿayn and ʾ for hamza, with sun-letter assimilation (الشَّمْس → ash-shams) and word-initial hamza left unwritten (أَنْتَ → anta).
Does the text need harakat (vowel marks)?
Yes — accurate transliteration needs fully vocalized text, because short vowels are not written in plain Arabic. Words without any harakat fall back to their consonant skeleton. If your text has no harakat, our OCR can add them automatically.
Is this tool free?
Yes. The converter is a deterministic rule engine that runs entirely in your browser — no sign-up, no usage limits, and your text is never uploaded.
How are shadda and tā marbūṭa handled?
A shadda doubles the consonant (مُدَرِّس → mudarris). Tā marbūṭa becomes t before a case vowel (مَدْرَسَةٌ → madrasatun) and a when the word is read in pausal form (مَدْرَسَة → madrasa).

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