The letter Nun

نُون

Where it comes from

All 17 points

The tongue tip, with the nose طرف اللسان

The tip of the tongue touches the gums just above the front teeth, a little forward of lām, while the sound runs out through the nose.

Nūn also sounds in the nose — that hum is the ghunnah.

How to write it

The isolated form, shown as one common way to write it — Arabic stroke order is not fixed as rigidly as it is in some scripts.

12
  1. Stroke 1 of 2: part of the letter's body.
  2. Stroke 2 of 2: a dot, added after the body is finished.

All four forms

نIsolated
ن‍Initial
‍ن‍Medial
‍نFinal

The short gold marks show which sides the letter joins to its neighbours.

Nun connects on both sides, so it has all four forms.

Same shape, different dots

Joined inside a word these are written identically — only the dots tell them apart. Their isolated forms differ, which is why the alphabet separates them.

In a word

Isolated

قُرْآنٌ

qur'aan

Quran

Initial

نَ‍‍عْبُدُ

na'bud

we worship

Medial

بِ‍‍نْ‍‍ت

bint

daughter

Final

دِي‍‍نِ

deen

religion

In the Quran

IsolatedAl-Baqarah 2:185

شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِي أُنْزِلَ فِيهِ الْقُرْآنُ

سورة البقرة

InitialAl-Fatiha 1:5

إِيَّاكَ نَ‍‍عْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ

سورة الفاتحة

MedialAl-Bayyinah 98:8

رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَ‍‍نْ‍‍هُمْ وَرَضُوا عَنْهُ

سورة البينة

FinalAl-Kafirun 109:6

لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَ دِي‍‍نِ

سورة الكافرون

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