Arabic letters are consonants and they don’t read on its own. The letters are spoken by the following signs on the top or bottom. We call this signs as harakat which means movement.
There are three harakat; fatha, kasrah, and damma.

The Fatha sign is a small line placed above a letter. The Fatha enables the letter to produce the soft letters (blue boxes) with a short “a” sound except ع – ر – ح.

If the Fatha sign on the gruff letters (green boxes) produce a slightly more “o” sound.

The Kasrah sign is a small line placed below a letter. The Kasrah gives the “ee” sound as in “deed” to the letter that it accompanies and if the letter is a soft letter (blue boxes) it reads light and if it is a gruff letter (green boxes)that it accompanies it gives a thicker “e” sound as in “soccer”.

The Dammah sign is a small curl placed above a letter and it enables the letter to produce a short “u” sound.

The sign on the letters produce the soft letters (blue boxes) with an “u” sound like juice, Tunusia, june. The gruff letters (green boxes) produce a slightly more “o” sound like Quran, root.