Franco-Arabic Converter

Turn 3arabizi into real Arabic script, and back, with the full digit map and its honest limits.

Franco-Arabic, also called Arabizi or 3arabizi, is Arabic written with Latin letters and numbers: 2 for ء, 3 for ع, 5 for خ, 6 for ط, 7 for ح, 8 for ق, 9 for ص. It grew up in the 1990s when phones and computers did not support Arabic script, and it is still the everyday writing of millions of chats. This converter turns Arabizi into Arabic script and back. Short vowels are the hard part, so the converter matches common words whole (salam becomes سلام, not سلم) and converts the rest letter by letter: check the result for words where a short vowel should be a long one.

Arabizi text

Arabic script

Direction

Arabic to Arabizi vowels

Digit	Arabic letter	Sound	Example
2	ء	Hamza, glottal stop	so2al (سؤال, question)
3	ع	Ayn	3ayn (عين, eye)
3'	غ	Ghayn	3'aym (غيم, cloud)
5	خ	Kha	5aled (خالد, Khalid)
6	ط	Emphatic t	6areeq (طريق, road)
6'	ظ	Emphatic z	6'alem (ظالم, unjust)
7	ح	Haa	7abeeb (حبيب, beloved)
7'	خ	Kha, second spelling	7'aled (خالد, Khalid)
8	ق	Qaf	8alb (قلب, heart)
9	ص	Emphatic s	9aba7 (صباح, morning)
9'	ض	Emphatic d	9'aw2 (ضوء, light)

Two honest limits. First, 8 is used for ق in most regions, but some writers use 8 for غ: this converter reads 8 as ق and غ as gh or 3', and says so here so a غ written as 8 will mistranslate. Second, real numbers in a chat (a price, a year) look identical to digit letters, so a year like 2024 will convert into letters: re-check any real numbers in the output. Dialects differ too: Egyptians write ج as g, Levantines as j, and Moroccans use different vowels, so one converter cannot match every region.

Where Arabizi came from, and why the digits look like the letters

Arabizi appeared in the 1990s, when pagers, early mobile phones and chat rooms could not display Arabic script. Young Arabic speakers improvised: Latin letters for the sounds English has, and digits for the sounds it does not. The digits were picked by shape. 3 mirrors ع, 7 mirrors ح, 5 stands for خ in Egypt, 2 marks the hamza stop, 9 mirrors ص. The system was never standardized, which is why it varies by region and by person, and why any converter must show its mapping table instead of hiding it.

The letters with no English equivalent are the whole reason the digits exist. ع, غ, ح, خ, ص, ض, ط and ظ have no Latin letter, so each got a digit or a digraph: sh for ش, kh for خ, gh for غ, th for ث, dh for ذ. Everything else maps straight: b for ب, t for ت, j or g for ج, k for ك, m for م, n for ن. The converter on this page follows that common mapping, with primed digits (3', 6', 9', 7') for the second member of each emphatic pair.

Why whole words are matched first

Letter rules alone mangle the commonest words. A pure letter converter turns salam into سلم, because the middle a is a long vowel that letter rules drop. Matching frequent words whole first (salam to سلام, mar7aba to مرحبا, shukran to شكرا, 3ayez to عايز) fixes the words people type most, and letter rules handle the rest.

Going back loses the short vowels

Arabic script does not write short vowels, so the strict reverse of سلام is slam, not salam. The readable reverse mode adds an a between consonants (salam, mar7aba, 3andi) so the output reads like chat. It is an approximation: real chat vowels vary, so treat the reverse output as a draft to adjust, not a transcript.

Frequently Asked Questions

Arabic written with Latin letters and numbers, used since the 1990s when devices did not support Arabic script. Digits stand for sounds with no Latin letter: 2 for ء, 3 for ع, 5 for خ, 6 for ط, 7 for ح, 8 for ق, 9 for ص, with primed forms 3', 6', 9' and 7' for غ, ظ, ض and خ.

Because this converter matches frequent words whole before applying letter rules. Letter rules drop single short vowels, and the middle a in salam is a long vowel, so a pure letter converter outputs سلم. Whole-word matching fixes the words people type most.

Most regions use 8 for ق, and this converter does the same, with غ written as gh or 3'. Some writers use 8 for غ instead, so a غ written as 8 will mistranslate here. Dialect variation is the reason the mapping table is printed on the page.

Because digit letters and real numbers look identical. A year like 2024 or a price like 50 will convert as if it were letters. Re-check any real numbers in the output and restore them by hand.

Arabic script does not write short vowels, so the strict reverse drops them. Use the readable mode, which adds an a between consonants, for chat-style output, and adjust the vowels yourself where they differ.

No. It converts the script only, from Arabizi letters to Arabic letters and back. It does not translate Arabic into English or any other language.