Short vowels, sukūn and shadda in Arabic

What’s inside

• The small stroke ABOVE a letter is the fatḥa. How do you read بَ?
• The small stroke BELOW a letter is the kasra. How do you read بِ?
• The small loop above, like a mini wāw, is the ḍamma. How do you read بُ?
• Put the syllables in order to read ka-ta-ba (“he wrote”).
• How do you read سُ?
• The small circle above a letter, as in بْ, is the sukūn. What does it mean?
• How do you read the word مِنْ (“from”)?
• In أُمٌّ (“a mother”), the small “w”-shaped mark on م is the shadda. What does it do?