Listen for these sounds

• Al-‘asr contains ‘ayn followed by emphatic sad. Do not replace ‘ayn with a plain vowel.
• Inna has a doubled nun with a nasal sound. Listen for how the reciter continues into al-insan.
• Khusr begins with kha, not the English k sound. Avoid adding a vowel between its final consonants when stopping.
• Ladhina contains dhal; salihat contains emphatic sad and throat ha. Practise the sounds in their full words.
• The two tawasaw phrases look similar. Say bil-haqqi first and bis-sabr last, following the ayah’s order.
• Haqq has a doubled qaf. Follow the reciter for the endings of ‘asr, khusr and sabr when stopping.

Get a useful correction

Repeat a difficult word, then the complete ayah. Ask a competent Quran teacher to check your sounds, vowel lengths, joining and stopping. A written transliteration cannot provide that check. Correct one sound at a time and keep the session calm.