Alif vs. Hamza — What's the Difference?

The first letter of the Arabic alphabet: tr=ʔalif.

Hamza (Arabic: همزة‎, hamzah) (ء) is a letter in the Arabic alphabet, representing the glottal stop [ʔ]. Hamza is not one of the 28 "full" letters and owes its existence to historical inconsistencies in the standard writing system.

A sign in Arabic orthography used to represent the sound of a glottal stop, transliterated in English as an apostrophe.

A sign (ء{{LR}} - a stand-alone hamza) used in the written Arabic language representing a glottal stop. Hamza may appear as a stand-alone letter or most commonly diacritically over or under other letters, e.g. أ{{LR}} (over an alif - ا{{LR}}), إ{{LR}} (under an alif), ؤ{{LR}} (over a wāw - و{{LR}}) or ئ{{LR}} (over a dotless yāʾ - ى{{LR}}). The exact seat of hamza is governed by an orthographic rule - "seat of hamza rule".