It takes a while for me to read a word. Sometimes I'm faster than other times. I have an Arabic keyboard on my phone as well 

Example:

- هَتَفَ (pronounced '<em>hatafa</em>', this verb means 'to call')

- هَاتِف (pronounced '<em>haatif</em>', take a wild guess as to what this word means. Yep, a telephone!)

I apologise if my explanation was long-winded; here is my ultimate point: through exposure and occassional contemplation, Arabic word/sentence structure will eventually resonate with you so well that identifying the correct pronounciation of words you don't know will become second nature, completely burnt into your subconscious. If you find my comment confusing, forget about it for the time being; my only intent was to explain how things will work out <em>eventually</em>. Until then, study your vocab and you should be more than fine!

Also, screw italki's character limit!

- وَهَبَ (pronounced <em>wahaba), </em>this verb means 'to bestow upon, to endow with, to donate, to grant, etc.'

- بَحَثَ (pronounced <em>bahatha), </em>this verb means 'to search, to seek, to research, etc.

- ثَبَتَ (pronounced <em>thabata), </em>this verb means 'to stand firm, to be fixed, etc.

- وَجَبَ (pronounced <em>wajaba), </em>this verb means 'to become necessary/mandatory'

Notice how these (past tense) verbs seem to follow a consonant-<em>fat-ha</em>-consonant-<em>fat-ha</em>-consonant-<em>fat-ha</em> pattern. Good news: most of past tense verbs do.

You will likely develop a habit pronouncing three-letter words that seem like verbs with three fat-has and you would not be wrong most of the time. In time, you will come to understand the Arabic sentence structure well enough to spot three letter words that are not verbs, which probably means that they will not be pronounced with three <em>fat-has</em>.

Take one final look at the four example words I have used above, then proceed to read the example words below (I am sure you will get my point soon enough):

Hi Heather!

The case you have brought up is extermely natural. It is not uncommon, even for native Arabic speakers, to mispronounce a word when they read it for the first time. Think of this as a similar case to English's lack of concrete pronunciation rules. Yet, encounter a word twice or thrice, and you have its correct pronunciation down for life!

Through the centuries of development that the Arabic writing system went through, short vowels have come to be implied instead of being explicitly written. The main driving motive for that was to boost the speed of writing; marking each letter with its correct short vowel can possibily double the amount of time needed to write any given Arabic text. Short vowels are still retained in the Holy Qur'an, Classical Literature, books that teach Arabic or to avoid ambiguity between two identically spelled words that have different short vowels. Outside from these instances, short vowels find very occasional use. What is the poor reader to do then without these cues?

This issue can be greatly mitigated with practice. Little by little, you will start noticing some recurring pronunciation patterns. Allow me to explain using words that only use letters you have learned (try to read them in Arabic!):

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I have been studying Arabic for almost three years.  I still cannot compose great sentences, but the actually writing is quite easy.  The Arabic keyboard is easier to memorize than QWERTY, and the iPhone keyboard is even easier.  Those from Arabic countries have no problem reading my written Arabic because i write what looks like a printed page.  I did have a problem attempting to write a word such as جرائد.  i could write the word on paper and read it with no problem.  It is trivial on the iPhone, but on many keyboards, I just couldn't believe that typing ئ would give me the correct character once I added the د