If you learned to read without a teacher listening, these are the errors most likely to have settled in — and all five are quicker to fix than you think.
Reading the heavy letters lightly
The letters sad, dad, ta, za, qaf, ghayn and kha are produced with the back of the tongue raised. Read lightly, they collapse into their thin counterparts — and sad becomes seen, which changes the word.
Cutting the madd short
A natural prolongation is held for two counts, consistently. Under-holding it is the most common fault we hear in a first assessment, usually because the reader is moving at a pace set by memory rather than by the text.
Stopping wherever the breath runs out
Waqf rules exist because stopping in the wrong place can distort meaning. Look ahead to the next permissible stop and decide before you begin the phrase.
Merging where you should be clear
Idgham, ikhfa, iqlab and izhar are usually learned as a table and then never applied. Drill them in isolation, then in verses you know by heart, and only then in unfamiliar passages.
Reading the shaddah as a single letter
A shaddah doubles the letter. Read as one, the word is simply a different word — common among readers who learned by imitating recordings.
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