To be or not to be? Arabic simply said :bugs-no: to verb to be :gigachad-hd:

Yes, we don’t use verb to be (in the present tense).

 

In Arabic, we have two types of sentences:

If a sentence begins with a noun (or pronoun), that’s a nominal sentence.

If a sentence begins with a verb, that’s a verbal sentence.

 

Let’s talk about the nominal sentence. It refers to the present tense, and does not require verb to be. It consists of two parts:

مُبتَدَأ

mubtada’ the subject of a nominal sentence (literally means the noun that starts the sentence)

خَبَر

khabar the predicate of a nominal sentence “the comment”. The word also means a piece of news.  

Examples:

أَنتَ أَحمَد

You [are] Ahmad ‘anta ‘aHmad

 

عَلي سَعيد

Ali [is] happy عalii saعiid

 

 

Arabic doesn’t have an in

man manna min mannin munna min l-mannaan

 

Some natives might have trouble understanding it even with the diacritics

This   ّ   is called shadda, it's written above a consonant to indicate that it's doubled. What that actually means is that the consonant should be double the length in pronunciation, e.g.:

فَهَّم

fahham to explain (make someone understand), pronunciation

 

 

Here is a calligraphic writing of the tongue twister in [riq3a](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Let's talk a bit about the verb aspect of the root system:

Being a Semitic language, Arabic has a derivation system, whereby from a single root (defined as a three-letter combination), you can derive a whole array of related meanings. So from the root 3-l-m علم we get the verbs 3alim عَلِم (to know), 3allam عَلَّم (to teach), اَعلَم a3lam (to inform), ta3allama (to learn), ista3lam اِستَعلَم (to inquire).

Furthermore, the way each of these verbs is related to the basic root 3-l-m علم also helps with vocabulary acquisition. So whereas 3alima (to know) is the simple form verb, 3allama عَلَّم (to teach) is a 2nd form verb (the middle root letter ل l is doubled), and we use the 2nd form for causation. So literally 3allama عَلَّم means to cause someone to know, and therefore to teach. Similarly, ta3allam تَغَلَّم (to learn) is the 5th form, which is a reflexive of the 2nd form. So ta3allam literally means to cause yourself to know, and therefore to learn. And again ista3l

:meow-knit: DW natives use only one of them, which I think a lot of you already know :meow-coffee:

In this lesson we will learn about ’alif-hamza أ

We learned about the long vowel 'alif ا in our last lesson.

Now here is a fact: there are no words which begin with a vowel! :walter-shock:

Oh you think I’m talking about Arabic? Go ahead, pronounce 'our, if, it, up, I, on'. In English, the sound you make every time you say a word that begins with a vowel is not a vowel sound, it’s actually called a glottal stop. And the reason why you don't know this is because English has no letter for the glottal stop.

In Arabic, the hamza ء represents the glottal stop and, like other consonants, it can be a carrier of vowel sounds. You wanna practice the sound of a glottal stop? It’s the sound you make every time you say a word that begins with a vowel or the Cockney pronunciation of “little bottle” (pronounced without the t’s)

A glotta

I came across this answer on r/askhistorians:

The grandparent of Arabic script is the Aramaic alphabet (strictly speaking, it's an abjad rather than an alphabet, since it only has consonants). Surviving early examples of Aramaic are "blocky":

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stele_Salm_Louvre_AO5009.jpg

However, there are joined curvy versions of Aramaic script:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peshitta_(1).jpg

Many alphabets (and abjads) have two forms like this: a blocky form, often preferred for carved inscriptions, and a cursive (joined and often curly/curved) form often preferred for writing with a pen or brush. We see blocky and cursive forms of Greek:

Blocky

Cursive

[Cursive](https://commons.wikimedia.or

:meow-bug: Yalla, let's learn some Arabic :meow-coffee:

خَلف = خَ + ل + ف

This   َ   is a short vowel.

Arabic has 3 long vowels and 3 short counterparts.

:wtf-am-i-reading:

The letter خ "khaa' " is pronounced like the Scottish pronunciation of loch and German ch in Bach - where is the dot placed?

Remember, the ح sound is produced without the vocal cords vibrating and so it does NOT have a dot.

ل makes an l sound

The letter's name is لام laam

 

ف makes an f sound

The letter's name is فاء *faa' *

 

This short vowel   َ  

is called a fat7a فَتحة and it is just a short diagonal stroke, which is placed above the letter it follows, e.g. بَ ba (remember, ب is b)

 

The fat7a   َ   , transliterated as a, is pronounced like the a in 'pat' or 'fat'.

So if you have a "meem" م (m sound) and you write a fat7a   َ   above the م it will look like

Marhaba

So I wanna do it again!

I have my own course material, and ofc I make sure to adapt the lessons and study plan to my student’s interests and pace. I try to incorporate Comprehensible Input as much as possible. I believe language learning has to be fun, engaging, and things have to make sense. An

:party-blob: Yalla, let's learn some Arabic :party-blob:

The letter ع is a tricky one because it is foreign to English and all European languages.

The letter’s name is عَين (عayn) which also means ‘eye’.

It is produced from the middle section of the throat by restricting the flow of air. You should be able to feel the muscles contract when you put your hand on your throat. In a way, it is the voiced counterpart of ح i.e. the vocal cords vibrate.

If you practice enough, you will be able to pronounce عarab, عumar(Omar) and عalii (Ali) correctly.

The ع is NOT a vowel.

 

By looking at all the forms, is it clear which is the core and which is the tail?

What is going on with the medial and final shapes you ask? It’s written this way so we don’t take the pen off the paper, which is an important consideration when

:meow-fiesta: Let's learn some Arabic :meow-fiesta:

There are 28 letters in the Arabic alphabet. It’s written from right to left in cursive. There are no capital letters in Arabic.

أ ب ت ث ج ح خ د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ك ل م ن هـ و ي

 

Arabic letters have slightly different shapes depending on where they are in a word i.e. whether they stand alone or are connected to a following or preceding letter or both. We write in cursive which means we need to connect the letters, so they obviously have to adapt to their position in the word. Dw, it all makes sense, and is standardized.

Let’s take the letter "meem" م (m sound) as an example. In its independent (isolated) form it is made of a small circle, a small stroke to the left then a long downward stroke م. Now, when we wanna connect it to a letter after it, it would be quite inconvenient to do the long downward stroke then go all the way up to where the next letter starts :think-about-it: . That’s why

That is the letter ت, pronounced same as t

 

There are 2 other letters that look exactly the same except for the dots, here is how to tell the three apart:

 

The ‫(b sound) ب‬ has the dot below its shell

The word “below” starts with the sound b.

Transliterated as b

 

The ‫ (t sound) ت‬ has two dots above its shell

The word “two” starts with the sound t.

Transliterated as t

 

The ث (th sound) has three dots above its shel

I've heard a lot of praise for it here and elsewhere, and I looked into it myself before. The praise is actually why I had seriously considered the method, their subreddit is full of success stories and people who absolutely believe in the method. Anyway, I was telling a friend about DS the other day and she was shocked when I said DS recommends at least 600 hours of input before you even start to speak. So it made me think yeah maybe DS is not an efficient method, then I found this thread

Is Dreaming Spanish massively inefficient?

I am convinced that a mixed approach to language learning, one that incorporates Comprehensible Input early on, is probably better than pure Comprehensible Input. Of course DS is a great source for graded listening material, no doubt. I wish something even remotely similar to DS existed for Arabic.