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III Writing Practice III Quiz IV Writing Practice IV Quiz V Writing Practice V Comprehensive Quiz Comprehensive Writing

The Alphabet

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Alif, ,at the beginning of a word represents a short vowel sound (a, i, or u), a long i, or an ay sound. Alif madda, ,is used when a sustained 'a' sound occurs at the beginning of a word. The next character has two forms. The joined form, , is used when the character is followed by another character. The full form, ,is used when that character appears by itself or at the end of a word. Remember that Arabic is read from right to left. Arabic characters should be written form right to left as well.

Most Arabic characters both joined and full forms. Here are some more characters with both forms.

Alif in the middle of a word represents a more sustained 'a' sound. Short vowels aren't represented by a letter when they appear inside a word. Alif is one of the few letters that joins with letters that precede it. It never joins with a letter that follows it. Quiz I - Writing Practice I Some of the following characters have both full and joined forms. Others just have one form. The first letter, ,is pronounced as a j everywhere except in Eygpt where it is pronounced with a hard g.

Quiz II - Writing Practice II

Quiz III - Writing Practice III

and have four forms. One form is used when the letter starts a word, one when joined with both the preceding and following character, another when at the end of a word and joined to the preceding character, and finally a form used when it isn't joined with another character.

When lam, ,and alif join, the two twist together, forming a special character- . Quiz IV - Writing Practice IV

,like and ,has four forms.

In middle of a word, wow can represent the long vowel u or the vowel combination ou, ow, or w and at the end of a word, the long vowel u and sometimes ow.

The joined form of ya, ,is another example of a tooth. Ya is pronounced as the consonant y at the beginning of a sentence, long i, in the middle, and long i at the end. Quiz V - Writing Practice V

Comprehensive Quiz - Comprehensive Writing Practice

Home | Welcome! | Contact us | Newsletter | Donations | Volunteer | Preferences | Help father needle land August Sorry house building road or path door crown protester greetings heavy traces one third new newspaper stairs animal ocean happiness good post peach store school glory corn shoe delicious spring cat monastery thyme rice

symbol peace painter president sun diner feather difficult bullet frail frog flood homework table potato duck funny clean luck eye spoon street expensive song eloquent knight bird light moon poverty east chair fish cake toy box mountain office word pain tiger year horse wind cradle god agent tall bailer fountain

april costume Home > Arabic > Grammar help? Introduction Nouns Verbs Pronouns I, Questions The Definite Article Arabic verb forms change depending on the subject. Adjectives Dual Nouns, Pronouns These different verb forms are called conjugations. Plural Nouns, Pronouns (to talk / to speak) Possession Speak We speak. I speak.
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You (pl.m.) speak You (pl.f.) speak They (pl.m.) speaks. They (pl.f.) speaks.

You (sg.m.) speak. You (sg.f.) speak.

He speaks. She speaks.

Here are the dual forms.. They (du.m.) speaks. They (du.f.) speaks. You (du.m.) speak You (du.m.) speak

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He speaks French and Italian.

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German Russian Japanese Home | Welcome! | Contact us | Newsletter | Donations | Volunteer | Preferences | Help Home > Arabic > Grammar help? Introduction Nouns Pronouns Pronouns I, Questions The Definite Article Adjectives Dual Nouns, Pronouns Plural Nouns, Pronouns Possession Speak
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I you (singular m.) you (singular f.) he she

There is an Arabic 'to be' verb however it is rarely used. If you wanted to say "He is a teacher" for example, you simply would state the subject pronoun and the nounliterally "He teacher". He is a teacher. I am a Muslim (feminine). . .

is the masculine form of 'this/that' and is the feminine form. This (masculine) is a friend. This (feminine) is a (female) colleague. This (feminine) is a table. practice Questions Yes/no questions are formed by placing at the beginning of a statement. . . .

Are you a student? Yes No Is he a teacher? Are you (feminine) a writer/author(feminine)? practice

Next Page Home | Welcome! | Contact us | Newsletter | Donations | Volunteer | Preferences | Help Home > Arabic > Grammar - Introduction Nouns Pronouns I, Questions The Definite Article Adjectives Dual Nouns, Pronouns Plural Nouns, Pronouns Possession Speak
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help? Nouns

Arabic nouns are either masculine or feminine. Usually when referring to a male, a masculine noun is usually used and when referring to a female, a feminine noun is used. In most cases the feminine noun is formed by adding a special character, the ta marbuta , to the end of the masculine noun. Feminine Singular teacher professor/teacher student friend colleague muslim thinker translator beginner expert Masculine Singular

envoy, reporter (someone sent on a mission) writer, author

Sometimes the noun used to refer to a male and the noun used for a female are completely different. woman man

It's not just nouns referring to people that have gender. Inanimate objects (doors, houses, cars, etc.) is either masculine or feminine. Whether an inanimate noun is masculine or feminine is mostly arbitrary. A lot of inanimate nouns ends in ta marbuta. When this is the case you know it is feminine. table city

Unfortunately, not all feminine nouns end in ta marbuta. Whenever you learn a new word, and that word is a noun, it's best if you learn it's gender too. Here are some masculine nouns.. book nose

and here are some feminine nouns.. wind desert Next Page Home | Welcome! | Contact us | Newsletter | Donations | Volunteer | Preferences | Help Home > Arabic > Grammar Introduction Nouns Pronouns I, Questions The Definite Article Adjectives Dual Nouns, Pronouns Plural Nouns, Pronouns Possession Speak

help? The Definite Article

In English we have definite nouns which are usually preceded by 'the' (i.e. the student, the tables) as well as indefinite nouns (i.e. a student, tables). Arabic also has definite and indefinite nouns. The arabic definite article joins with the word that it precedes.

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the

the book Nouns preceded by the definite article are definite as well as the names of cities, countries, regions, and people. Nouns without an article are usually indefinite. a book How to pronounce the definite article depends on the letter that comes after it. In the case of the word below, it is pronounced as it is written- 'al'. the moon moon

The letters that follow this pattern are know as moon letters(.) When is attached to words that begin with certain letters, the l isn't pronounced at all. Instead the first letter of the word is either pronounced twice or stressed. This is the case in the example below. the sun sun

Notice the symbol that resembles a slanted w that is appears immediately after the first letter. This is a called a shadda. Whenever two identical consonants appear right next to each other, only one consonant is written, and the shadda is written after it, indicating that it is doubled. Remember that short vowels that come within a sentence are never written. The letters that follow this pattern are know as sun letters (.) the sun the man the fire the magic the weather the sun man fire magic weather night

night the date (fruit) the snow the hens the gold the giraffe the picture the frog the mud the back date (fruit) snow hen gold giraffe picture frog mud back

Of the 28 consonants in the Arabic alphabet, one half are sun-letters and one half are moon-letters. The remaining consonants are all moon letters. On the previous page we saw and being used as a pronoun. Whenever a definite article appears between it and a noun, and act as adjectives as opposed to pronouns. This friend. This (female) colleague. . .

If that is the case, is there anyway to say something like "this is the friend"? Yes there is. You have to place , known as a pronoun of separation, between the subject and noun? This - is the girl. . Next Page

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Nouns Adjectives Pronouns I, Questions The Definite Article Adjectives have both masculine and feminine forms. The singular feminine adjective is just like the masculine Adjectives adjective but with the ta marbuta to the end. Dual Nouns, Pronouns Plural Nouns, rich Pronouns poor Possession Speak good

bad
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age

/ *

young old

*this same adjective is used both both for men and women. Arabic adjectives always follow the noun they modify. a rich man a good student practice is the Arabic word equivalent to 'very' and comes after adjectives. (a) very rich man

When an adjective modifies a definite noun, the definite article is placed in front of the adjective. the girl the pretty nationalities America Syria American Syrian Arab British

Britain

health

healthy

sickness happiness sadness hunger thirst beauty

hungry thirsty beautiful ugly attractive

sick happy sad / / /

/ / / / / / Next Page

fat / thin / skinny /

Home | Welcome! | Contact us | Newsletter | Donations | Volunteer | Preferences | Help Home > Arabic > help? Grammar Introduction Nouns Dual Pronouns I, Questions In addition to the masculine / feminine distinction we've already seen, The Definite Article Arabic has singular, dual and plural forms of pronouns, nouns, verbs, Adjectives adjectives, etc. The singular form is used when referring to one person or thing, the dual subject pronoun to refer to two people or two things, Dual and the plural form when referring to more than two people or things. Nouns, Pronouns is added at the end of noun to indicate that it is dual- representing two Plural Nouns, Pronouns people or objects. Possession Speak (two) students (two) professors / teachers
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(two) teachers (two) experts (two) colleagues (two) men (two) women

(two) friends

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is also added to the end of adjectives that modify a dual noun.

beautiful / handsome young . .

poor (two) beautiful women (two) poor female students (two) handsome men Pronouns Following are the dual subject pronouns.. you (dual m/f) they (dual m/f)

You (dual) are a thinker. They (dual) feminine are a translator. They (dual) are Arabs. They (dual) are arabs (feminine). You (dual) are happy. practice

. . . . .

Next Page Home | Welcome! | Contact us | Newsletter | Donations | Volunteer | Preferences | Help Home > Arabic > Grammar Introduction Nouns Pronouns I, Questions The Definite Article

help? Plural

In Arabic, there are two types of noun and adjective plural forms: sound (regular) plurals, and broken (irregular) plurals. Masculine

Adjectives sound plural nouns end in and feminine sound plural nouns Dual Nouns, end in . Pronouns Plural Nouns, teachers Pronouns beginners Possession Speak muslims

thinkers
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Usually feminine inanimate nouns that end in ta marbuta take the feminine sound plural. words tables word table

There are some important exceptions to this rule though. cities box city box

There are also some masculine nouns, usually borrowed words, that take the feminine sound plural. televisions television radios telephones radio telephone

The masculine sound plural is never used with inanimate nouns. Adjectives Adjectives that modify masculine nouns end in ,and adjectives that modify feminine nouns end in . beautiful poor tired bad sad Irregular Plurals Lots of irregular adjectives.

big hungry

Irregular Plurals Arabic has lots of irregular plurals- known as broken plurals. The plural form is expressed by changing the stem of the singular form. men women man woman

For people nouns that have both masculine and feminine forms, often the feminine plural is regular and the masculine plural irregular. students (f.) students (m.)

professors / professors / teachers teachers (f.) (m.) experts (f.) experts (m.) friends (f.) friends (m.) colleagues (f.) Pronouns Following are the plural subject pronouns. we you (plural m.) you (plural f.) they (plural m.) they (plural f.) They are teachers (f.). They are teachers (m.). . . colleagues (m.)

the feminine form of these. These are friends(feminine). These are friends(masculine). Next Page Home | Welcome! | Contact us | Newsletter | Donations | Volunteer | Preferences | Help Home > Arabic > Grammar help? - Introduction Nouns Possession Pronouns I, Questions The Definite Article In Arabic, possession is indicated by appending a suffix to Adjectives Dual Nouns, Pronounsa noun. This suffix reflects the gender and plurality of the possessor or possessors. Plural Nouns, Pronouns Possession our my Speak my book
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a book books money* a school

my books my money our school our schools

schools *money is always plural

Your (masculine) and your (feminine) are spelled the same but pronounced differently. Your (plural masculine) Your (masculine) Your (plural feminine) Your (masculine) desk Your (masculine) desks Your (feminine) flower Your (feminine) flowers Your (feminine) desk desks flower flowers paper papers child

Your (masculine plural) paper Your (masculine plural) papers Your (feminine plural) child

Your (feminine plural) children children The possessive pronoun (its) does not exist in Arabic, it is referred to as (his) or (her) depending whether the noun is masculine or feminine. The their forms are never used with inanimates. Their (masculine & feminine) Their (masculine) His

Their Her (feminine) office offices skirt skirts ships gift gifts bed beds

His office His offices

Her skirt Her skirts Their (masculine) ship Their (masculine) ships Their (feminine) gift Their (feminine) gifts

ship

Their(masculine & feminine) bed Their (masculine & feminine) beds

Sometimes the suffix changes when the possessor is a dual noun. These dual forms though are mostly avoided in Arabic. Whenever a possessive suffix is added the noun becomes definite. Next Page Home | Welcome! | Contact us | Newsletter | Donations | Volunteer | Preferences | Help Home > Arabic > Grammar help? Introduction Nouns Verbs Pronouns I, Questions The Definite Article Arabic verb forms change depending on the subject. Adjectives Dual Nouns, Pronouns These different verb forms are called conjugations. Plural Nouns, Pronouns

Possession Speak

(to talk / to speak) We speak. I speak. You (sg.m.) speak. You (sg.f.) speak.

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You (pl.m.) speak You (pl.f.) speak They (pl.m.) speaks. They (pl.f.) speaks.

He speaks. She speaks.

Here are the dual forms.. They (du.m.) speaks. They (du.f.) speaks. You (du.m.) speak You (du.m.) speak

language Arabic Turkish

He speaks French and Italian.

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