By now you’ve likely noticed there seems to be more than one Arabic language. And you’d be right. In fact, today there are 30 Arabic dialects throughout the Arab region today. What’s more is that, once students figure this out, they often ask, “What is the hardest Arabic dialect?” If they are thinking to travel to Egypt, the question then becomes “Should I learn Modern Standard...
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A capital is the seat of a nation. Moreover, it often also serves as the chief finance, people, cultural, or academic center of a country. In fact, they so closely relate to their countries that the news will quite often use the name of the city instead of the name of the capital’s country. For example, "deals made between Amman and Cairo" refer to "deals made between Jordan and...
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As summer nears an end, you should already have a plan in place on where you want to learn Arabic. One thing’s for sure, with over 290 million native speakers in more than 20 countries, we understand that it’s not that easy to choose which one of the Arabic speaking countries would be the best place to learn Arabic overseas. Maybe you might be one...
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In English, the addition of the article “the” turns an indefinite noun into a definite one. The definite article in Arabic does the exact same thing. The article The in Arabic is ال You’ll find al in Arabic surnames, adjectives, and all nouns. To break it down, the definition article consists of two Arabic letters: أ referred to as alif, and ل referred to as lam. Together...
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The Arabic alphabet is a journey of its own. Pronunciation and formation of the Arabic letters depend on whether it is in the sentence and what tashkeel is present for the pronunciation to occur accordingly. Today’s lesson is all about the twin sisters Ra and Zayn. They both look almost exactly the same if it wasn’t for a dot that essentially created all the difference...
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Of the 28 letters in the Arabic alphabet, we are going to talk about three letters today: Ba, Ta and Tha. Let’s get going on the Arabic alphabet in English! Ba ب This letter is the second one in the Arabic alphabet. In English, the letter B corresponds to the Arabic Ba. This letter is one of the first ones to be pronounced by babies when they...
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As a fresh learner of the Arabic language, you might be bombarded with the amount of information found as to what type of Arabic you should learn. For example, there are books where you could learn to speak Egyptian Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, Gulf Arabic, Levantine Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, just about every kind of Arabic dialect imaginable. It can all a bit confusing. In the end,...
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Most of you that have been studying the Arabic language, even if you’re just learning Arabic for beginners, have probably already learned the Arabic equivalent of the English Wh - question words. If you don’t remember, we’ve made this handy table to refresh your memory: EnglishTransliterationArabic Who in Arabic man مَنْ What in Arabic ...
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Ahlan wa Sahlan! We’ve previously posted articles related to basic Arabic words and phrases, but then we realized that, no matter how many nouns you might know, you’ll also need Arabic verbs to construct a sentence! You might know how to say school in Arabic, but what’s the point if you don’t know how to ask, “Where is the school?” in Arabic? Or you might know how...
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No matter how good your Arabic is, most people in Arabic speaking countries will know you’re not a native speaker, so if you’re a foreigner visiting or living in an Arab country, you might be frequently asked the following question: min 'ayn 'ant? . Basically, an Arab is asking you, “Where are you from?”.You can answer this simply with the country you’re from: ana min...
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