Language Learning

الْأَسْئِلَــــةُ الثَّلَاثَــــةُ We took this Arabic short story from a book written by Mohammed Al-Abrashi. The original story was written for native speakers of Arabic. It has been simplified, abridged, and slightly modified to make it suitable for learners of Arabic as an additional/foreign language. It is suitable for high-beginners and pre-intermediate learners. كَان…

This is article 1 of easy news in Arabic. We have taken the original article from a top online version of an Arabic newspaper or news outlet. Then, we abridge and simplify the article. So, the abridged pieces of new becomes readable. Also, it is informative Arabic language learning source. Through easy news in Arabic, learners of the language would learn current and everyday Ar…

What is hamza in Arabic? What is hamza in Arabic? hamza is the first letter of the Arabic Alphabet (alif, ba, ta, tha, …): the alif اَلْأَلِف. However, the alif can be a hamza and an alif al-madd أَلِفُ الْمَدِّ. This is determined by its shape, its position in the word, and the diacritical mark (i.e., the short vowel that accompanies it). Types of alif: There are two type…

What is alif al-wasl? What is alif al-wasl أَلِفُ الْوَصْلِ? alif al-wasl is the alif without hamza above or below it (i.e., ا not أ or إ), and it always occurs at the beginning of the word. The word وَصْل wasl means ‘connection’. So, alif al-wasl أَلِفُ الْوَصْلِ is the ‘connective alif.’ It connects the word in which it occurs with the preceding word. The purpose of this is …

What is Tanween in Arabic? The tanween (or nunation) in Arabic (also transliterated as tanwin/tenwin) has to do with the sound ن noon. To be precise, it is an acoustic ن (i.e. said but not written). This ن is added to the end of nouns (and adjectives). Only nouns (and adjectives) get tanween, but not all nouns. Certain nouns; all types of pronouns, which are classified as noun…

Simple Arabic Grammar Terms (1) Arabic grammar terms of the previous lessons are listed and explained. Besides the explanation of the terms, examples are given. The noun in Arabic is a word that can be a subject of a verb فَاعِل, a topic of a nominal sentence مُبْتَدَأ, a predicate of a nominal sentence خَبَر, an object of a verb مَفْعُول, or an object of a preposit…