Sun and Moon Letters Arabic letters are classified into two categories: sun letters and moon letters. The definite article الْـ 'the' triggers this classification. The الْـ precedes indefinite nouns and adjectives (i.e., attached/prefixed to them). Basically, the لْـ in the الْـ assimilates to certain subsequent letters. These letters are called sun letters (also solar letters…

One characteristic of Arabic that makes its writing easy is that it is a phonetic language. That is, there is generally a one-to-one correspondence between the spoken form and the written form. In other words, there are no silent letters as is the case with English and French. This is especially true when writing isolated words. However, in writing natural connected speech, one…

Arabic Reading Comprehension Test (40) Read the Story الْحَيَّةُ الْبَيْضَاءُ and answer the following questions.

Arabic Reading Comprehension Test (39) Read the Story التَّاجِرُ مَرْمَرُ and answer the following questions.

Arabic Reading Comprehension Test (38) Read the Story الشَّيْخُ الْهِنْدِيُّ and answer the following questions.

Arabic Reading Comprehension Test (37) Read the Story حِذَاءُ الْبَخِيلِ and answer the following questions.

Attached pronouns in Arabic are the pronouns that we attach to verbs, nouns, prepositions, or particles. Generally speaking, pronouns in Arabic are separate, attached, or implicit (i.e. implied or not overt). The separate pronouns  in Arabic are similar to the subject pronouns found in most world languages in addition to the dual and feminine forms that exist in Arabic. As for …

Arabic is a right-to-left cursive language. This short e-book "Ibnulyemen Arabic Alphabet and Cursive Writing" typographically shows how the Arabic letters are connected to to form words. There are twenty-eight letters in Arabic. Each letter has four shapes: at the beginning of the word, in the middle of the word, at the end of the word, and in isolation. This, as a result, see…

This is a short e-book of eleven short stories written in simplified Arabic. The original versions of these stories were written by Kamel Kilani and Mohammed Al-Abrashi, both Egyptian writers. They are fairly long and meant for native speakers of Arabic. The wording and structures of these stories have been tweaked and simplified to make them suitable for (advanced) beginner le…

Attached pronouns in Arabic are pronominal suffixes; for each separate pronoun there is a corresponding attached pronoun. These pronominal suffixes are are attached to nouns, prepositions, and verbs. With nouns, they function as possessive pronouns. With preposition, they function as object of prepositions. With verbs, they function as either subjects or objects.  In the table …