Archive for 'Vocabulary'
Word search geography Posted by aziza on Apr 29, 2011
In this post, I present a word search game of words relating to natural phenomena and geographic terminology. Try to find the words below in the word search grid: Land = أرض Sea = بحر Ocean = محيط Lake = بحيرة Mountain = جبل Valley = وادي Earthquake = زلزال Storm = عاصفة Rain =…
Verb Tense: (3) The Imperative الأمر Posted by Fisal on Apr 27, 2011
We spoke earlier about the past and present tenses. Today, we are going to discuss the imperatives and learn how to get them from regular verbs. The imperative refers to a request or command, so its meaning refers mainly to the future. The imperative is derived from the present tense. It ends in a sukkoon…
This Day in History : Shamm Annaseem Posted by Fisal on Apr 25, 2011
Shamm Annaseem (or the Smelling of the Zephyr) شم النسيم It is a national holiday أجازة قومية celebrating the advent of spring الربيع. The day is still celebrated in many countries around the world in different ways. The celebration can be traced back to the time of the Ancient Egyptians who celebrated the harvest season…
Fisal’s Dictionary : علم Posted by Fisal on Apr 24, 2011
Today, we are going to sail on a journey to the depths of the Arabic Dictionary to discover some of its secrets. We will look up the root verb علم and explore some of its derivatives. * عَلِمَ [v. T.] = (1) to know something; e.g.. عَلِمَ محمدٌ الخَبَر = Mohammad knew the news…
Verb Tense: (2) Present المضارع Posted by Fisal on Apr 23, 2011
We spoke earlier about the past tense of Arabic verbs and learnt that the root verb is always in the past tense. We also learnt the types of root verbs according to their minimum number of letters. Today, we are going to speak about the present tense and how to conjugate it from the…
More words in combination or not? Posted by aziza on Apr 22, 2011
I got an interesting question from Juan about the word (لمّا) which means ‘when’, and he asked whether it involves a combination of (ما) with another word, the answer is ‘possibly’! I do not know for sure because I do not know the etymology, i.e. origin of the word, but it is likely for a…
Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998) Posted by Fisal on Apr 21, 2011
Nizar Qabbani was a Syrian Poet شاعر , diplomat دبلوماسي and publisher ناشر . He studied law القانون at Damascus University and worked as a diplomat in the Syrian embassies in Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Britain, China and Spain before he retired in 1966. His poetic style combines simplicity البساطة and beauty الجمال . He explored…