Archive for 'Vocabulary'
[ت] , [ــة] , or [ــه]: How to Differentiate Between Them? Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Apr 24, 2017
For learners of Arabic, as is the case for native speakers, it is normally difficult to distinguish between [ت], [ــة], and [ــه] when they occur at the end of words. [ت] is called taa maftuHah تَاء مَفْتُوحَة, [ــة] is called taa marbuTah تَاء مَرْبُوطَة , and [ــه] is called haa or haa marbuTah هَاء /…
Arabic Connected Speech: What Gets Assimilated? Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Apr 20, 2017
When people speak, it is common that certain sounds get assimilated, dropped, or blended. In English, for example, “does she” is pronounced as “dushee” in connected speech. In Arabic, the most common assimilation and/or dropping occurs with the definite article ال and with the alif of imperative tri-consonantal verbs (i.e. verbs that have a root…
The great extent of diversity in Arabic Posted by Hanan Ben Nafa on Apr 19, 2017
Every Arabic learner probably had to face the fact that Arabic is not a single language and there is a high variety: Standard Arabic, and a low variety: regional dialects, more than 20 of them. Today, we are using a short video that illustrates, very well, the great extent of this diversity. It shows…
Special Arabic Occasions: What they are, What to Do and Say in them? Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Apr 15, 2017
Certain linguistic expressions are associated with specific cultural and religious occasions. For example, “Happy Easter!”, “Joyeuses Pâques!”, and “Frohe Ostern!” are expressions said in special occasions in English; French; and German, respectively. Among the most culturally celebrated, congratulation-invoking, and religiously observed occasions among Arabs (and Muslims) are Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-AdhHa, Ramadhan, and Friday of…
Learn Arabic vocabulary for 30 mins Posted by aziza on Mar 31, 2017
Today, I present a nice video I found on YouTube which I will use with my daughter over the weekend. I like the video so much because it is very useful and easy at the same time. It is a list of words in Modern Standard Arabic which are related to everyday life and which…
Arabic Definiteness: Formation, Meaning, and Assimilation Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Mar 30, 2017
Typically, nouns and adjectives in most languages are made definite by articles. ‘the’; ‘le, la, les’; ‘die, der, des’ are the definite articles in English, French, and German, respectively. In Arabic, nouns and adjectives are made definite using ال which is appended to the beginning of the word, as in these examples: مَدِينَةٌ جَامِعَةً حِذَاءً…
Somalia Market Listening_1 Posted by aziza on Mar 27, 2017
In this post, I present the answers of the listening exercise on the news story on Somalia Market in Dubai. Transcription of the story: محال الذهب والقماش، مقاه وفنادق وشركات استيراد وتصدير تصطف جنبًا الى جنب في هذا السوق المكتظ المعروف بسوق الصومال. جميع الباعة وأصحاب المحال هنا من الجنسية الصومالية. هذا المشهد ليس في…