Arabic Adjectives and their Opposites Posted by aziza on Mar 8, 2010
In this post, I present some simple adjectives and their opposites. It is also handy to know the word that can be used to negate adjectives, more or less like the English prefix, un- which is (غير). We use it before an adjective to negate it, e.g. (معروف) means ‘well-known’, while (غير معروف) means ‘un-known…
Spatial relationships in Arabic Posted by aziza on Mar 4, 2010
الشجرة أمام البيت “The tree is in front of the house.” in front of أَمام خلف السيارة كلب. “There is a dog behind the car.” behind خَلف / وَراء حقيبتي بين المقعد والطاولة. “My bag is between the seat and the table.” between بَين مقعدي على يمين مقعدك. “My seat is to the right…
Belly Dancing in Arab Culture Posted by aziza on Feb 28, 2010
Belly dancing (الرقص الشرقي) is an important aspect of Arab and Middle Eastern culture. It is controversial, and there are many views about it in the Arab world as well as in the West. Some regard it as an exploitation of the female body and therefore associate it with negative sexual stereotypes while others regard…
Arabic Cultural Expressions: From Assalamu ‘alaykum to Bismillah Posted by aziza on Feb 27, 2010
I am writing this post in response to a kind suggestion of Juan who asked me to write a post about cultural expressions and their replies. Thank you very much Juan for the suggestion! I think that this is a very important topic. Please find a list below. بسم الله “Bismillah” literally means (in the…
Arabic Weak Verbs in the Present Tense Posted by aziza on Feb 26, 2010
This post deals with conjugation of verbs that have a final vowel. They are called weak verbs(الفعل الناقص), e.g. (رَمَى) “threw” and (نما) “grew”, etc. In the present tense, the final vowel is returned to its origin. Consider the examples below. نما رَمَى أنمو أرمي أنا تنمو ترمي أنتَ تنمين ترمين أنتِ ينمو يرمي هو…
Arabic Irregular Verbs: Weak Verbs Posted by aziza on Feb 24, 2010
This post deals with conjugation of verbs that have a final vowel. They are called weak verbs(الفعل الناقص), e.g. (رَمَى) “threw” and (نما) “grew”, etc. In the past tense, the final vowel is returned to its origin, and it disappears with some pronouns, i.e. (هي), (هم) and (هما) feminine only for the last one. Consider…
One Arabic root … many derivatives (Part 2) Posted by aziza on Feb 18, 2010
In this post, I present one useful root in Arabic (ح م ل) and many words that derive from it. This is a very useful exercise to try for yourself to expand your vocabulary; you can also use the dictionary for help. حَمَلَ الولد الحقيبة. “The boy carried the bag.” Carried حَمَلَ هذا حِمْل ثقيل…