Talking about the weather in Arabic Posted by aziza on Jan 3, 2010
The weather is one of the most important topics of conversation for people in the West, since the weather is always changeable and unpredictable. However, in the Arab world, the situation is different, as the weather is more predictable and less changeable. People often talk about the weather when it is extreme, i.e. too hot…
Happy New Year Posted by aziza on Dec 30, 2009
Happy New Year كل عام وأنتم بخير! What is your new year’s resolution? Below are the top resolutions for Americans. Lose Weight Manage Debt Save Money Get a Better Job Get Fit Get a Better Education Drink Less Alcohol Quit Smoking Now Reduce Stress Overall Reduce Stress at Work Take a Trip Volunteer to Help…
One Letter Words in Arabic Posted by aziza on Dec 23, 2009
In Arabic, there is a limited number of words that are made up of one letter only, for example (و) ‘and’, and (ف) which is used to link sentences explaining each other. In addition, there are some prepositions, e.g. (ب) ‘with/by’, (ك) ‘as/like’, (ل) ‘to/for’. What we should note about all these is that they…
Arabic Vocabulary: Climate Summit Posted by aziza on Dec 20, 2009
The Copenhagen UN climate summit (مؤتمر الأمم المتحدة حول المناخ) has attracted a great deal of media and public attention. In this post, I provide some words and expressions related to the topic of the climate summit from news articles I read about the topic. I think these are timely, and I hope they would…
Arabic Vocabulary: Politics Posted by aziza on Dec 18, 2009
In this post, I give some vocabulary items related to political terms. سِياسَة Politics سِياسيّ Political اِقتِصاد Economics/economy اِقتِصادي Economic دِيموقْراطِيّ Democratic دِكتاتورِي Dictator شِيوعِيّ Communist مَاركِسِيّ Marxist اِشْتِراكِيّ socialist رَأسِماليّ Capitalist مَحَليّ Local إِقلِيميّ Regional دَوْليّ International عَالَميّ Global دَوْلة State جُمهُوريّة Republic مَمْلَكَة Monarchy حُكُومَة Government
Arabic Conditionals: Whenever and Wherever Posted by aziza on Dec 15, 2009
There are some particles which are generally regarded as conditionals, e.g. (لمَّا) and (كلَّما). However, they express a temporal relationship rather than a condition. There are still 2 actions that are related to each other by a temporal relationship, for example: لمَّا سافرَ أخي، سافرتُ معه. “When my brother traveled, I traveled with him.” كلَّماسافرَ…
Arabic Conditionals: Who, What, When, and Where Posted by aziza on Dec 12, 2009
In this post, I explain 4 more conditionals in Arabic, more specifically (مَنْ) “who”, (ما) “what”, (متى) “when”, and (أين) “where”. As explained earlier, conditionals are used with 2 actions; one of them depends on the other. Therefore, there must be 2 embedded verbal sentences in each conditional sentence. With (مَنْ) and (ما), both the…