The 3 Most Problematic Arabic Letters Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on May 11, 2017
Just as diacritics play a significant role in disambiguating the meaning of graphically similar words, long vowels determine the form of derived words; therefore, they are called حُرُوف العِلَّة ‘the weak letters.’ … Continue Reading
Arabic adjectives for colours: rules of agreement Posted by Hanan Ben Nafa on May 10, 2017
In this post, we’ll be looking at feminine noun phrases and point out an important feature, that is, adjectives need to agree with the nouns they come after and modify, in terms of many grammatical features, but gender is what we’re focusing on today. So, it’s not enough that a learner knows whether a…
Vowels in Arabic: Function and Form Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on May 5, 2017
Does Arabic have vowels? Certainly! But very few compared to English. Is there an Arabic word without a vowel? Hmm! Probably not. The vowel is the center of the word and/or syllable. Put differently, vowels are the crutches of consonants. So, what is the story of vowels in Arabic and how do they crutch consonants?…
Untranslatable Phrases in Colloquial Egyptian Arabic: The Egyptian Man (Part 2) Posted by Hanan Ben Nafa on May 3, 2017
Welcome to the second part of this blog that I’m dedicating to talk about some culturally untranslatable phrases found in colloquial Egyptian Arabic. Learning about these phrases are both linguistically and culturally interesting. This is because the language used is very formulaic and does not necessarily follow rules of the Arabic language you learn in…
The 10 Most Used Spices in Arabic Cuisine (2) Posted by jesa on May 2, 2017
Marhaba! I hope you all refreshed your memory and/or learned something new from the previous post about the 10 most used spices in Arabic cuisine. I hope you all enjoyed solving the crossword puzzle! In this post, I am sharing the answers and some examples of how you can use these words in a sentence…
saltah سَلْتَة: Yemen’s National Dish Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Apr 30, 2017
Bint aS-SaHn بِنْت الصَّحْن , sousi سُوْسِي , shafout شَفُوْت, and saltah سَلْتَة are some delicious Arabic dishes that are peculiar to Yemen. While the others are popular on special days and occasions, سَلْتَة is eaten every day and by far the most favorite; ergo, it is Yemen’s National Dish. Linguistically, what is the origin…
The 10 Most Used Spices in Arabic Cuisine Posted by jesa on Apr 30, 2017
Marhaba! Over the years, I have shared so many recipes that my wife and I use to prepare Middle Eastern, especially Levantine, dishes and appetizers. As you know, we have learned most of these recipes from our mothers. Given our common passion for Arabic food and cuisine, today, I have decided to dedicate this post…