Tag Archives: Vocabulary
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…
Some confusing words Posted by aziza on Mar 27, 2011
One day Katherine protested, I will never know the difference between mosque and university in Arabic! Why are they so confusing? Later on the same day, another student translated modern as event, and again he was very frustrated with the similarity between both words! Arabic is a highly derivational language where most content words, i.e…
Jewellery Posted by aziza on Mar 23, 2011
This post aims to introduce some vocabulary items related to jewellery (المجوهرات). A jeweler (الصائغ) is the person who makes or sells them. In the West, it is said that diamonds are a woman’s best friends, and wedding rings often have diamond (الماس/الألماس) stones. In the Arab world, women particularly love gold (الذهب), and they…
UN Terminology in Arabic Posted by aziza on Feb 26, 2011
In this post, I present some terminology related to the UN and its agencies and organizations. Most UN pages are presented in different UN languages, including Arabic, which can be very useful to students of Arabic who can see the same information presented in different languages. Here is the link o the UN Arabic website…
Word search greetings Posted by aziza on Dec 29, 2010
Now that it is time for greetings and celebration, my work search game hides three greetings and two Christmas words. Can you find them? عيد سعيد ميلاد مجيد كل عام وأنتم بخير شجرة زينة
Expressing frequency in Arabic: Adverbials of Time Posted by aziza on Dec 27, 2010
In this post, I give examples on the use of some adverbials of time that express frequency. These are adverbs that describe how often an action is done, e.g. always, sometimes, often, etc. Never = أبداً لا أدخن أبداً. “I never smoke.” الأستاذ لا يتأخر عن الدرس أبداً “The teacher is never late for his…
word games Posted by aziza on Oct 28, 2010
In this post, I have created an Arabic word search game for you. Can you find the 10 words below in the table? If you are not sure about the meaning of any word, look at the bottom of the page for the translation. 1- سكر 2- شاي 3- قهوة 4- عسل 5- عصير 6-…