http://www.LetsTalkArabic.com/ This title is also available at major online book retailers. © Copyright 2011 Dr. Adam Yacoub All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author. eISBN-13: 978-81-8260-085-0 DEDICATION We wish to thank all of those who have kindly helped with introducing this book, every effort or advice had been made to trace all the covered topics but if any had been inadvertently overlooked the author will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at first opportunity. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We are lucky enough to have benefited from the experience of some of the experts in teaching Arabic across this edition. We would like to thank everyone for his or her useful comments on this work. CONTENTS Cover Image Title Page Dedication Acknowledgments Part 1 Preface: Congratulations Unit One: Saying “Hello” Unit Two: What's your name? Unit Three: What is this? Unit Four: The family Unit Five: What do you do? Unit Six: In the Restaurant Unit Seven: Asking for Directions Unit Eight: At the Supermarket? Unit Nine: What happened yesterday Unit Ten: Going for Shopping Unit Eleven: Looking for an Apartment Unit Twelve: Weekend Plan Unit Thirteen: Making an Appointment Unit Fourteen: At the Clinic Unit Fifteen: At the Bank Unit Fifteen: Culture Notes Alchemy Some of his discoveries in chemistry Mariam al-Astrulabi Arabic - English glossary English - Arabic glossary About the Author Copyright & Permissions Part 1 Preface Congratulations mabrook Well done for making the fantastic decision to learn the wonderful language of Arabic. For whatever reason it may be, a new challenge, relocation to an Arabic speaking country or for business, you can rest assured that you have made another great decision in choosing one of the most successful and smoothest Arabic courses. This book will lead you to push yourself anizeЅd take a step above the rest in a fun and interactive way. Arabic is considered to be one of the most alive, important and beautiful languages in the world. This book uses an extremely stimulating, logical and easy way to help you learn from the very beginning. In any language, speaking appears to be the most fundamental aspect for a lot of people. From the start of the book, you will be introduced to the basics of speaking and pronunciation, using a simple format that allows everyone to speak Arabic in a natural way. The book will then continue to develop your new skills by enabling you to understand and heighten your ability to read, listen to and write this amazing language. Arabic is a Semitic language and is the formal and official language of 22 Arab countries. It is also the spoken language of almost 420 million people living in Arabic and non Arabic countries. This book will teach you the basics of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which is the modernization of the Classical Arabic structures, as well as additions from the main dialects spoken all over the Arab world. Variations of the Language Like any other language, spoken Arabic has some dialects with variations and differences. The differences between these dialects are incomprehensible from one to the other, and can be referred to as five main dialects divided according to their regions. Maghreb The Maghreb dialect is spoken in the region of the Maghreb countries, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, and Morocco. Egyptian: The Egyptian dialect is used in Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, and some western parts of Saudi Arabia. It is the most widely understood colloquial dialect across the Arab world, because almost 93% of Arabic Movies, TV, and Media use the Egyptian dialect. Levantine The Levantine dialect comes from and is used in Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Syria. The Gulf The Gulf dialect is spoken in the Arabic Gulf Countries, which are made up by Iraq, Kuwait, most of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. Modern Standard Arabic MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) has become the most popular dialect and is now spoken and used by all the Arab countries. The dark countries on the map show the Arab League. Written Arabic Tale Qsize="3"he core of Arabic writing that is used today comes from the classical Arabic which is principally defined as the Arabic used in the Qur'an and in the earliest form of literature from the Arabian Peninsula. Two Important Facts The First is that, any language has a vast wealth of vocabulary, but do we need to learn that vast amount to be able to communicate in a language? Of course not! Just, 20% of the words in a language make up to 80% of the conversations we face in our daily life. You may not be speaking like a native immediately, but you'll have a solid base and the ability to keep improving and developing yourself. This method is suitable for everyone from frequent travelers to first timers, as well as language students and enthusiasts. So, this book focuses on the vital 20% that will help you speak Arabic interactively and dynamically. The second point and this is a really exciting fact. The Arabic language uses word roots, for example, we can take one root like (KTB) from the word (KaTaBa) which means "he wrote" and from there conjugate all Arabic verbs tense. Nouns can also be made from the same root because they have a relation with it. KaaTeB= writer, KeTaab= book, maKTaB= office, maKTaBa= library, ma KToob = letter & written, and more. Arabic grammar is fairly simple compared to Western languages, but the language itself has richness in its vocabulary that exceeds most languages in the Western world. Below is the Arabic alphabet and key to show you how to pronounce them. Try to read paying attention to the pronunciation. UNIT ONE Saying "Hello" UNIT ONE Saying "Hello" Contents - Dialogue: Saying "Hello" - Vocabulary - Other useful phrases - Culture Notes: Greetings in Arabic - Vocabulary practice - Grammar usage: verb "to be" in Arabic Definite and indefinite articles Gender - Grammar Exercises Hello! as-salaamu Aalaykum! In this lesson you will learn some basic greetings and how to ask "How are you?" A dialogue: Learn as Adam meets an old high school friend, Mahmoud. They haven't seen each other for long time. Vocabulary Other useful phrases: Culture Notes: The most common greeting in Arabic is the phrase "as-salaamu Aalaykum" which means literally "may peace be upon you". And the most comm ol a"1">wa Aalaykum as-salaam", which means literally "and upon you peace". But as you see in the above phrases, to learn a language, you have to learn its culture, because literal or direct translation doesn't make sense when you speak that language. The same thing in "SabaaH el-khayr" = good morning, and the response of it, which is "Sabaah en-nuur" while "nuur" means literally " light", but this is the way how Arabs greet each others, simply means: if you greet me using good words, so I have to greet you using better words!. Also there is no specific word for greeting in the afternoon. You can use simply either "as-salaamu Aalaykum" at anytime, or "masaa' el-khayr" for the afternoon as well. Vocabulary Practice Exercise 1: Answer the following questions: 1- You walk into a classroom in an Arab country, what is the first thing that you can say? 2- What would be expected in response? 3- How do you say "Good morning"? What is the response for it? 4- How do you say "Good Evening"? What is the response for it? 5- How do you say "Good afternoon"? What is the response for it? 6- How do you say "Good night"? What would be expected in response? 7- How would you say "How are you doing"? How would you answer? Exercise 2: Match each word in (A) with an appropriate word in (B) to make a phrase or a sentence. Go from right to left: Exercise 3: Write down the Arabic meaning of the below words: 1- Hello, good night, and, How, today, the daytime. 2- Welcome, Morning, Good. 3- How are you today? 4- I'm fine. Thanks. 5- Good evening! 6- Peace be upon you. 7- Good afternoon. Grammar usage 1- Verb "to be" in Arabic: In Arabic, there is no direct translation of "to be" in the present tense. That means that "am & is & are" will not show in an Arabic sentence. For example: 2-Definite and Indefinite articles: There are no indefinite articles (a/an) in Arabic. For example; "SabaaH" means (morning) and (a morning), and "masaa'" means (evening) and (an evening). Arabic has a definite article as "the" in English. It is "al", in Arabic, which added to the beginning of a word by attaching the prefix "al-". For example; "al-masaa'" means (the evening), "al-Haal" means (the condition). There is one other important rule to keep in mind when it comes to the definite article "al". Remember the phrases "as-salaam" and "an-nuur". As the "as" in "as-salaam<="0 a>" and the "an" in "an-nuur" means "the" as well, But as you can see how they are pronounced differently from "al". That's because there are few letters in Arabic when they come after the definite article "al" so they can cancel the pronunciation of the "l" sound in "al" and that time you will find only the "a" followed by those mentioned letters doubled, as in "as-salaam" with double "s" and "an-nuur" with double "n". Those letters called "sun letters" because the word "shams" in Arabic which means "sun" begins with one of them. How to know those letters? Simply they are the ones which we use the tip of the tongue to pronounce them: "t , th , d , dh , r , z , sh , s, l, n". Fourteen of the Arabic alphabets: The other14 letters which don't force "l" in "al" to be silent are called "moon letters" because the word "moon = qamar" in Arabic begins with one of them. Here is the example for both cases: "SabaaH" = a morning, "aS-SabaaH" = the morning. "masaa'" = an evening, "al-masaa'" = the evening. "shams" = sun, "ash-shams" = the sun. "qamar" = moon, "al-qamar" = the moon. (You will find more explaining the reading course in this book). 3-Gender: Arabic is a language that has gender, like Spanish, French, and Italian. That means every noun is either masculine or feminine. Nouns in Arabic if they have the sound (a) at the end, or what's called in Arabic (taa' marbuuta), so they are generally or 90% feminine, and masculine if they end in anything else. Examples: "rajul": man (masculine), "mar'a": woman (feminine), "ketaab": book (masculine), "Taawila": table (feminine), "qalam": pen (masculine), "say- yaara": car (feminine) Keep in mind that not all feminine nouns end in with this sign. Examples: "bent": girl (f), "ukht": sister (f), also some objects like: "shams": sun (f), "'arD": earth (f). But this type of feminine gender is very rare in Arabic. ` alsoht="1"> Grammar Exercises It is always better to do an exercise for anything new you learn. So if you feel that you are not yet ready to do it, so it is better to get back and read the grammar notes again. Exercise 4: Change these indefinite nouns into definite ones, using the appropriate form of the article (al). Then translate them into English: Remember the rule of the sun letters: