Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only €10,99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar, Third Edition
    Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar, Third Edition
    Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar, Third Edition
    Ebook180 pages1 hour

    Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar, Third Edition

    By Jane Wightwick

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product.

    The all-in-one guide to mastery of Arabic grammar

    Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar provides an excellent introduction to the basics of Arabic if you are a beginner or a quick, thorough reference is you already have experience in the language. It offers a solid foundation of major verbal and grammatical concepts of the language, providing clear explanations of concepts and how they are similar, or very different, in Arabic and English.

    Each unit is devoted to one topic, so you can find what you need and get focused instruction immediately. Concise yet thorough, the explanations are supported by numerous examples to help you master the different concepts. And for those tricky verbs, Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar includes a Verb Index of the most common verbs, cross-referenced with the abundant verb tables appearing throughout the book.

    This book will give you all this:

    ● Concise explanations of verbs, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and other grammar essentials

    ● Examples that reflect contemporary usage and real-life situations

    ● A high-frequency index to 400 Arabic verbs, cross-referenced to relevant sections in the book

    New to this edition, twelve Authors’ Tutorials that will help your understanding of the system of Arabic verb roots. These recordings are available as streaming audio through the McGraw-Hill Language Lab app.



    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMcGraw-Hill Education
    Release dateDec 29, 2017
    ISBN9781260031003
    Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar, Third Edition

    Read more from Jane Wightwick

    Related to Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar, Third Edition

    Related ebooks

    Foreign Language Studies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Lost in Translation: Classical Arabic Literature

      Nov 26, 2019

      Arabic’s great riches: the centuries-old tradition of classical literature and the battle-weary corps of translators bringing it into English. The post Lost in Translation: Classical Arabic Literature appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      All About Summaries

      Oct 27, 2023

      All About Summaries
      3 min read

    • Article

      Comprehension Tests

      Jan 6, 2023

      Comprehension Tests
      4 min read

    • Article

      Putting Your Words In Order

      Jun 3, 2021

      Putting Your Words In Order
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Siri Feature Your Digital PA

      Jun 1, 2021

      1 You might have activated Siri during the set up procedure. If not, under the Apple menu, select System Preferences. Click on Siri in the bottom row. If it isn’t already ticked, click on Enable Siri, on the left. If you want Siri in the menu bar, ch

      2 min read

    • Article

      Cryptic Classroom #5: Homophones

      Dec 9, 2021

      Cryptic Classroom #5: Homophones
      3 min read

    • Article

      Editing For Grammar

      Mar 20, 2019

      Although most writers and editors have received extensive training in written English, we still make mistakes—all the time. The Careful Writer, Words into Type, The Elements of Style and other sources offer voluminous instruction and examples for wr

      9 min read

    • Article

      Magnus’ Marketing Minute

      Aug 1, 2022

      Michael Magnus is an advertising professional who supports the growth of the leather industry through his marketing agency, Magnus Opus. Among his client partnerships are Silver Creek Leather Co., manufacturers of Realeather® Crafts and Lace, and Jim

      5 min read

    • Article

      Basic Concepts

      Jul 30, 2019

      A regular grammar is a set of production rules for strings in a formal language. These describe how to create strings from the alphabet of the language that are valid according to the fixed syntax of the language. It is important to understand that a

      1 min read

    • Article

      Artificial Intelligence?

      Apr 1, 2021

      Igrew up in the 1970s and 80s, when grammar was not the primary focus of English language lessons. It’s meant I’ve spent the past thirty years catching up, and I’m still learning today. For years, Microsoft Word has littered our screens with red and

      6 min read

    • Article

      Flask Resources

      Jun 4, 2019

      The designers of Flask decided early on that the framework itself would not have all the functions embedded. This philosophy is, of course, an extension of all open source work. When you start using Flask, you may be disappointed by this. Don’t be: t

      1 min read

    • Article

      How to, Like, Speak Better

      May 2, 2023

      How to, Like, Speak Better
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Siri Feature Your Digital PA

      Nov 6, 2020

      Check Appointments: Siri is great for checking your appointments. You can ask what appointments you have coming up for the rest of the week or month, what’s coming up between two dates, and more. Just ask Siri a question in regular English and it wil

      1 min read

    • Article

      Write A Novel On Your Mac

      Apr 22, 2021

      Write A Novel On Your Mac
      11 min read

    • Article

      Ace That Oral

      Sep 29, 2023

      Ace That Oral
      4 min read

    • Article

      Work And Play

      Nov 4, 2021

      Work And Play
      3 min read

    • Article

      Master The Dictionary App

      Dec 8, 2020

      Master The Dictionary App
      1 min read

    • Article

      Internet Search Engines

      Sep 3, 2020

      Internet Search Engines
      3 min read

    • Article

      Abbreviations

      Dec 17, 2019

      Abbreviations
      1 min read

    • Article

      Beware Corporate Waffle

      Sep 24, 2021

      Corporate jargon is an irritating fact of life. But it can also damage your investment returns, if a new study is to be believed, reports John Authers in Bloomberg. Analysts at investment bank Nomura looked at the language used by top executives at A

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Professionals

      May 6, 2021

      The Professionals
      5 min read

    • Article

      Catalog your Collections

      Apr 26, 2022

      Catalog your Collections
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar, Third Edition

    4/5

    12 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      A wonderfully clear and useful explanation of the basics of Arabic grammar. Serves as an excellent companion to a textbook, such as the confusing Al-Kitaab.

    Book preview

    Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar, Third Edition - Jane Wightwick

    1 The Arabic root system

    The key to understanding how Arabic grammar works is in its system of roots. Once you understand how roots work, you can start to identify which are the root letters of a word and understand the patterns they produce. You will then be able to form the different structures following the patterns and use your knowledge to pronounce words correctly and to guess at the meaning of vocabulary.

    We can begin by looking at some English words:

    necessary

    unnecessary

    necessitate

    necessarily

    necessity

    As a speaker of English, you can see that these words are connected in meaning. You see the combination of letters necess and you know that this word is connected with the meaning of needing. You can recognize the extra letters on the beginning and end of the word as additional to the meaning: un- meaning not; the ending -ity showing that the word is a noun; -ly that it is an adverb, etc.

    Now look at these Arabic words:

         (kataba) he wrote

    (kitaab) book

    (maktab) office

      (yaktub) he writes

    (kaatib) writer

    Can you spot the three Arabic letters that appear in each of the words on the previous page? You should be able to see that these letters appear in all the words:

    (Look at Appendix (i) if you need to remind yourself of the Arabic alphabet.)

    Notice that the letters appear in the same order in all of the words: the kaaf comes first, then the taa’, and finally the baa’. These three letters, in this order, are the root.

    Look back at the previous page again and see if you can spot these three root letters in all the words. Notice that sometimes there are other letters as well as the root letters, but the root letters will always appear in the same sequence.

    The root sequence we have looked at (kaaf, taa’, baa’) is connected with the meaning of writing. Whenever you see a word with this root, it probably has something to do with writing. The root letters mushroom into many different possible words. For example, when the root letters are put into a particular pattern with the letter miim at the front, the meaning becomes a place of writing, or a desk/an office:

    (maktab)

    The vast majority of Arabic words contain three root letters, as in the example above. Much of Arabic grammar is concerned with manipulating the three root letters into different patterns. If you look back at the English words on the first page of this chapter, you will see that most of the changes take place at the beginning and the end of the word, leaving the core untouched. Arabic, on the other hand, adds letters, or combinations of letters, between the root letters, as well as on the beginning and end. Look at the word for book (kitaab):

    As a symbol to represent the three root letters of any word, Arabic grammar uses the letters . So the word for office – (maktab) – is the pattern; i.e., the root letters have ma before them, a sukuun over the first root letter and a fatHa over the second root letter. In the same way, the word (kitaaba) would be the pattern, (kutub) would be the pattern, etc. In the first chapters of the book, we have tried to also use other common words to illustrate the patterns. However, later we have introduced more examples using , since this is the convention understood most widely by both native speakers and Arabists.

    You will find the root system very helpful once you have understood the concept and been introduced to some of the more common patterns. Native Arabic speakers have an instinctive understanding of how their language works, but as a learner you will need to approach it more methodically. Soon you will begin to see the pattern and the shape of words, and the structure of the language will start to become apparent.

    Using a dictionary

    It is worth adding a note about how to use an Arabic dictionary. It is possible to put Arabic in strict alphabetical order as we do in English, and this is becoming more common in the age of computerized alphabetization (see page 124 for the order of the Arabic letters). However, the most widely used dictionary for learners (A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, Hans Wehr) uses a system based on the root letters of the word. This means all words with the same root letters are grouped together. You will need to try and figure out the root letters of a word before you can look it up in the dictionary. Here is an example, showing the root (katab):

    The Arabic–English verb index on pages 128–143 of this book is arranged in strict alphabetical order. From this you can identify the root letters for a particular verb, enabling you to look it up in Wehr’s dictionary, and other similarly arranged references.

    Listen to the Authors’ Tutorial for a friendly audio introduction to this topic.

    Part One:

    Arabic Verbs

    2 Regular verbs: The basic tenses

    Arabic is relatively straightforward when it comes to tenses. Some languages have many tenses and are very specific about the time of an action and whether or not the action has been completed. Arabic grammar is vague about time and there are only two basic tenses:

    • The past (or perfect)

    • The present (or imperfect)

    The Past

    In a simple regular verb, the basic past tense will look like this:

    (kataba): (he) wrote

    (shariba): (he) drank

    (Hamala): (he) carried

    The three root letters are all followed by a vowel. In most cases this is all fatHas (kataba/Hamala), but sometimes the second vowel is a KaSra (shariba). (In rare cases, the second vowel is a Damma (u), but you can ignore these verbs since you are not likely to see or use them.)

    If we take off the final vowel, this (he/it) part

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1