Baby Arabic Lessons - Learn from here Insha Allaah.

format_quote Originally Posted by *ShEeBa*

ma andee shee tarboosh

Correct you just wrote "I do not have a hat."

Alesh ma andec shee tarboosh? = Why don't you have a hat? The alesh has changed the statement ma andec shee tarboosh (You don't have a hat.) Into a question.

alesh makes any statement into a question. It can best be thought of as meaning why.

I am blatantly writting stuff from the first Arabic lesson book I ever had and still have. That is "Arabic Made Easy" by Moucef Saheb-Ettaba and his wife Caroline Squire Saheb-Ettaba. The 1959 edition. It is an excellent book to learn basic Arabic from.

The only "Pure Arabic" is the Qur'anic Arabic, all of the various dialects have been changed through the use of slang and local pronunciations. However, the Qur'anic has remained pure and is free from slang or error. It is the only Arabic understood by all Arabic speaking people.

If you never learn more than one Surah in Arabic, let that be Al-Fatiha.

You all are fortunate there are quite a few brothers and sisters here that do understand Qur'anic Arabic. Sadly, I am still better with the colloquial Moroccan form. But, at least the basic grammar is the same and many common words are the same.

Brother Fi has done a service by starting this thread, now hopefully we can all make it productive and each of us learn. My goal is to gain knowledge of the Qur'anic Arabic. Maybe we can help each other.

format_quote Originally Posted by Islamicboy

Alaa= On/ Top ?

Alaa also transliterated as A'la, A'laa etc. Actually has many meanings but are all related to things similar to the highest, the topmost, the greatest etc.

Suffixes Continued...


Like Woodrow has explained, there are other forms of suffixes aswell (which are at the end of the word.)


Now i will give some examples of some words, and then we will add the suffix to the end of the word to apply it to ourselves.



Here are a list of words related to family members;

Abu (which means father)

Umm = mother

Akh = brother

Ukht = sister

Now to say them words by themselves is ok, but if you want to be more specific, then you will have to add the suffixes at the end.


EE = MY

For example;


Akh = brother.

If i want to say 'My brother' - i will have to add EE at the end of it.

akhEE = MY brother.

ukhtEE = MY sister

ummEE = MY mother

AbEE = MY father.

Always remember: MY = EE




Ain/Aan


The suffixes - Ain and Aan are usually placed at the end of a word to explain that the thing being mentioned is double or the second.

For example:


ukht by itself means sister.

ukhtEE = MY sister

ukhtAIN/AAN = TWO sisters.


Akh = brother

IkhwAAN = TWO brothers or more.



or we can take the example from Surah Rahmaan:


Jannat = garden

JannatAIN/AAN = TWO gardens


Even the word:


Rajul = man


RajulAIN/AAN = two men.



The final example is of the two Harams (holy sanctuaries) [of Makkah and Medina]

A Haram by itself is just called Haram.

2 Harams are called HaramAIN/AAN.

So always Remember, if there is an AAN or AIN at the end of a word, it's probably talking in the DOUBLE.

If you look at the number two/2 in the arabic language: IthnAIN/AAN - you will understand that the AIN/AAN is derived from the number 2 to mean 'double.'



And Allaah knows best.

Brother Fi

Very beneficial thread, jazaak ALLAH khayr.

edited!!

Kal-Laa is a very interesting phrase. This is an area that shows the depth of the Arabic Language.

In it's simplist literal translation Kal-laa would be translated as "He said no" But it is a very emphatic expression and the depth of it's connotation is much stronger than our concept of nay or never. It is also an example of another way a phrase can be made negative. As I said before you make a statement negative by using ma shee. Laa can also be used to make a statement more emphaticaly negative and more along the lines of being forbidden.

Alesh Ahmed cal deekshee? (Why did Ahmed say that)
Ahmed ma cal shee deekshee. (Ahmed did not say that)
Ahmed Kal-laa!!!! (Emphatic never, Ahmed never said that, never would and don't even suggest he did) (That can be in reference to anything Ahmed may have been referred to)

So getting back to Kal-laa, it is a very strong use of saying no or never. Much stronger than a Human could be capable of, which is probably why it is seldom used in colloqual speaking.

As mentioned above Kal-Laa is one of the ways Never is expressed in the Qur'an. It is also noted that is seldom used in daily spoken Arabic.

An expression used often to denote Never is based on the word Omr which is the root word for life. Omree would mean "My Life" using the suffixes mentioned above we also have Omrec (Your Life) and Omroo (His life)

So using that we have Omree ma which means roughly not in my life, which is often used to mean never.

So If i were to say "Omree ma Cal" It would mean "Not in my life did he say" or a more close English connotation would be "He never said"

Edit: I corrected an error I had made Kal was not the appropiate word to use in Omree ma Kal, What I wrote should have been Omree ma Cal

Jazakallah Khair


just a little note on Balaa (Indeed) and the difference between it and Na'am (yes).

This (Balaa) is used (as Yes/Indeed) in response to a negative question.
For eg: 'a lasta bimuslimin? (Are you not a muslim?)

if you answered Balaa here it would mean Indeed (I am a Muslim) but if you answered Na'am here it would mean No (yes I'm not a Muslim)


WAllahu A'lam

Wow thanks, that shows some depth of the language.

format_quote Originally Posted by Al Habeshi

Wow thanks, that shows some depth of the language.

The morre one learns about the language, the more logical it becomes and there soon comes to be seen various patterns for expressing specific ideas, with extrememe clarity. It's complexity becomes the ultimate simplicity.

As was noteced before a way to turn a atatement into a question is with the use of the word alesh which makes the satement a why statement.

andee= I have
Alesh andee= Why do I have?

Another way is to use the word wesh. wesh it self has no actual meaning, but it turns any statement into a question.

Andec Tarbooshee=You have my hat.

Wesh andec Tarbooshee= Do you have my hat?

deekshee mezeean= that is good

Wesh deekshee mezeean= is that good?

Root Words


Whenever you read words in the arabic language, you will see that it will - the majority of the time - have 3 or sometimes 4 ROOT letters per word.


These Root letters will explain what the word really means, and any extra letters will usually be prefixes or suffixes to explain the words context.

If you can figure out what these 3 letters mean, then you will understand what the word means, or what is being mentioned in the text. So this section is really important to understand inshaa Allaah.



Also, remember that these ROOT letters are consonants, not vowels:


[the vowel sounds:

fatha/zabar - a/aa sound.

dhamma/peysh - u/oo sound.

kasra/zeyr - i/ee sound.]



If you understand this, then you can move onto the next part inshaa Allaah. If not - then re-read it again please.

Putting it into Action:


Now that we understand this. I will give an example of 3 ROOT Letters:


Jeem

Haa

Dal


= J H D

These 3 letters by themselves spelt together would mean 'to strive' (JuHuD)



This is the pattern we would use to make the 3 ROOT Letters into a verb, or action word:


JaaHi D = JaaHiD

So someone who does the action of JHD would be 'striving' - so JaaHiD would be 'to strive'



The pattern mentioned here will be used on all the ROOT Letters we use, to make it an 'action word' or a verb.


After the:

1st Root Letter, we will place besides it: aa (mad/long zabr/fatha)

2nd Root Letter, we will place the: i (zeyr/kasra)

3rd Root Letter, we will stay quiet and not add anything to it.

This rule can be applied to any other ROOT word, i.e.

JHL

(JuHuL?) - these 3 letters together mean ignorance.

JaaHiL would be to put the ignorance into practise/make it a verb, so it would mean that anyone who is ignorant/doesn't know is a JaaHiL.



FSQ (FuSuQ) - these 3 Root Letters together mean someone who is a wrongdoer.

FaaSiQ would be someone who is doing wrong things, a sinner.



R Sh D - these 3 Root Letters together mean guided.

RaaShiD would be someone who is guided.



ZLM (zulm) - these 3 Root Letters together means to wrong someone.

ZaaLiM is someone who did wrong someone.

Insha Allaah you can apply that rule yourself, and i will give you a list of words to apply it to.

Mashallah Bro. Fi, you just posted some very beneficial lessons and with what you have just said anyone who has followed this thread is now well on the way of being able to compose basic sentences in Arabic.

As a side note, you also showed one of the wonders of the language. Virtually every Arabic word can be reduced to a 3 consonat root word and from that simple start, entire sentences can be formed.

This might be a little adavnced at this stage (dunno) but for those interested- in Arabic there are ten most common verb forms

ie ten dif patterns that the 3-letter roots can fall into:

1- فعل fa'ala (basic form- the 3 root letters)

2- فعل fa''ala (at first glance this might look the same as the first form but actually the second letter ('ain) is doubled in this form, so it would be pronounced with emphasis)


3- فاعل faa'ala

4- أفعل 'af'ala

5- تفعل tafa''ala (this is the same as the second form but with a 'ta' in front this time)

6- تفاعل tafaa'ala (this is the same as the third form but with a 'ta' in front)

7- انفعل infa'ala

8- افتعل ifta'ala

9- افعل if'alla (the 'laam' is doubled so pronounced with emphasis 'allla')

10- استفعل istaf'ala


the bits highlighted in light green are the additions to the roots (prefixes/suffixes)

Very nice Ice-Queen, very helpful. It does point out that the key to learning Arabic is to learn the root forms of the words. Once you learn the root you can express any thought related to it.

All of the Arabic text books I have teach grammar by using xxx (3 x's) as representing any word. From that humble beginning you can expand on the grammar rules.

I do believe that everybody is now ready to start building up a vocabulary some common nouns have already been mentioned I would like to go over some and add a few more;

Dar=house
Tarboosh=hat
La-hem=meat
Da-jahj=chicken
Kho-dra=vegetables
Khoo-biz=bread
ta-Bib=Doctor
ta-Bib ahs-naan=Dentist

Now with the prefexes and suffixes everybody now knows we can can ask for any of them or say if we want or have any of them.

I should point out that the above words are not the only Arabic words that would mean about the same thing as the English translation. Arabic is a much more specific language. So there are often several words that can be translated into the same English word, but in Arabic there are subtle differences. It was pointed out to me that Baith is also used to mean house, although both dar and baith will translate into the English house they both have slightly different connotations. dar is more generec and closer to the English building. There are also other words that would mean hat, vegetables and bread. Some of the more specific words will often be found in the Qur'an.