Request for help in learning Arabic

[Ahmad H]

As-salamu 'alaykum wa rahmatulahi wa barakatuhu,

My dear brothers and sisters! I make a humble request to any one of you who is willing to help me in my journey to try and learn Arabic. I need someone or some people who I know come to this forum often to see if they can help me to understand the language better. I am not asking for teachers, but I am using books I downloaded from online to try and learn Arabic with exercises. I am using the book "An Introduction to Koranic and Classical Arabic" by Wheeler M. Thackston. I don't know how reliable it is, but I am trying to do the exercises after reading the lessons and I find that sometimes I just don't get how to translate the sentences after reading the lessons. I read on other forums online that some native Arabic speakers (or those who just know the language) said that the Key to the Exercises is not reliable and has mistakes. This has thrown me into a dilemma by not being able to use it. How can I check my answers and hope to improve if I cannot verify that my understanding is improving?

My request is that I very sincerely need someone or some others out there who know this beautiful language to help me. My quest to learn this language started about a year and a half ago, and I have only made small headway in progress. I want to know if there is anyone out there who can help me by answering posts where I can ask about these exercises and what I feel some passages mean in translation, and to correct my mistakes and help me to understand them better. I do this to be able to understand the Qur'an better and to be able to read its Tafsir and the Ahadith as well as their Tafsirs. I can only access most Islamic sources by reading them in Arabic, so I really have no choice but to progress in learning Arabic. I just need some help along the way.

Brothers and sisters! I just need to know. Is there anyone out there who is willing to help me out? I try so often to learn and find it so difficult. I just need some responses to know someone is there to support me. May Allah reward you for opening your hearts and helping out a brother.

[abo mussaab]

http://www.goethe-verlag.com/book2/index.htm

[sameer123]

wa alaikumussalaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Brother, if you are a beginner then why not start with famous books? like madina books, al-arabiyyah bayna yadaik etc. All of these books are famous and have a large community to help.

I prefer madina books. Check http://www.lqtoronto.com/downloads.html . You can find here madina books, their keys, solutions, videos, audios etc.

[Ahmad H]

Wa 'alaykum as salaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu,

I use the Madina books and many others as well. The only problem is that I get confused by certain rules of Arabic grammar and I desperately need someone to be there so I can figure out some of them.

When it comes to matters such as the Verb forms and some of the morphology of the words, then I get very confused. Things such as the use of 'ma', 'kana', 'hatta', etc. confuse me so much it depresses me. i can't find a source which explains every use of these with sufficient examples. I use the "Quranic Arabic Corpus" website to try to learn these as well, and I find that when I want to understand the correspondence of a word such as any one of these three for example, then I find that i can't apply my knowledge of those words yet because I haven't learned how to fully understand them yet. So I need examples from a person who knows these.

I don't need a teacher online, but I need to know if anyone is out there who can answer questions such as these on the forum. Just clarifications.

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[sameer123]

assalaamu alaikum.
What is that which you have not understood about maa, kaana and hatta?

[Ahmad H]

assalaamu alaikum.
What is that which you have not understood about maa, kaana and hatta?

Everything. I only know that ما is used for questioning and used as an equivalent of 'what'. I know that there are many other uses for it too. When i read a sentence in Arabic that I understand almost completely, the use of ما always throws me off. I find rules are given online but I haven't found enough examples of it.

As for 'kaana', I am not sure of its exact use. I only know it is used in so many ways, be is as: be, is, it is, etc. Then when it is used with other conjunctions and prepositions it is changed to something different, not to mention the prefixes and suffixes. I just can't predict the change.

And don't get me started on 'hatta'. I have heard of it's use in both literal ways and metaphorical ways. I only know its meaning is somewhat obscure. Even so, there has to be some way of knowing what it means. If its context, then I haven't seen enough examples.

This is what I mean by needing some answers. My questions aren't about these right now as much as i have questions about certain rules which are used.

Do you mind if I direct a question to you on the construct state? I think the term is 'mudaf ilaihi'. I may be wrong. I haven't been focusing on the Arabic names for the grammatical terms. If I must confess.

[sameer123]

assalaamu alaikum.

Maa can come in various ways:

1. ما النّافِيَةُ
the negative maa, e.g., مَا فَهِمْتُ, I did not understand. ما لي أخٌ, I have no brother.

2. ما الحِجَازِيَّةُ
negative maa which is used in a nominal sentence, and renders its khabar منصوب, e.g., ما هذا بشرا (Q 12:31), 'This is not a human being.' The khabar may also take a baa' zaa'idah which renders it مجرور, e.g., و ما الله بِغَافِلٍ عمّا تعمَلُونَ (Q 2:74), 'And Allah is not unaware of what you do.' The particle maa which does not render its khabar منصوب is known as ما التَّمِيمِيَّة, e.g., ما أنا مَرِيضٌ.

3. ما التَّمِيميَّةُ
already discussed under ما الحِجَازِيَّةُ

4. ما الاستِفْهَامِيَّةُ
interrogative maa meaning 'what', e.g., ما هذا؟, 'what is this?' Also ماذا, e.g., ماذا أَكَلْتَ؟, 'what did you eat?'

5. ما النكِرة التامة المبهمة
this maa means 'some', 'a certain', e.g., لِأَمْرٍ ما, for some reason, في يومٍ ما, on a certain day, أعْطِنِي كِتابًا ما, give me some book.

6. ما المصدَرِيَّةُ
maa denoting a مصدر, e.g., اقْرأْ كَما يَقْرَأُ المدرِّسُ, 'read as the teacher does.' Here كَما يقْرَأُ المدرس means كَقِراءةِ المدرسِ which is مصدر.

7. ما المصدريةُ الظَّرْفِيَّةُ
maa denoting both a مصدر and a ظرف, and meaning 'as long as', e.g., سَيَبقَى الإسلامُ ما بَقِيَ العالَمُ, 'Islam will last as long as the world lasts.' Here ما بَقِيَ العالمُ has the sense of مُدَّةَ بَقَاءِ العالمِ, 'the period of the lasting of the world' which combines the ظرف and the مصدر.

8. ما التَّعَجُّبِيَّةُ
maa denoting wonder, e.g., ما أجْمَلَ النُّجُومَ, how beutiful the stars are!

9. ما الموصولة
the relative maa, e.g., لا أعْرِفُ ما كَتَبْتَ, I do not know what you wrote.

10. ما الشرطية
the conditional maa, e.g., ما تَشْرَبْ أشْرَبْ, whatever you drink, I will drink (the same).

All of these maa's are taught in Madina Books.


Hatta can come in 3 meanings:
1. (harf jar) till, until, e.g., سَلـٰمٌ هِىَ حَتَّى مَطْلَعِ الْفَجْرِ (Q 97:5).
2. (harf jar) so that, e.g., سَأَلْتُكَ أسْئِلَةً كَثِيرَةً حتّى أفْهَمَ المسْأَلَةَ تَمَامَ الفَهْمِ, I asked you several questions so that I might understand the matter completely.
3. even, e.g., حتّى الطفْلُ يعْرِفُ هذا, even a child knows this.

Hatta and kaana are also explained in Madina Books.


This thing happens when there is a lack of a source book. I think you read one book and after completing it you start reading another book because of your interest in Arabic. I appreciate your interest. May Allah increase all of us in knowledge. But brother, choose one book as your source book. Revise that book so many times so that you get a sort of hands-on experience with it.

What you want to ask about mudaaf/mudaaf ilaihi?

[Ahmad H]

Jaz'akallah.

My question is on the following Arabic sentence:

بيت الملك الكبير

A book I used showed two different transliterations and thus a different way of looking at the sentence due to this:

Transliteration 1: baytu l-maliki l-kabiru
Translation 1: the king's great house

Transliteration 2: baytu l-maliki l-kabiri
Translation 2: the great king's house

How would I know it is different when I don't know the short vowels in a sentence? How could I tell what case endings it has if there is no real way of knowing how?This has always bothered me when learning Arabic. I knew there were rules, but when a sentence could go either way, how do I know? Is it context or something else? I appreciate the help.

[sameer123]

The only way I know to identify the man'oot is through case-ending.
If الكبير is marfoo then بيت will be man'oot. If it is majroor then الملك will be man'oot.

By the way, the Mushafs which we recite are fully vowelized. So the scenario of the absense of short vowels will not happen inshaAllah. But lets see what others say.

[tearose]

:wasalamex

Maa can come in various ways:

jazaka Allahu khair brother, your post was really helpful!

[tearose]

A book I used showed two different transliterations and thus a different way of looking at the sentence due to this:
Transliteration 1: baytu l-maliki l-kabiru
Translation 1: the king's great house
Transliteration 2: baytu l-maliki l-kabiri
Translation 2: the great king's house

:wasalamex

I came across a very similar sentence in a book called a new Arabic grammar. I don't have the book here with me but from what I remember the author said that it was just an ambiguous sentence. I wouldn't worry about it though, all languages as far as I know have this possibility of ambiguity. So I don't think this will cause you too many problems of understanding in sha Allah.

[Ahmad H]

Jaz'akallah. That settles some of those doubts in my heart about not knowing what the sentences would mean in the future. I appreciate your help brother. If I have more questions in the future then I will definitely make a new thread for it.