5 comments about Read and Speak Arabic for Beginners.

1. This book is wonderful to start out with. It is quite large, the size of a standard notebook, so as to make it easy to write and practice in. However it does not explain to well the back ground of the Arabic language, the follow alog CD and writting exercises makes learning Arabic farely simple.



2. I received this product in a good amount of time and it was in good shape.



3. This book is a valuable resource as an introduction to Arabic for someone who wants an introduction to the alphabet and some basic volabulary, grammar and phrases. It is well-designed to make learning easy and fun. It is also a great value because it comes with a CD and flashcards to help with pronunciation and script recognition.
   
   I think a weakness of the book is the superficial treatment of script in the middle of the text. However, it is an adequate introduction, but to me learning the script would be easier with a book like The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read & Write It. This is a much more comprehensive, accessible and less intimidating exposure to learning Arabic script and it is still less than 100 pages.



4. This text is useful. It begins from the basics and proceeds at a realistically slow pace. The CD is very helpful for pronunciation. HOWEVER, one big drawback is the way the author introduces written Arabic script. Although she does not SYSTEMATICALLY introduce the script until near the END of the book, she uses the script from the very first lesson, where she blithely - overly optimistically - instructs the student to simply remember the overall SHAPE or appearance of words written in Arabic. I challenge anyone to be able to do this!!! Beyond a few words, that is. Unit exercises often present words in Arabic script only, with no Roman scipt trancription, so you really have to master reading the script to fully paricipate in the program. The solution is to jump ahead to the end of the book, and study the letters first - but you won't get much help with this - there are no graduated exercises. I do not find Arabic script "easy" (much harder than Cyrillic script, for example, although easier/faster to learn than Japanese's three concurrent scripts) and I crave more support than this book offers. (There is a companion book by same author and one other, for learning to write Arabic.)



5. I have arabic for dummies and it is better, incl CD for audio. I am a visual learner, so I need to SEE how to say it. Following a CD in this book is not easy, if you can't see it too. I would NOT recommend this book for beginners.

5 comments about Teach Yourself Arabic Complete Course Package (Book + 2CDs) (Teach Yourself . . . Complete Courses).

1. Hi
   
   Being a non arabic speaking fellow, i sincerely found the book to be a companion in learning how to read, write and even speak arabic
   
   M.M. Abubakar



2. I am working my way through this book very thoroughly, I am on chapter 8 at the moment, and here is what I think about it. The first thing that really desperately needs improvement is they give you vocabulary words, but they do not have audio to match each vocabulary word, so unless you want to go back and find each place were every word occurs in the dialogue, you have to rely on the roman type sound-alike pronunciation that they list near the actual arabic type. Are they to cheap to pay someone who speaks Arabic well to pronounce each vocabulary word? By the way I concur with an earlier reviewer, in that this is not the book you want to start with . . . . start out with a book that explains the Arabic alphabet and shows you how to write in Arabic. On the positive side, they DO use Arabic script, when there are a lot of courses out there that use roman script to try to teach Arabic, and I ask, what good is that? . . . If you are going to study Arabic, why would you not want to learn to READ it too?
   
   The stories from the Arabian Nights are great, I would love to see them expanded upon in some later edition.
   
   Given what I have seen out there in Arabic courses, I rate this at four stars . . . Transparent Language does better if you ask me, and if I use my imagination, there is a LOT of room for improvement in many of the Arabic courses out there. If there were more competent Arabic courses out there though, I would be rating this a three, due to the forementioned issues with this 2003 version.



3. It's far too difficult for a light approach - you really have to want to learn Arabic for more than just a vacation trip. My own fault, though, since I just assumed it would be more suitable for my needs.



4. I had taken a six week intensive course in Iraqi Arabic in the military a few years ago, and ordered this with the intention of refreshing and maybe adding to what I knew. This course, like most of the "Teach Yourself" courses is wonderful. It works to provide a solid foundation before moving on to actual phrases. It's so difficult to really get all the sounds in Arabic correct and the audio CD helps immensely with this. It would be even better if they offered a video DVD supplement, but I'm sure that's in the works. Lessons are very well organized and really allows you to learn at your own pace.



5. This book takes you step by step to demystify the Arabic language. I thought the script would be hard to learn, but it's actually not that hard. I enjoy using the book very much.

5 comments about 501 Arabic Verbs: Fully Conjugated in All Forms.

1. The book provides an exhaustive list of verb conjugations for the 501 Arabic verbs it contains. Its drawback is the way it is organized. In order to actually find the verb you want to conjugate, you have to know what root letters are. Once you identify these root letters (in Arabic), you can then search the back of the book until you find the verb and from this the number of the verb (out of the 501). The number corresponds closely to the page the verb conjugations are found on. From there, you need to understand linguistic terms for verb tenses to find what you want. If you are a novice in Arabic, you will need a companion dictionary to use this book.



2. This is the first verb book I've owned for Arabic. It appears to be a useful and worthwhile reference. Verbs in Arabic aren't quite as complex as in some other languages, but it certainly is a good idea to have a reference book like this when you are learning. I only have two small complaints and both deal with organization. First of all, verbs are not one per page, but run across pages which makes the book a little more annoying than it had to be. If they can fit all 14 conjugations for a Spanish verb on one page, I would think they could squeeze in one verb per page in Arabic too. Second, the layout of the verbs seems a little counterintuitive and at odds with many textbooks. 3rd person forms are listed at the top of the chart and 1st person forms are at the bottom. This is the opposite of usual practice in many books.



3. The introduction is a clear explanation of Arabic verbs written for non-experts. In the paradigms, the 14 personal forms of each aspect ("tense") and voice are clearly laid out. The third masculine singular perfect form is at the top of each paradigm because it is always the simplest form of each verb.
   
   The only complaint I have about the two indexes is that there is no distinctive first page for each index. Each just starts at the very top with the title in the upper margin. At first I thought that the alphabetization was messed up, but finally I noticed that at the top of the first six pages was one title, and on the last six pages there was another title. But this is, ultimately, a minor quibble. Once you notice the different titles, the organization becomes clear. An English index would be nice, but it is hardly indispensable, since students can and should consult dictionaries anyway.
   
   Although no individual paradigm goes across pages, some people would like to see all the forms of each verb on a single page. To accomplish this with Arabic, though, you would have to use microscopic print, have much larger pages, or omit the examples. All things considered, I think the publishers have made reasonable choices. I speak as a linguist who has spent many years using numerous reference works for many languages, and also as a professional editor who is familiar with the kinds of trade-offs that have to be made when planning any publication. You have to compromise somewhere; the compromises in this book are, at least in my view, acceptable.



4. The first part of the book has a decent explanation of Arabic verbs, their tenses and usage.
   
   However, the actual listings of the verbs is not as well done. The organization of the verb conjugations isn't easily understood at first and it isn't well explained. As for formatting, the pagination often breaks verb clusters at odd places and the formatting doesn't pick up column headers for lists when they are broken and carry onto a second page. These two missteps make following the conjugations difficult to follow.
   
   The book does include good examples of how the verbs are used in sentences, and does a good job of starting a verb listing with its root and then extending that root to as many applications as possible.
   
   Finally, the index has the verbs listed in alphabetical order in Arabic, without English translations. There is no English verb index at all. This makes finding a verb very difficult for beginners and even for intermediate students who don't have a dictionary at hand.
   
   Over all, its a decent tool to help learn Arabic, but it isn't directed at beginners and it shouldn't be a student's only guide to verb conjugation.



5. Used together with Hans Wehr's indispensable dictionary, this book is very useful for the intermediate learner of Arabic. However, the lack of English indexing is extremely frustrating. In short, it's definitely worth having until the next edition comes out - hopefully with a much-improved index.
   
   PROS:
   
   1. Each of the 501 verbs is conjugated neatly in its 65 different forms according to:
   
   - person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd)
   
   - number (singular, dual, plural)
   
   - gender (feminine and masculine)
   
   - voice (active and passive)
   
   - mood (perfect (maadhi), imperfect (marfoo'a), subjunctive (mansoob), jussive (majroor), imperative (amr))
   
   - active participle (sighat al-fa'il), passive participle (sighat al-maf'ool), and verbal noun (masdar)
   
   These are all the forms that Arabic professors expect you (as an intermediate or advanced student) to know off the top of your head, but that few of us can actually recite perfectly - especially for weak verbs, hollow verbs, etc. So it's great having it all in once place as a reference. Even for the beginner, seeing all of this laid out for each verb in one place will give you a good visual schema for how Arabic verbs work.
   
   2. Each verb comes with three or four example sentences using different forms of the verb in context. Very helpful if you're trying to learn new verbs.
   
   3. Each verb comes with its verb pattern (wazn, I to X) and root (jadhr). The book is alphabetized by jadhr, just like Hans Wehr. The verbs are also indexed at the back of the book alphabetically in Arabic as well (i.e. by spelling of the pattern of the verb listed, not just by root).
   
   4. Unlike some other reviewers, I don't find the type to be too small. It's fine. A lot of Arabic texts are written in smaller print than this anyway.
   
   CONS:
   
   1. Although each verb comes with the English meaning, there is no way to look up a verb by its English meaning without flipping through the entire book. This quickly becomes really annoying. It would have taken the publisher a couple of hours and added only a few pages to the end of the book to include an index of the 501 verbs by English definition. This is by far the biggest problem with the book. Without this problem, this would be a five-star book. The way it is, it's about 3 1/2 stars.
   
   2. Although the verbs are indexed at the back of the book and numbered 1-501, page numbers aren't listed to lead you to the verb. Even worse, although the index tells you what verb #70 (out of 501) is, there's no #70 written next to the verb in the body of the book! So the index numbering is completely useless. A big oversight.
   
   3. To make this book even better, it would help to have (a) the plural of the verbal noun (masdar) listed (since these are often irregular) and (b) the prepositions that are used with each verb. I find that I have to look to the example sentences to sort out which preposition comes after each verb, and sometimes that doesn't even clear up the question.
   
   4. There are a few typos to watch out for - I've noticed a couple of sukkuns that should actually be hamzas. But this is a very minor gripe - it's almost 100% correct as far as I can tell.

5 comments about Answer Key To Alif Baa: Introduction To Arabic Letters and Sounds.

1. We meet twice a week at night. No contact with the Teacher in between. So the answer key lets me know how I'm doing with the assignments. You could cheat and just write in the answers but you'd pay dearly for it during quizzes, exams or trips to the board during class. Using this has kept me on track and helped identify things I need to do again - and again.



2. Fine answer key. Very Useful but not completely necessary for study in Alif Baa.



3. This is the answer key. It is very useful if you want to check your work and it isn't very expensive.
   
   Below is my review for the Alif Baa: Introduction to Letters and Sounds set (just to help you while you are looking).
   
   This is the answer key to a product that is AWESOME! The explanations are very clear. The listening exercises give students exposure to colloquial Egyptian Arabic. The listening exercises also help the learner to distinguish between letter sounds and reinforce their letter sound pronunciation.
   
   You really should buy this if you are learning Arabic. It is that useful!



4. My only gripe is that I bought the book in the store and had to buy the answer key online. The answer key should be included with the book in store as well or INCLUDED in the damn book.



5. Alif Baa is SO much better than the later "Al-Kitaab" books in this series. If you want to learn the Arabic script, buy this and do the drills (then turn elsewhere for the language).

5 comments about Arabic Practical Dictionary: Arabic-English English-Arabic (Hippocrene Practical Dictionaries).

1. Great tool! More technical words included for workers of various types overseas. Not as good for basic greetings and conversation, more of a technical resource. Good size, and goes from either language to the other.



2. If you are starting out learning Arabic, this is a good dictionary to help get you started. Its cost makes it very attractive for a student on a budget, as well.



3. I am learning Arabic while I am stationed in Kuwait. This small dictionary is good because it goes both directions between English-Arabic and Arabic-English. It is mighty for its size.



4. I've been studying Arabic pretty intensely for the past 40 weeks: 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. This dictionary is awful to the point of worthlessness. Without giving proper context, the definitions are often wrong or are infrequently used synonyms. By stripping away the underlying root system, it actually harms learning. If you must have an English-Arabic dictionary, get the Oxford, though you're better off just using Google translate. Spend the money and invest the time to learn to use Hans Wehr well but don't bother with this book.



5. This book is superb. I have four other Arabic-English dictionaries, two of which are enormous hardbacks, and this is the one I use every day. It is dog-eared with use. It is comprehensive and clear. If you need just one dictionary--or if the ones you have are a challenge to find what you want in--this is the book for you.

4 comments about Answer Key To Al-Kitaab Fii Ta'allum Al-'Arabiyya with DVDs: Part 1, 2nd Edition.

1. I personally liked the layout. This answer key gives the answers in a concise, organized manner. Please take note that this is different from a solutions manual which gives explainations of the answers.



2. One of the most interesting books teaching the Arabic language. The dvds are an excellent source of pronunciation and make the study much more interesting and pleasant.



3. This is a good supplement for the text and definitely helps in learning Arabic.



4. These answers are great to use while self teaching yourself the material from al-kitaab. The only problem is that not all of the problem sets are answered.

5 comments about Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds.

1. This was the textbook used for my beginning Arabic class in college. It is very helpful and straightforward and is not overwhelming. It was the only resource used for my course, it comes with two dvds. My only complaint is that you have to buy the answer key separate, which granted is not very expensive. This is the cheapest textbook I've ever bought.



2. I used this book for my beginners Arabic class. Its a nice introduction to the Arabic alaphabet. The DVDs were ok. I thought the listening exercises were very helpful. You get to see the word in Arabic, and then hear it. The other parts of the DVD, were not as helpful.



3. I have been using this book in my college Arabic classes three years now. It is an excellent book and is very complete. The DVDs supplement the book nicely. It would be almost impossible not to be able to learn the Arabic alphabet and some basic vocabulary with this book. The problem I have with using it for my classes is that you have to complete 7 of the 10 chapters before knowing all the letters which means we've covered almost half the semester before we can use words that contain some of the latter letters in the alphabet. I'm planning on writing my own curriculum to fix this problem from now on, but I can honestly say that I would recommend this book without reservation, either for use in class on in self study. It won't do a whole lot beyond teaching you to read, write and understand the alphabet and writing system, but that's a big start in Arabic. The Arabic language is not any more difficult than any of the Indo European languages to learn once you have mastered the alphabet.



4. This book is a great product for someone who wants to start to learn Arabic from the ground up. The DVDs that are included are a great training aid and I would highly recommend this product.



5. Currently I am in an intensive language course at BYU and we used this book the first week to learn the Alphabet of Arabic. With this book and hard work my class was able to write the alphabet in just one week and understand the vocabulary words given within the book. This is the best out on the market. I know if you are willing to put in the time you will be able to write the alphabet in one week if you choose to do so. Like any language it takes a great deal of work but the rewards will be endless. I highly recommend this book to beginning students of Arabic.

5 comments about Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya with DVDs: A Textbook for Beginning Arabic, Part One Second Edition.

1. Teachers of Arabic need to learn how to write books for westerners! This isn't bad for a "conversational" type learning tool, as long as you actually have the accompanying DVDs (you'll be institutionalized for insanity without them!), but this publication contains no relativity to standard applications of linguistic educational methods.
   There are no structural standardizations of verbs, prepositions, rules, or structural contexts as such. This is a frustrating book for the advanced multi-linguist who immediately looks for verb ending sequences, sentence constructs and grammatical rules. This isn't to say that the books are devoid of rules, just not in a manner that the experienced language student would expect them...
   It's not a badly organized tool for the traveling student who wants to advance with social speaking ability, but without proper grammatical constructs, you will not be able to advance without a teacher to clarify many aspects of structure that are absent!
   If you want to learn to SPEAK Arabic, the DVDs enhance that aspect of the speaking process with specific linguistic applications and examples by native speakers...(apparently with Egyptian dialect?) Unfortunately, if you are trying to learn to speak gulf Arabic, your Kuwaiti and Iraqi friends are probably going to laugh at you!



2. I have been a language teacher for 18 years and have been teaching Arabic with this book for the past three. First of all, I have to admit that this is appears to be the top-selling most-used book among the many colleges that are adding Arabic to their curriculum. The authors of the book appear to aware of modern teaching methods and have attempted to incorporate them into their book. The DVDs are, by far the most popular item. The storyline that is presented is popular with students, and there are a number of items which can be adaped for practice outside of class. That being said, there are a number of drawbacks to the book. The book lacks many of the visuals and varied practice exercises found in other language textbooks. It ends up being more of a series of grammar explanations with rote exercises to practice. The vocabulary and topics presented revolve around the stories from the DVDs. While this is good communicative methodology, the way in which it is done leaves the student somewhat limited with regard to vocabulary for other areas. I am using Ahlan wa Sahlan in my high school classes, and while that book does not have the glitzy multimedia materials, it appears to be somewhat more complete and balanced with regard to introducing topics. Either or these two books are probably some of the most popular and best choices available, but any student who has studied Spanish will immediately realize how far behind Arabic is with regard to contemporary materials.



3. Most of the points about this book's limitations have been made already (Harun ar-rashid's review for example) but I can't resist the urge to point out a few that I find particularly irritating.
   
   --Vocabulary pages and the glossaries are right-justified. This means six inches between the beginning of the word in English on the left and the beginning of its counterpart in Arabic on the right. It's hard to scan across inches of white space between the words without rules under each line.
   
   Vocab lists benefit from being narrow but in this book the words are as far apart as they can possibly get. I draw lines under each entry as a visual aid. Better to have the Arabic word in the left column, right-justified, and the English word in the right column, left justified. So they're back-to-back, as it were. Better still three columns, with the transliteration in the middle column. But...
   
   --No transliteration. It's apparently a crutch that runs counter to the "see if you can figure it out" pedagogical principle the authors have embraced (the "coy" or "where's Waldo" methodology). But that gulf of white space in the vocab listings is a perfect place for a transliteration. I have a Japanese vocab book that does just that. Three columns: the word in English, the Japanese word in romaji, the word in kanji. All in about three inches horizontally. This is non-coy. It allows for different angles of attack. Some people (like me) prefer to get the pronunciation down before tackling the written word. I can memorize the words quickly given the aural cue of transliteration then armed with its sound and meaning, learn the written word. In other words providing the transliteration allows you to break the memorization down into more granular discrete tasks which you can then organize according to your learning style. Also the transliterations should be used within the English explanations of the grammar. Plunking individual words written in Arabic in the middle of English sentences is awkward and unnatural.
   
   --Of course, it's ridiculous that you learn how to say "my maternal aunt is a translator at the United Nations" before you learn how to say "where is the bathroom". "Political science" before "I don't know", etc.
   
   --Inconsistent written Arabic. On page 7 are three different representations of the word "feminine". On the next page is a fourth way. Look it up in the glossary and sure enough, a fifth way. Two ways I can deal with: vowelled first, unvowelled thereafter. No more, please.
   
   --The typography is uninviting, primitive, hideous almost, as if produced using a typesetting system from the 1950s. The Arabic font is smudgy (shadda and hamza are sometimes just blurs), the page layout is atrocious (eg, the tables on pp 24-5).
   
   Jane Wightwick's Easy Arabic Grammar explains the grammar in a much smaller, visually appealing presentation. After finding and puzzling through al-Kitaab's explanations I look at Wightwick for the concise version.
   
   The most useful thing about al-Kitaab I think are the example sentences for the vocab words. But these sentences, which are spoken on the DVD, aren't in the book! They are, however, in the so-called Answer Key. Who knows why--they aren't "answers". They're examples, and useful ones, though of course no translation is provided. Hiding them untranslated in the answer key is in keeping with the "where's Waldo" methodology.
   
   So, here's one way to extract some usefulness out of this beast. There's a CD of the MP3 version of all the files on the DVDs (not easy to find, naturally--it's in Amazon, do a search, same author). Get it, put the MP3s onto the computer, and rearrange them into playlists structured according to what you need. I have the vocab lists and their helpful example sentences in a separate playlist. I copy those sentences from the answer key onto separate sheets. Then on the iPod, put the playlist on repeat while reading the sentences. This is much easier to manage than the clumsy DVDs, and you can listen to them in the car.
   
   Figuring out how to extract useful info from this book is a task in itself. The pity is, that the language is already hard enough, and a book like this makes it harder still.



4. While I would say that you shouldn't try this on your own, in the context of the classroom, it's a very useful resource. It does not stand on its own in terms of learning material for everyday conversational use but it does not pretend to do so.
   
   For those who would knock it, read the introduction. It is not shy about relating the amount of effort that must be put in to get an adequate result.



5. This product is by far the undisputed standard for learning how to read, write & speak arabic. I have purchased many others before buying this one, including 'teach yourself arabic' and 'living language complete arabic' but they fell far short of expectations.
   
   The text is thorough and is filled with challenging and interesting exercises. The DVDs complement the text very well, and make the learning experience more interactive and interesting. The native speakers featured are excellent and the dialogues relevant. One of the best features of this course is the positioning of standard arabic alongside egyptian colloquial arabic. I found this especially helpful as over the years, I have developed a basic command of spoken egyptian arabic and had no idea what the standard equivalent was. This course has given me the ability to differentiate between both and switch accordingly depending on the situation.
   
   I would recommend this course to anyone interested in learning arabic without hesitation. Other courses I have purchased in the past are far inferior and do not even compare to this one.

5 comments about Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic.

1. Its the book recommended by my Arabic class, and for good reason. It is written in big type and has a huge vocabulary. It does not provide vowels, but it does give an english transliteration, which makes it easy to determine what the vowels are. Sorted by roots.



2. Everything everyone has said about this dictionary is basically true, but let me give a slightly different take on it. I was a DLI student too, and I can confirm that this dictionary which is issued on arrival to Arabic students does enjoy an almost religious following. However, most teachers there who are native speakers but not trained linguists or teachers, will tell you that they really didn't learn the root system as students in their native countries and many of them have a hard time using this dictionary themselves. One such teacher helped us order copies of the Mawrid alphabetically-arranged dictionary which we ended up using more. I think the Mawrid is a better choice for starters. To me, the Hans-Wehr dictionary is more of a tool for linguists or serious students. As a teacher, I actually think students should stay away from dictionaries the first year or two because they end up being a distraction or a crutch. If you decide to buy this as your first and only dictionary, just be very aware of how it's organized, and be ready to learn how to identify roots.



3. This well known dictionary received much praising from many reviewers. And there is no doubt that it is a very valuable scholarly study indeed. But it is highly demanding from the user and one must be very carefull not to fool himself that the ever-lasting problem of looking up to an Arabic word shall be solved fore once and all by this one. Far from it! It is even very hard to say that Hans-Weher dict is better and easier than other root-based ones in this respect. I believe that there are so many Arabic words that even a highly educated native speaker of Arabic would no be able to pin-point in this dictionary. I am rather inclined to say that ,with this dictionary, the infamous vicious-circle of root recognition is so much pronounced for so many entities, unless you are a master of the language and know already that difficult word very well. But ,then, why to look for it at all, if you are not an Arabic scholar with some special purpose?. I forward my strong warnings to those who are at some middle level of their Arabic adventure: Don't belive to the story that Arabic is a highly rule based language, so that it is trivial to recognize roots, plurals etc easily. Yes rules are there in Arabic and so many of them. But with as much exceptions as you would (not) like! Involved in Arabic since fairly a long time and able to recognize so many words from my own native language (Turkish) which have borrowed so heavily from this comprehensive one, I ,more often than not, am bwildered in deciding which one has the upper hand; exceptions or rules! Once more don't deceive yourself into believing that the regular three consonant-root pattern is ,by far, the dominant one as told by the grammar books. Even it might be so on sheer statistical basis, those with weak consonants and the more and more troublesome "hemzet" as well as the brooken plurals are by far the most frequent ones in actual usage.
   
   Surely for any one seriously concerned with Arabic an alphabetically ordered dictionary such as Al Mawrid (if you know a better one please let me know) is inevitable. As for a root based one as Hans-Weher, I would rather recommend to those who know French, Larousse's bilingual dictionary, at least as a supplement.



4. The Hans-Wehr is the standard for Arabic-English dictionaries. The comprehensive manner in which it explains the word forms provides you with a fantastic picture of meaning.
   
   Although it is laid-out in word root order, once you get a handle on how to approach it, it's English-style layout makes searching for words simple and relatively quick. The layout (root order) also provides you with an insight into where common meanings are derived from a single idea (i.e. the word for United comes from the root which also gives you the word for the number 1). If this doesn't suit you, maybe you should also have a dictionary such as Al-Mawrid.
   
   A word of advice to anyone looking at the Hans-Wehr: Read the introduction. If you don't, you probably won't know what's going on at all and I suspect this is the problem that some have had (and subsequently rated the dictionary poorly). From this book, you will get context, grammatical info and even a degree of pronunciation guide.
   
   Good luck!



5. I can't say anything more than what has already been said by the majority of the other reviewers. Great resource for students of Arabic once past the basics.

5 comments about The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read & Write It.

1. i really like this book. the writer teaches you some very important basics and he does it in a way that a friend would. the book is thin and lightweight so the thought of getting through it isnt depressing! Basically you read the book and get the basics and all thats left is practice practice practice! Also helpful to buy some audio lessons in arabic to hear exactly how the leeters should be pronounced.



2. This was a gift for my wife and although I cannot offer too many specifics, it appears to have greatly helped her in her Arabic studies. If you have a family member or friend who is studying Arabic, this may be an ideal gift.
   
   I wish I could offer more input on the content, but since I'm not knowledgeable about the alphabet, I can only provide information on how helpful the material was for my spouse.



3. This is probably the most perfect self-help book I have ever used. The system starts from the basics and contually builds on that to make the complexity of the language very simple and manageable. You learn a group of letters that share something in common (ex: ba',ta', and tha'). The perfect companions to this book is the translated/transliterated/arabic publication of the Qur'an (ISBN 9781930097537), a couple of children's books in arabic, an arabic newspaper, and audio(which can be found online).



4. I live in Kuwait and got tired of my eyes crossing in confusion every time I looked at Arabic writing. The alphabet is intimidating. Each letter has a different look depending upon where it is in a word for example. However, I bought this book thinking, "Hey, couldn't hurt." I found the book exceptionally easy to use. I continue to refer to it, even though I had mastered the basics of the alphabet and written words in two evenings of reading at bedtime. If you want to understand the Arabic alphabet without tearing out your hair, this is the way to go.



5. This book is a great inexpensive way to dip your toes into the Arabic alphabet and find out if you want to continue. You will run across questions that will send you running to a patient Arabic speaker if you know one. For deeper study I recommend Alif Baa because you get deeper explanations and dvds where you can hear correct pronunciation. Don't forget to purchase the answer booklet which is $4.95 on Amazon.