Self-study guide in Arabic for beginners. Arabic for Beginners - Interesting Facts and Tips

- there you can find a lot of useful materials in different languages \u200b\u200band in 12 weeks you can pump your Arabic on your own.

Good textbooks on phonetics:

5) Kovalev A.A., Sharbatov G.Sh. "Textbook of the Arabic language" In the introductory phonetic course, the position of the speech organs when pronouncing all sounds is described in detail and there are exercises for practicing.
6) Lebedev V.G., Tyureva L.S. “Practical course of the Arabic literary language. Introductory course »Here, the position of the organs of speech is also described in detail when pronouncing all sounds and there are exercises for working out.

Recipe

7) Arabic language. Writing. Alphabet, reading, writing ("Dilya" publishing house). All letters of the Arabic language in all positions in the word.
8) “Kharisova G.Kh. Arabic recipe ”Also excellent recipe.

9) Imran Alawiye Arabic without tears. The manual is beautifully designed, the most common font is given.

Essential Skills Resources (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening):

The Arabic language has historically flourished in the world thanks to the development and spread of Islam as one of the world's largest religions. It is known that the Arabic language is the language of the Koran - the Holy Book of Islam. This is the main language of Muslims.

What is interesting to know for everyone who is going to learn Arabic for beginners

1. Where is Arabic spread

Arabic is the official language of 22 countries and is the native language of over 200 million people, geographically living from southeast Asia to northwest Africa, more commonly known as the Arab world.

"Classical" The Arabic language, known as the language of the Quran, is the language in which the Quran is written and is the base language for the syntactic and grammatical norms of modern Arabic. It is this classical Arabic language that is taught in religious schools and in all Arab schools around the world.

"Modern Standard" Arabic is similar to the classical language, but lighter and simpler. It is understood by the majority of Arabs and is broadcast on television, politicians speak it, and foreigners study it. Most Arabic newspapers and modern literature use Modern Standard Arabic.
Arabic spoken language has many different dialects. So, for example, a native of Iraq will hardly understand a local resident of Algeria and vice versa, since they speak completely different dialects. But both of them will be able to communicate with each other if they use Modern Standard Arabic.

2. What any of us already know about the Arabic language

A lot of words came to us from Arabic, and we all know them, for example:

قطن, cotton
سكر, sugar
غزال, gazelle
قيثارة, guitar
الكحول, alcohol
صحراء, Sahara
قيراط, carat
ليمون, lemon

Arabic uses the same punctuation as any other foreign language, such as English, but Arabic has slightly different punctuation marks, such as an inverted comma (،) or a mirrored question mark (؟).

3. How difficult is it to learn Arabic

Difficulties in pronunciation

Many of the sounds in Arabic are pronounced in the throat, as if they are forming deep within the throat, so it takes practice to pronounce them correctly.

Order of words in a sentence

Any sentence in Arabic begins with a verb, so to say "a boy is eating an apple", you need to say "a boy is eating an apple":
اكل الولد التفاحة .

Adjectives are placed after the noun:

السيارة الحمراء - red car

Sentences are written from right to left, so the first page of the book, for us Europeans, will be considered the last.

4. How Arabic for beginners can help in the future

The Arabic language belongs to the Semitic group of languages, therefore it has a lot in common with languages \u200b\u200bsuch as Amharic, Hebrew. Therefore, for those who can learn Arabic, other languages \u200b\u200bof the Semitic group will be more understandable.
Languages \u200b\u200bsuch as Persian / Farsi, Urdu, Kurdish and others use the Arabic language whose alphabet is used in the writing of their own languages. Therefore, those who comprehend the Arabic language from scratch will be able to read the written words and sentences of any of these languages, but not understand the meaning.

1. Define exactly the goals for which you need to learn Arabic for beginners.

As we wrote above, there are several types of Arabic: Modern Standard, Classical, and Colloquial Arabic. Each type is responsible for its own goals.

2. Master the Arabic alphabet

At first glance, the alphabet seems to be the most difficult and incomprehensible moment for those who decided to take up the Arabic language. Some even try to avoid learning it and only memorize the pronunciation or transliteration of Arabic words. This method will bring many problems in the future. It would be much more useful, on the contrary, to ignore the transcription, but to learn the spelling of words. Therefore, to learn Arabic for beginners quickly, learn the alphabet.

3. Learn to use an Arabic dictionary.

Using the Arabic dictionary is very difficult at first, but after clarifying the main points and some practice, it should not be too difficult.
First, it must be borne in mind that all words in the dictionary are used in their original forms, while in texts they are found in derived forms.
Secondly, the structure of the dictionary itself has a root system, that is, the root of a word is considered as the search word. The roots in the dictionary are arranged in alphabetical order. That is, to find the word istiqbaal (registrar), you need to know the three-letter root of this word - q-b-l, that is, this word will be in the dictionary under the letter q.

4. We study the Arabic language constantly.

In order to quickly learn Arabic, you need to practice it constantly. If you have internet, you can learn Arabic online. There are many resources online for self-study of Arabic. You can buy textbooks with audio recordings, listening to which you will feel the language and absorb the pronunciation. Many self-study guides like learning Arabic from scratch offer interesting mnemonics for memorizing Arabic words.

5. Ask your tutor for help.

After finishing the 10th grade for the summer holidays, I went to Dagestan. Usually there you are constantly surrounded by relatives. But one day I stayed in Makhachkala, on my own. And he went for a walk around the city. Probably, this was my first independent walk in a strange city. I walked along Hamidov Avenue towards the mountains. And suddenly, I saw the sign "Islamic shop". As strange as it may seem, my first acquisition in Dagestan was an Arabic script.

Having come home to my uncle, I opened it. There were all kinds of writing of letters and their pronunciation was explained in relation to the Dagestan alphabet "The letter ع approximately corresponds to the Arabic gI", "The letter ح is similar to the Avar xI". Together with ظ, these were the most difficult letters for me, because it was hard to imagine how to pronounce them, and others were mostly in my language. So I started learning to read Arabic on my own. An ordinary Russian teenager, far from religion. Then I went to my grandfather's mountain village. It was a time filled with the events of adolescence, when you try a lot for the first time. Along with all this, I tried and learn Arabic. What drove me when I bought this recipe then is still a mystic for me.

Recently I found my first attempts to write in Arabic, which I started that summer in my grandfather's village. (If you click on the screenshots, they should enlarge. The spectacle is not for the faint of heart, I warn you).

Then, already in the 4th year of the university, I began to do namaz, began to go to the mosque, and met Muslims. One Friday at the mosque, I greeted one of my acquaintances:

Assalam alaikum! How are you? What are you doing?
- Wa aleikumu ssalam! Alhamdulillah. Here, I study the Arabic language.
- How do you study? Are there any courses?
- No, on your own, according to the textbook "Learn to read the Koran in Arabic."

Then this brother went to Kazan to study and there he got new textbooks, and he sold Lebedev's books "Learn to read the Koran in Arabic" for 500 rubles when he returned from Kazan for his first vacation.

I worked part-time as a night security guard in a store and took this book with me on duty. I began to read it in my spare minutes between the massacre of the local drunkard and until I fell asleep. As soon as I started acquaintance with the book, I thought - "Subhanallah, this Arabic language is so easy to learn."

There was no limit to my delight. I went through the first book in a month. I didn't even memorize the words there - I just carefully studied the new rules and read the exercises for them.

Then another textbook fell into my hands (I already wrote about it in the post "Pencil Writing to the Brain." (on the bus, when walking, etc.) After a couple of months I already knew almost 60 lessons by heart - all the words and phrases that were encountered in them.

After 2 months of classes I was visiting an Arab and was surprised to find that I could communicate in Arabic without speaking a word in Russian !!! It started out as a joke. I greeted in Arabic and a friend answered. Then I asked something else and he answered again in Arabic. And when the dialogue began, it was as if there was no turning back. As if we didn’t know Russian. My knees were trembling with happiness.

Previously, I had to learn the Koran "photographically" - it was stupid to memorize the order of all letters in words. For example, it took me several days to memorize the surah "An-Nas". And after I have mastered the basics of grammar, you can read Krachkovsky's translation and the Arabic text of the ayah once (comparing each Arabic word with the translation), repeat a couple of times - and the ayah is remembered. If so, walk along a small sura (like An-Naba "News"). After half an hour of study, I can look at Krachkovsky's translation and read the surah in Arabic (essentially from memory). The most difficult part is usually remembering the order of the verses.

My tragedy is that having learned to read (it took about two months on my own and haphazardly), I simply did not imagine that it was possible to spend the same amount of time to learn the basics of grammar and, if you make an effort and develop an active vocabulary, you can speak Arabic very soon.

The biggest problem for many people is that they imagine the language as an impregnable fortress, which will take many years to storm and siege. And only after that you will master it. In fact, learning a language is best thought of as a small cottage that you build piece by piece. Having studied the basic grammar (changing verbs by person and tenses, changing cases, etc. - in terms of volume, this is a brochure of 40 pages) - consider that you have filled the foundation. Further, an opportunity arose - they built a room where you can already live and moved there. Then - the kitchen. Then they built a living room, a nursery, and all the other rooms. I saw how houses are built in Dagestan in this way. Instead of renting an apartment, they buy an inexpensive land plot, fill in the foundation and build at least one room where they move. And then, as far as possible, they continue to build a house on an already poured foundation.

If suddenly someone wants to repeat my path, which I consider optimal for those who do it mostly on their own, for example, in their free time from their main studies or work, here they have prepared a selection of materials (now they have become more accessible and better).

→ (self-study guide for reading and writing with voice acting for each word and many tips)

2. Basics of grammar.To study grammar, it is better to arm yourself with many books and choose the one that suits you best. One and the same rule can be given in different words in different books - so that incomprehensible moments can be viewed from different angles. Start with one book and download the rest as needed.

→ Lebedev. Learn to read the Qur'an in Arabic - an unobtrusive explanation of the basics of grammar using the example of the ayats from the Qur'an (I personally went through the first volume.

→ - a compressed volume of 40 pages gives all the basics (a short summary of any textbook).

→. A thorough new textbook, contains the basics of grammar with numerous examples, as well as the basics of morphology. Very accessible language and sparing volume.

→ (I did not pass it myself, but I heard the reviews of friends).

→ (Classics of the genre. Usually used as a reference where you can find any question on grammar).

I think these books should be enough with a margin. If you don't like it, google Kuzmin, Ibragimov, Frolova, etc.

3. Build an active vocabulary.

→. - read carefully the introduction to this book and you will understand everything. I actually lived with this book for several months until I learned 100 lessons (in the article "Pencil Writing to the Brain" I just wrote about this). If you repeat "my feat", you will feel your closeness to the Arab world - no kidding.

4. Language practice.

→ Get to know the Arabs, try to communicate with them. For example, you can look in the mosque for students who have just arrived in Russia and do not speak Russian well. If you are hospitable and not intrusive, you can develop very warm friendships. You will be able to learn the language directly from the native speaker.

→ Learn to type in Arabic (). So you can google materials that interest you, your favorite nasheeds on YouTube, etc. You will be able to plunge into the Arabic Internet, participate in their forums, discussions, make friends on FaceBook, etc.

You can bookmark the second part of the article, here is the link

Which is gaining popularity every year. Learning the Arabic language has its own characteristics, which is associated with the structure of the language itself, as well as with pronunciation and writing. This must be taken into account when choosing a program for training.

Prevalence

The Arabic language belongs to the Semitic group. In terms of the number of native speakers of the language, Arabic is the second largest in the world after Chinese.

Arabic is spoken by about 350 million people in 23 where the language is considered official. These countries include Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Palestine and many others. Also, the language is one of the official in Israel. Given this factor, the study of the Arabic language presupposes a preliminary choice of the dialect that will be used in a particular country, since, despite the many similar elements, the language has its own distinctive characteristics in different countries.

Dialects

Modern Arabic can be divided into 5 large dialect groups, which, from a linguistic point of view, can practically be called different languages. The fact is that the lexical and grammatical differences in languages \u200b\u200bare so great that people who speak different dialects and do not know the literary language practically cannot understand each other. The following groups of dialects are distinguished:

Maghreb.
Egyptian-Sudanese.
Syro-Mesopotamian.
Arabian.
Central Asian.

A separate niche is occupied by the modern standard Arabic language, which, however, is practically not used in colloquial speech.

Features of the study

Learning Arabic from scratch is not an easy task, as it ranks as one of the hardest in the world after Chinese. It takes a lot longer to master Arabic than it takes to learn any European language. This also applies to classes with teachers.

Learning the Arabic language on your own is a difficult path that is best abandoned at first. This is due to several factors. Firstly, a letter that is not similar to the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet, which is written from right to left, and also does not provide for the use of vowels, is of great complexity. Secondly, the structure of the language itself, in particular morphology and grammar, is distinguished by its complexity.

What to look for before starting the study?

A program for learning Arabic should be built taking into account the following factors:

Having enough time. Learning a language takes several times longer than learning other languages.
Opportunities for both independent work and for classes in a group or with a private teacher. Studying Arabic in Moscow makes it possible to combine different options.
Inclusion in the learning process of various aspects: writing, reading, listening and, of course, speaking.

We must not forget that you need to decide on the choice of a specific dialect. Learning the Arabic language differs depending on this factor. In particular, dialects in Egypt and Iraq are so different that their speakers cannot always understand each other. A way out of the situation can be the study of the Arabic literary language, which has a more complex structure, but is understandable in all countries of the Arab world, since dialects traditionally have a more simplified form. Despite this, this option also has its negative sides. Although the literary language is understood by all countries, it is practically not spoken. It may happen that a person who speaks a literary language will not be able to understand people who speak a certain dialect. In this case, the choice depends on the objectives of the study. If there is a desire to use the language in different countries, then the choice must be made towards the literary version. If the language is being studied for work in a certain Arab country, but preference should be given to the corresponding dialect.

Language vocabulary

Learning the Arabic language is impossible without the use of words and phrases, which in this case have characteristic differences in comparison with European languages. This is due to the fact that in Europe languages \u200b\u200bare intertwined and strongly influenced each other, due to which they have many common lexical units. Almost all the vocabulary of the Arabic language has its original origin, which practically cannot be associated with others. The number of borrowings from other languages \u200b\u200bis present, but it takes no more than one percent of the dictionary.

The difficulty of learning also lies in the fact that the Arabic language is characterized by the presence of synonyms, homonyms and polysemous words, which can seriously confuse people who are starting to learn the language. In Arabic, both newer words and very old ones are intertwined, which at the same time do not have definite connections with each other, but denote practically identical objects and phenomena.

Phonetics and pronunciation

Literary Arabic and its numerous dialects are characterized by the presence of a very developed phonetic system, in particular, this applies to consonants: laryngeal, interdental and emphatic. Various combinatorial possibilities of pronunciation are also difficult to learn.

Many Arab countries are trying to bring the spoken pronunciation of words closer to the literary language. This is primarily due to the religious context, in particular, with the correct reading of the Koran. Despite this, at the moment there is no single point of view on how to correctly read certain endings, since ancient texts do not have vowels - signs for denoting vowel sounds, which does not allow correctly asserting exactly how to pronounce one or another word.

Arabic is one of the most widely spoken and also one of the most difficult languages \u200b\u200bto learn in the world. The difficulty lies in a special writing without the presence of vowels, multilevel morphology and grammar, as well as a special pronunciation. The choice of dialect is also an important factor in language learning, as the Arabic language sounds very different in different countries.

Modern technologies simplify our life in all its aspects; now there is no need to sit for hours in libraries or look for the necessary textbook in bookstores. For anyone interested learning arabic, we offer a selection of interesting helper sites.

english-language sites

alison.com. Introductory online course to learning Arabic.
oli.cmu.edu. Arabic for Global Exchange. Online course of 10 lessons to gain basic knowledge of the Arabic language and culture.
online prescription. Learn how to write Arabic letters and compounds.
prescription. Posted in PDF format, easy to print and can be used for offline training.
prescription. Arabic alphabet. In addition to a short training course on writing, it has many sections dedicated to Arab culture and life in Arab countries.
mylanguageexchange. International service. On the site, you are looking for a native speaker who will help you learn his language, and you, in turn, help him learn your native language. The site navigation is simple, the interface is made in the most popular languages \u200b\u200bof the world, but there is no Russian version. There are conditions and methodological base: a library of materials, a block for recordings, text chat and chat for practicing pronunciation, games for knowledge of vocabulary, etc.
interpals.net.A social network that helps people from all over the world find friends and learn the language through communication. Easy navigation, fast registration service, short profile, forum and chat.
arabicPod. Arabic podcast from scratch in English, 30 lessons of 10 minutes, presenters use modern topics to discuss.
survival phrases Arabic (IoS). The audio course contains useful phrases for communicating in real situations.
arabic from scratch. video lessons. English-language course from the University of Dalarna (Sweden), 15 lessons (6-14 minutes).

russian-language sites

ar-ru. Dedicated to the comprehensive study of the Arabic language: alphabet, letter writing, pronunciation of sounds, grammar, reading, training exercises. In addition to educational material, the site contains articles on various topics: Arab scholars and politicians, Islamic holidays, useful tips and entertainment programs, and audio recordings.
busuu.com. The largest social network, teaches to read, write, understand and speak. The courses are designed by professional linguists. The work is based on the principle of mutual learning. Registration is free, but some of the services are paid. There is a mobile version and an application for IoS, GooglePlay.
italki.com. An online service to help you find a professional native teacher based on curriculum vitae, reviews and price. Russian language navigation. You need to register, registration is free, choose a language, choose a teacher from the list, evaluate the reviews and agree on a schedule for Skype lessons.
lang-8.com. Modern interface, simple and user-friendly. Registration is free, after which you are offered to write a post in the foreign language that you want to study, it is checked by the native speaker and then the native speaker checked it. Handy for spell checking and semantic analysis.
lingq. Service for independent language learning, there are exercises for vocabulary, reading, pronunciation, grammar and speaking. Errors are corrected by the program. There is paid content - a curated carrier service.
livemocha.com. The virtual online community, which is organized on the principle of mutual assistance in learning foreign languages, has a free and a paid version. Convenient interface, quick registration.
hosgeldi. Designed to perform vocabulary learning exercises. Simple and easy to use.