Beginner - Can you speak Arabic?

Medina wrote:
Well This lesson was Sahla !
haha,thank you guys,im getting better.

Sam wrote:
I think the lesson was Sahl not Sahla,, they said that,, lesson is Dars which is masculine ;)

Medina wrote:
Oh ,doesnt matter to me.

He is still right Medina ;)

Medina wrote:
alright..but i use it many times and everyone knows what i mean..so its ok.

Susanne wrote:
What a beautiful language! I must be one of your older learners (62) in Sussex and I love your lessons. Just the right length and degree of difficulty. Many thanks.

Ahlan Susanne;
I'm so glad to hear this, and glad that you are from Sussex :) .
Hope you get the best of Arabicpod.
Ta7eyati (Regards)
Ehab

elaine wrote:
have recently found your lessons. they are brilliant. I'm learning lots of new words which are sticking as you repeat them so much. I also learn a lot when you correct the pronunciation of your guest speaker, which to my untuned ears sounds the same as you say. I guess I will gradually get used to the differences. well done guys...keep them coming and thanks!

moufid wrote:
مرحبا مين حضرتك من وين وعرفنا عن حالك اذا بتريد
أنا أسمي مفيد
وشكرا

The lessons are simply great.One just cannot have enough of it.Tell me why is it that the full lessons do not get downloaded ? is it because I am in the one week trial period?
Anyway,Many thanks.

Shukran Abid for your comment. I just tested downloading the lesson and it downloaded in full so please try again. All lessons are freely downloadable; you don't need to have a trial

I have a question. When I was in Jordan and people would try to teach me new words, sometimes at the end they would ask me "sahl?"
At least, that's what it sounded like... :-S I understood it as a way of asking "OK?" or "Good?".

Is this right or am i completely mixing things up now?

Hay Epi,

سهل؟ (Sahl?) basically means (Easy?)
So I guess they were asking you if it was ok and easy :-)

What's the difference between "3araby" and "3arabya"?

I'm quite confused by it.

Shukran jazeelan! :-)

"3araby" is masculine and "3arabya" is feminine.. as simple as that ;-)

I see. So when "3araby" comes after the word"lo'3a", it will change to "3arabya".

Yes when 3araby comes after the word lo3'a then it becomes 3arabeyah because in Arabic the adjective follows the noun in the gender, so because لغة is feminine, the adjective عربية should also be feminine

Thanks for a very informative site and a great concept. I had a question. You use tatakallum. Ive earlier learned (ana) tehki and (anti) tehki. Is that some local dialect?

Keep up the really cool lessons. Jazak Allah.

Sorry, mens anti behki offcourse :)

Shoaib73, the word (tatakallam) is the classical version while (te7ki) is the colloquial one.
By the way, say (ana a7ki) for (I speak) and (anti te7ki) for (you speak - talking to female), I noticed you mixed them above.
All the best.

wow..........i can understand now....before mohamd gve the translation.....but sahala is new to me.....

I HAVE MADE SECERAL ATTEMPTS TO LEARN ARABIC. I FIND THIS CAST THE BEST SO FAR AND I HOPE TO SPEAK SOON ITS ALSO ENJOYABLE

hello every body i want to talk whith any one

Marhaban!!!!
i am very glad to discover arabicpod, i am a fan from this languages. The explains are very clear and easy to understand.
Congratulations Ehab ua Mohammed
Schukran Jazilan!!!
i Hope to learn many with you.....
Ma3 salama

Now Ithink I'm the oldest. 86...and counting!

Hy Ehab and Mohammed,

I have two questions:
Why its written kaif but you pronounce it kaifa
is saing kaif and kaifa the same thing ?
and the second is :is there a spesific reason not to always give the gender of the nouns-when one is learning french for example its realy desirable to learn each noun,s gender from the begening. The point is that often,one same word has different gender from language to language. As arabic is quite different from latin or slavic languages,I thought you might have someting in mind when you dont or rarely mantion the gender.
Thank you for the lessons, its realy useful to hear you repeat each sentence many times.And all the tools such as videos and activities are verry well done and organised.
Thanks again
Irina

Hi! So, is it tatakallam or tatakalam? There is no double consonant sign for L in the text, but as you speak it out it sounds to me that the word is tatakallam (with two Ls).

Check the spelling in the Lessan dictionaries.

Ok. Thanks. So, it is with double L, but it also ends to short 'a' vowel. I think I often see lot of variations of spelling. Is it just that even Arabs themselves don't know always exactly right way to spell the word plus that they spell it differently depending where they come from?

@ artoska

The principal parts of the verb under discussion are normally transliterated as follows: “takallama” (past tense) and “yatakallam(u)” (present tense). In this case there are no discrepancies between the information provided by the Lessan dictionaries, the “Speak Arabic Quickly” dictionary and J. Wightwick/M. Gaafar, “Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar”. We can therefore conclude that “tatakalam” is incorrect.

The second person singular present-tense form of a regular sound verb ends in “u” when the subject is masculine (e.g. taktubu = you (m) write). In everyday spoken Arabic, however, the “u” is generally dropped.

You’ll find a lot of spelling mistakes in Arabic texts published on the Net, especially in blogs. Nobody takes the trouble to edit the texts, and very few people can write correctly nowadays. Since there has been a steady decline in educational standards in recent decades, it is hardly surprising that many Arabs now write as sloppily as people from other linguistic communities.

In many cases there is a marked discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation. Typical examples can be found in a recent “nashiid” entitled “taw’am hanaa” (Beloved twin). The text is in MSA, but it is sung with a regional accent. The letter “qaaf” is invariably pronounced like a glottal stop. Thus, for instance “qamar (ﻗﻤﺮ) ’ayuuny (ﻋﻴﻮﻨﻲ)” is pronounced “amar ’ayuuny”.

beautiful lesson. I like it.