Beginner - Bad with names

Doesn't "lastu" mean "I was not".
Why doesn't he say: "anaa laysa samee"

Well, (laysa) takes pronouns joined with it, see the following:

I am not: lastu
He is not: laysa
She is not: laysat
We are not: lasnaa
They are not: laysoo

So if you talk about yourself you need to use (lastu). Now if you want to add (anaa - I) before it for further emphasis you still need to use the correct form of (lastu). Or if you want to say (she is not Salmaa) then you need to use (laysat) even though you used the separate pronoun (she - heya), so you say (heya lasysat Salmaa). Hope that helps.

Guys,reading arabic with out vowels is painful.

Regsrding to Yajahmar's comment,I have something I want to ask.I can read every transcript of Arabicpod because I can get podcasts.But when it comes to other materials,it is really hard for me.Even that 'Randam Word 'section.

Lately I've wondered what kind of written materials are suited for beginners like me.I heard Arabic children's books and school texts(I honestly don't like texts!enough for just to check some grammer.) are with diacritics.

Any kind of advice would be appriciated.

@Yajahmar, what are you complaining about? The Arabic text in the transcripts for this podcast has vowels! :-)

@Kurami, I can understand it's hard, but the reality is that vowels are not used everywhere. You can imagine how painful it is to include all the vowels on a newspaper for example.

Ok what we'll try to do is include vowels in our future beginner lessons, but not the other levels. So when one progresses to Lower Intermediate, he/she can start getting used to Arabic without vowels.

As in any language, you will find it difficult to pick up written materials that are meant for beginners of that language unless it was meant for education purposes.

@Moshaya
Shukran jazeelan,beginner lessons with vowels would be great help.Since Arabic vowels are very flexible.

But I may have been short of explanation.I am quite content with these lessons and my progress so far.(though I am slow. %-P) Every transcript have English alphabet-Arabic version so there is no difficulity to understand. Since I am now used to alphabets somehow,I simply want to read more like my son does.I think I need to remember many more words to enjoy reading. And searching what I need next is also enjoyable. ;-)

@Moshaya and Yajahmar

I found a comment from one of the listeners and the reply from Ehab.And I remembered that in one of the lessons,Mohammed or Ehab were saying'We'll teach you Arabic like your parent taught you your native language when you were little.'

Keep up the good work,please.

"About your second question (using 7arakaat). ArabicPod uses podcast system to teach the language, meaning, the audio file is the main material to learn, and the transcript helps you to get deeper to the words. 7arakat are used in the audio and people hear it and apply it without even realizing that there are 7arakat. For instance, to learn - from day one - that the word (كيف) is pronounced like (kayfa) not (koyfa or keefa) would stick it in your brain like this, and whenever you see it you'll pronounce it like this. You are right, Arabs (native speakers) know 7arakat without even thinking of it, and we aim that you guys would be able to reach this level too.
I hope that makes sense.. I wish you will be able to read and write Arabic with us soon, with and without 7arakaat "

Regards

@Kurumi

Interesting that you used the example "that the word (كيف) is pronounced like (kayfa) not (koyfa or keefa) would stick it in your brain like this, and whenever you see it you'll pronounce it like this." I have just asked a question about the difference in pronunciation sounds on that very word: - "keefa" -- Mohamed & "kayfa" -- Ehab is what I detect in many lessons, but the difference has never been explained as far as I can tell.

Sorry, got the two mixed up - Mohamed's is kayfa and Ehab's is keefa.

@Moshaya, vowels are my friends. I love vowles, but at some point you have to carry on without them. 8-/

@chazyouwin, well unfortunately the proper pronunciation of some words in the street is not always the case, taking vowels into consideration. So if we do a classical lesson, which is strictly proper Arabic that follows all the rules, then كيف would be pronounced as Kayfa, however in the street this word is often pronounced as Keef, so in our colloquial podcasts you will hear it pronounced this way.

In local dialects, people don't concentrate on the vowels as much, but this is a different matter when hearing a news report for example, or even a public speech.

I don't think you can learn all of this information elsewhere. So it's great that your getting exposure to the differences on here before finding out in person in the real world as it might have caused confusion.

@chazyouwin
For me it is interesting point as well.I think I can detect anta(or anti)'s 'a'sound very clear when Ehab or Mohamed says it a little slowly,but once they start talking in natural speed,I detect it more like 'E' sound.

The way people talk is differ in formal and daily situations indeed. And it is the same in other languages,like English and Japanese,I suppose.For example,English in news,podcasts and so forth,is clear enough to understand,but when it comes to movie or native speaker's talking..
I can say the same thing with Japanese.

We are lucky because Arabicpod is not an ordinary teaching style. :-)

I forgot to write my question! Users comes to this website,so writing 'Ahlan' from users is a little strange?

You know "Ahlan" means "Welcome", so I take it those users feel like being host because of our very friendly environment ;)

Oh I see,thanks Ehab,roger that!

@ Moshaya - Nothing unfortunate about the colloquial pronunciation - I find these details infinitely interesting.
Like "Suphamallah," which you guys have used in numerous lessons but never -- I believe -- broke down. I concluded that it was "Glory to God" and eventually looked it up.

@chazyouwin , this is actually (Sub7ana Allah سبحان الله) and yes it means (glory to God).

@Ehab - this brings to mind the difference between "p" and "b" sounds. You have often said that there is no "p" sound in Arabic - yet I often seem to hear a "p" sound, say in "yapath an." Perhaps one might rather say that Arabic does not make a written distinction between "p" and "b" sounds?

The following is a paper from someone which has a section discussing the "p" sound in terms of teaching Arabic speakers. I would suggest that the "yapath an" I hear is a voiceless "b" which very much resembles the English "p," and is made in anticipation of the "t" sound a-coming. http://www.conormquinn.com/ContrastiveAnalaysisForNon-Arabic-SpeakingTeachers.pdf

-- 2.1 The broblem with /p/ vs. /b/: a quick suggestion
I doubt I even need mention the fact that most dialects of Arabic (Iraqi Arabic is a notable exception) lack /p/ as
a sound contrasted from /b/. And I am sure that most of you know that the contrast is, roughly speaking, that of
voicing, that is, vibrating the vocal cords during the lip closure to get voiced [b], versus simply whispering
through it to get voiceless [p]. Old hat.
Telling students this, however, does not immediately solve the problem. So here I offer the beginnings of a
1
principled approach to teaching students how to actually make the distinction themselves. We borrow from the
fact that Arabic does have a voicing contrast in the form of voiceless /t/ vs. voiced /d/, and exploit this as
follows.
First, have the students simply say this nonsense word a few times:
[abda]
Then have them say
[abta]
Some, at least,will be pronouncing the [b] as a [p], as it tends to lose its voicing in anticipation of the upcoming
voiceless [t].
Almost all the students will produce [p], however, when you lop off the final vowel and have them say
[abt]
It will pretty likely come out as [apt], as clusters of consonants before silence are have an even stronger tendency
to be voiceless. Indeed, a real-vocabulary example of this is /as-sabt/ 'Saturday', typically pronounced [as-sapt]
(Al-Rawahi 2010).
From here it is just a question of nudging the students to pick up on the whispered quality of the [p]-sound here,
vs. the sung quality of the [b]; a contrast they can also see exemplified in the simple [t] vs. [d] contrast itself.
Modeling [t] vs. [d], then [p] vs.[b], and highlighting the similar components of the contrast helps greatly. In a
pinch, [s] vs. [z] is also good to illustrate and practice control of the voiced vs. voiceless, but the fact that this is
a pairing of fricative rather than stop sounds means that transferring the skill back to the stop pair of [p] vs. [b] is
not terribly direct.
The crucial point for students here is that you can show them that they actually CAN and indeed DO pronounce
the sound [p]: they just need to learn to control it independently.

For those struggling without the vowels please remember the audio and the English transliteration will assist you when looking at the lesson pdf.

hello, this was my first lesson! fun!
I printed off the pdf that went with it. what does it mean when we see numbers inside the words?
thanks!
norm

Norm - the numbers are representations of Arabic letter-sounds which do not have an English equivalent. There is a chart on each .pdf correlating each number to the appropriate Arabic letter.
For learning the Arabic sounds themselves, perhaps you will want to go to the Activities page of the site. There is an excellent little program designed to show you where and how the sounds are made.

It is called "Arabic Pronunciation Guide." http://www.arabicpod.net/activities/show/1/Arabic_Pronunciation_Guide

Hi everyone,masa al7ayl,

one of my friends types'na3am'with 'naa'm'. He is an Indonesean.How common is using numbers?It seems that this method has not set in stone completely.Of course it should be,since it is very new.
But I have no doubt we are learning Arabic in the most advanced way here.

Beetafeeq

@Kurumi, The numbering system is really popular and widely used among Arabic speakers when using non-Arabic keyboards. Those who know a few words of Arabic, or who have learnt Arabic via the formal approach, will probably not learn and use the numbering system.

Here, we are teaching you the real methods that are used today between Arabic speakers. Indeed the numbering system is important and helpful particularly when learning the language, because as you know the pronunciation of نعم is Na3am if you consider the number 3 to represent the sound the letter ع make, but if you write Naa'm then the Arabic letter ع is effectively thrown away.

Maybe it's hard to believe, but this method is hardly taught anywhere else even though it is widely used among native Arabic speakers.

This is useful. Jazaakallahu khayr.