Words that sound or look alike 1.1

More words that might sound or look alike to the beginner.

طبعاً        of course, naturally
تعبان        tired

بيضة       egg
بعض       some

ثأر      revenge   ( ث ء ر )
ثار      stir, revolt   ( ث و ر )
آثار     monuments    ( ء ث ر )

نفس       same
نصف    half

حيفا    Haifa (the city)
هيفا    Haifa (girl's name)

فرصة      opportunity
فرض       impose
قرض      loan

متخلّف  backward, undeveloped
مختلف   different

Spelling the Arabic Letters

This is a post for real beginners. How do you spell the Arabic letters?

ألف   باء   تاء   ثاء   جيم   حاء   خاء
دال   ذال   راء   زاي   سين   شين   صاد
ضاد   طاء   ظاء   عين   غين   فاء   قاف
كاف   لام   ميم   نون   هاء   واو   ياء
همزة

Al Arabiya TV News Transcripts in Arabic and English

I recently found a resource that could help with learning Arabic, especially with listening skills. The satellite news network Al Arabiya posts translations in English and transcripts in Arabic for it's News Bulletins along with the video of the program. The videos also have a Closed Captioning "CC" button so you can read the Arabic or English script.

Just go their News Bulletin page:

http://english.alarabiya.net/webtv/news-bulletin.html

And click on the latest video or scroll down to "Latest News Bulletins". Click on a bulletin, and another page opens with a video, translation and transcript.

Example:

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/webtv/news-bulletin/2015/07/06/1300GMT.html

To see the Arabic transcript of the program, click on "Transcripts".

Strong and Elidable Hamza

Examples of words with strong hamza  همزة القطع and elidable hamza همزة الوصل ٱ.

همزة القطع

أَنَّ    that
إِنَّ    indeed, ( "that" for قال )
أَنْ    to
إِنْ    if, negation particle in Quran
أَب
أُم
أحمد
إلى to

Form IV perfect verbs and imperative verbs


همزة الوصل ٱ
ال
اِسم
اِبن
اِبنة
اِمرأة
اِثنان
Form I imperative verbs
Form VII to X perfect verbs, imperative verbs and masdars.

Passive Participles and Passive Verbs

Examples of sentences with passive participles and passive verbs.

كَسَرَ الرجلُ طاولةً في الغرفةِ

the man broke a table in the room

في الغرفةِ طاولةٌ مكسورٌ

a broken table is in the room

في الغرفةِ كُسِرَ طاولةٌ

a table was broken in the room

Past Continuous and Negation

Examples of past continuous with negation.

ما كانَتْ المرأةُ تأكلُ الفاكهةَ

لم تكُنْ المرأةُ تأكلُ الفاكهةَ

the woman was not eating the fruit

Live Stream of Arabic News Channels

You can practice listening and reading with news programs. Many Arab TV networks are on YouTube and stream live on their own websites. Here are links to the live stream of some major channels:

CNBC Arabia

Al Arabiya Al Hadath

Al Arabiya (may be blocked)

Al Jazeera Arabic

BBC Arabic

Sky News Arabia

Al Mayadeen

Live broadcast of Al Arabiya's regular news channel is blocked in the USA, but it's other channel, Al Hadath, is not blocked. You can use a proxy server ( e.g. from http://free-proxy-list.net/uk-proxy.html ) to watch Al Arabiya's regular channel.

You can also try the TOR web browser to watch Al Jazeera Arabic.

These sites stream many different Arab channels:

Livestation

Fomny
GLArab

Words with Dagger Alif ألف خنجرية‎

Some common words with ألف خنجرية‎ .

الله    God
هٰذا    this
هٰذه    this (f)
ذٰلك    that
إلٰه      a god
الرحمٰن  merciful
لٰكن      but
هٰؤلاء    these
أولٰئك    those
هٰكذا     thus

Negation 1.1 لا النافية للجنس

Examples of Absolute Negation لا النافية للجنس .

في الغرفةِ رجلٌ كبيرٌ

a big man is in the room

لا رجلَ كبيراً في الغرفةِ

there is no big man in the room


لا الرجلُ في الغرفةِ ولا المرأةُ
neither the man is in the room, nor the woman
لا رجلَ في الغرفةِ ولا إمرأةَ
neither a man is in the room, nor is a woman
لا في الغرفةِ رجلٌ ولا إمرأةٌ
in the room is neither a man nor a woman

The most famous absolute negation is from الشهادة :

لا إلهَ إلّا اللهُ

there is no god except the God

Negation 1.0

Simple examples of negation.

 الرجلُ كبيرٌ

the man is big

 ليس الرجلُ كبيراً

the man is not big

ما كانَ الرجلُ كبيراً

the man was not big

الرجلُ يأكلُ اللحمَ
the man eats the meat

 لم يأكلْ الرجلُ اللحمَ
ما أكلَ الرجلُ اللحمَ
the man did not eat the meat

 لن يأكلَ الرجلُ اللحمَ
the man will not eat the meat


الرجالُ يأكلونَ اللحمَ
the men eat the meat

الرجالُ لا يأكلونَ اللحمَ
the men do not eat the meat

الرجالُ سيأكلونَ اللحمَ
the men will eat the meat

الرجالُ لن يأكلوا اللحمَ
the men will not eat the meat

أكلَ الرجالُ اللحمَ
الرجالُ أكلوا اللحمَ
the men ate the meat

ما أكلَ الرجالُ اللحمَ
الرجالُ لم يأكلوا اللحمَ
the men did not eat the meat

Diptote ممنوع من الصرف 1.0

Examples of ممنوع من الصرف

في مسجدٍ

in a mosque

في المسجدِ

in the mosque

في المساجدِ

in the mosques

في مساجدَ

in mosques

في مساجدِ المدينةِ
in the mosques of the city

رأيتُ مساجدَ كثيرةً في الفلوجةِ

I saw many mosques in Fallujah

المرفوع changing to المنصوب

Examples of sentences where المرفوع can change to المنصوب.

الرجلُ كبيرٌ

the man is big

كانَ الرجلُ كبيراً

the man was big

قال إنَّ الرجلَ كبيرٌ

he said that the man is big

قال إنَّ الرجلَ كانَ كبيراً
he said that the man was big

Simple Grammar Examples 1.0

Examples of simple sentences, including prepositions and إضافة .

الرجلُ كبيرٌ

the man is big

الرجلُ في الغرفةِ

the man is in the room

في الغرفةِ رجلٌ

a man is in the room

رجلٌ كبيرٌ في الغرفةِ

a big man is in the room
There is opinion that a sentence can begin with an indefinite noun if it is described by an adjective.

See http://www.schoolarabia.net/arabic/eljomleh_elesmieh/ahwal3.htm

محفظةُ الرجلِ في البيتِ

the wallet of the man (the man's wallet) is in the house

وجد الولدُ محفظةَ رجلٍ

the boy found a man's wallet

وجد ولدٌ صورةً في محفظةِ رجلٍ

a boy found a photo in a man's wallet

Simple Sentences and Phrases 1.0

These are examples showing the rules for gender, number and subject-verb order for human and non-human nouns and adjectives.

قلم جديد

new pen

القلم الجديد

the new pen

أقلام جديدة

new pens

الأقلام الجديدة
the new pens

طالبات صغيرات

young female students

القلم جديد
the pen is new

الأقلام جديدة
the pens are new

الطلاب صغارا
the male students are young

الطالبات صغيرات

the female students are young

Subject-verb order:

الفتيات أكلن الخبز
أكلَتْ الفتيات الخبز
the girls ate the bread

الأولاد يأكلون الخبز
يأكل الأولاد الخبز
the boys eat the bread

Non-human singular and plural, subject-verb order:

الديك أكل الخبز
أكل الديك الخبز
the rooster (male chicken) ate the bread

الديوك أكلَتْ الخبز
أكلَتْ الديوك الخبز
the roosters ate the bread

The آل in Arab family and tribal names

We have all heard of the well known Arab families, such as آل سعود‎ (Al Saud), آل صباح‎ (Al Sabah), آل ثاني (Al Thani), آل رشيد (Al Rasheed), etc. The word آل came from either the جذر أ و ل  , which has to do with family or people, or from the word أهل , from جذر أ ه ل , which also has to do with family or people.

آل البيت could refer to the blood relatives and descendants of محمد
أهل البيت could refer to all Muslims collectively or to the family of محمد

Some Arab tribes have names like آلبو صالح (Albu Salih) or آلبو نمر (Albu Nimr). The آلبو is a shortening of آل أبو . So آلبو نمر is really آل أبو نمر , The Descendants of The Father of Nimr, or the Abu Nimr Tribe. But the people just say آلبو نمر , and so we write Albu Nimr.

Words that sound or look alike 1.0

These are some words that I get mixed up with because they sort of sound or spelled alike.

عالية     high
عائلة     family

ناحية        hand ("on the other hand"  من ناحية أخرى   ), terms, way, point of view
نهاية         end ("weekend" نهاية الأسبوع )

إستطاع      was able to
إستمتع       enjoyed
إستمع        listened  (Form VIII. الوزن إفتعل)

حافلة        bus
إحتفل       celebrated

تبع    followed

طبع   printed

بلغ    reached

شيء    thing
شاء      willed, e.g. إن شاء الله , same جذر as شيء

شاي     tea

إشترى   bought

شارع       street

سارع    hurry

شاعر     poet
سعر         price
شعر          hair

Full greeting of Ahlan Wa Sahlan أهلاً وسهلاً

We all know the greeting أهلاً وسهلاً . The full form, or origin of it, seems to be from two varieties.

حللتَ أهلاً ونزلتَ سهلاً
Arrive as family and stay (come down) with ease.

حللتَ أهلاً ووطئتَ سهلاً
Arrive as family and tread with ease.