Arabic

Cognates in Arabic-English-Spanish: Any more to add?

Erin — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 04:12:56 -0500

café qahwah (قهوة) coffee

cero (sifr)صِفْر zero

jarra (jarrah) جرّة jar (in Spanish it also means pitcher)

algodón (qutn) قُطن cotton

naranja (naarinj)نارنج * orange

alcohol (al-kuhuul) الكحول alcohol

máscara (maskarah) مسكرة mask

álgebra (aljabr) الجبر Algebra

carmesí (qirmizyy)قِرمِزي crimson

elixir (aliksiir) الإكسير elixir

gacela )ghazaalah) غزالة gazelle

jirafa )zaraafah) زرافة giraffe

limón** (laymuun) ليمون lemon

luffa (liifah) ليفة luffa/loofah

laúd (al'uud) العود lute

safari (safar) سفر safari

sorbete (sharbaat) شربات sherbet

zumaque (summaq) سُمّاق sumac

talismán )Tilsam) طلسم talisman

(*) refers only to bitter orange in Arabic.

(**) See our post on differences between Latin American and Castillian Spanish, including the translations of ‘lemon’ and ‘lime.’ http://www.livinglanguage.com/blog/2015/08/03/spanish-in-latin-america-versus-spain-food/

Anyone know of others to add to the list?

Android Arabic

Uri — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 17:26:38 -0400

I have purchased recently the Platinum version on Arabic. I am using it, with no problem, on my Mac, and I found out that I can use it on my old iPhone. I prefer to use my Android phone instead of the iPhone, but I couldn't find Living Language on Google Play. Can it be that there isn't an Android version?

Android apps

Rayan — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 04:42:30 -0400

Do we have an android app to access the account.

Should I learn MSA or a 'Dialect'

Christopher — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 09:13:42 -0400

We often get this question, so I thought it might be a good idea to post the answer that we typically give, and start a discussion around the topic to hear the thoughts of our eTutors as well as students of Arabic.

One quick note: As a linguist, I don't love the term 'dialect' and usually use instead '(spoken) variety.' The word dialect has a lot of baggage: people usually think of a dialect as substandard, somehow not "correct," a devolved form of a language, not a real language, etc... 'Variety' has no baggage like this, and is more accurate a term.

Most recently, the question came in from someone who wrote, in part:

"...My objective is to be able to communicate with people from UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar."

I'll post the answer we gave below this.

Homework Session 1: Essential Lessons 1-2

Doodi132 — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 17:54:07 -0500

Starting from this week, I will start a homework for all our Arabic students. The first assignment that I ask you, the student, is to write a sentence about your family in Arabic*.

Hadi

*If you do not have an Arabic Keyboard, you can always use transliteration.

Becoming Conversational

ELister62 — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 02:05:20 -0400

This is just a basic question for anyone that has learned arabic or teaches arabic to foreign students.

Basically, what is the length of time that it takes native english speaker students (the average student) to reach the A2 point in Arabic (where they can begin to have the most basic conversations) if they are studying in an intensive program (20-30 hours per week).

I ask this simply because I have heard various things, including that it takes a year just to learn enough to order food, and was trying to confirm how much time I will have to invest.

thank you

Apps

Hadassa — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 00:33:25 -0400

Ahlan! Ana ismii Hadassa.

Are the Arabic apps available yet? I use my books all the time and it would really help to be able to have the apps so I can keep learning at work and such.

Continuation of starting out in arabic

ELister62 — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 04:08:47 -0400

I'm approaching the end of the starting out in arabic series and was wondering if anyone could reccomend a continuation series (or if living languages has one).

New Arabic Contributor to the forum

Doodi132 — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 22:03:57 -0500

As a native Arabic speaker, am proud to be a member of the Living Language team. I am here to help you learn to speak, read and write the language.

Some facts I would like to share about Arabic

The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters and is written from right to the left.
The Arabic language has a vast abundance of words, which enables the language to reach a level of precision, which not many other Latin languages can match.
Arabic is a Semitic language, originating around modern Syria, making its way down the Arabian peninsula.
Arabic, is spoken by more than 200 million people worldwide.

If you have any inquiries and would like to know more about Arabic. Please ask!

Hadi K.

Arabic Language- أهلا وسهلا

aliadeeb — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 11:51:37 -0400

Hi everyone,

My name is Ali Adeeb, I am from Baghdad-Iraq and I currently live in New York City. I worked as a journalist during the war at The New York Times bureau in Baghdad. I moved to the USA in 2007, earned my MA in journalism from New York University. I am one of your Arabic e Tutors. I will be happy to respond to your questions about Arabic language and culture of the Middle East.

Look forward to hearing from you. Good luck with learning Arabic.

My best wishes,

Ali

Arabic Alphabet

mydance — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 14:56:54 -0400

Does anyone have any tips for understanding and/or learning the Arabic Alphabet? The course explains letters little bits at a time.... I'd like to have the whole alphabet in order to better understand the vocabulary. Thanks!

free trial for a month

21-May — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 05:09:42 -0400

They told me that when you activate your account you had access to one month of a free trial of a language. I have acitvated it but it seems that the only free language you can do is English??? I want to do arabic. Can anyone answer my question.

It's الخريف! What do you see?

Christopher — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 10:07:00 -0400

I'll take a stab at this first.

.أوراق الأشجار هي الأحمر والأصفر

Anyone else?

Arabic iPhone and iPad apps are here!

Christopher — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 10:52:36 -0500

The Arabic iPhone and iPad apps are now available in iTunes. We'll put up a direct link, but if you search for 'Living Language Arabic' you'll find it.

Quick note: It's part of a "shell" app, meaning that you'll eventually be able to unlock all of our languages from it. So far, just Italian and Arabic are in it. But you can unlock the full content for only the language(s) you're interested in.

If you really want to learn Arabic, sign up for Arabic eTutoring (and thanks Ali!)

TheWabbit — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:33:54 -0400

I just had my first eTutoring session with Ali and I had a great time. In 30 minutes, we had introductions, discussions of regional dialects, current events in the Middle East, and time for practice reading from Arabic BBC and Al-Jazeera. 50%+ of the conversation was in Arabic. Most of the conversation about the family and where we live came directly from the Beginner Arabic vocabulary.

I learned a lot of new words (طائرة بدون طيار - airplane without pilot - 'drone'). Ali was very helpful in pushing me higher and higher to a level where I struggled. This gives me a benchmark. This would only happen working with a native speaker and so important in learning a new language.

If you are serious about learning Arabic, sign up and use eTutoring. Arabic is much more than just a language, the history and culture are also important to the communication. Those come from talking with native speakers and listening to their stories.

Thanks Ali for a great session. I will definitely be back again.

مع السلامة

عبد العظيم

P.S. They do this in language classes at universities; come up with an Arabic name for yourself. Ask a tutor for suggestions or go online and find a name and use it when speaking to the tutor. I kept my name from class: عبد العظيم (Abdel Azeem). It helps stay in the 'mood' of speaking Arabic.

Arabic Food Blog

Christopher — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 12:50:48 -0400

Found this really cool blog with recipes for all sorts of Arabic/Middle Eastern dishes. It's organized by type of dish (starter, soup, main...), by country, by ingredient, and even by occasion.

I can see I'll need more Tahini.

The different Arabic dialects

ilhisan — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:24:41 -0500

سلام

as we all know there are many many different varieties of Arabic language - from Moroccan to Gulf Arabic. So due to the fact that we, the learners and speakers of Arabic, come accross different dialects whether in the media or among friends, when travelling... I suggest that this discussion deals with the so-called differences and specialities in the dialects.

naam - aiwa (Egyptian Arabic) - YES

jazeelan - bezzaf (Algerian dialect) - VERY ....

and so on.

Typing in Arabic

Christopher — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:28:01 -0400

I've got to share one link that I've found to be tremendously helpful. Here's a virtual Arabic keyboard that you'll find very useful. You'll see that we've also built our own virtual Arabic keyboard, and it's smart enough to recognize as correct answers things like:

وَلَدْ (all the short vowels and diacritics)

ولد (none of them)

وَلَد (some of them)

Of course all of these are walad (boy), and they're all correct. As a beginning student, you should use all of your short vowels especially, until you're familiar enough with the language to leave them out.

أهلا وسهلا

Christopher — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:22:53 -0400

Hello and Welcome! We're excited to be releasing our Platinum Arabic program (and Online, Complete, Essential...) in the upcoming days. Check back here to post questions, to find tips and cultural links, and to share your experiences learning Modern Standard Arabic.