Click to view article in PDF format

If I’m speaking to a male, I’m going to say أُحِبُكَ (u7ebbuka), whereas if I’m speaking to a female, I’ll say أُحِبُكِ (u7ebbuki).

Of course, if I’m in الشام area of the Arab world, I might add a ‘بَ’ to the beginning of the word to signify that it’s in the present tense (and, in this case, tweak the internal vowels). In the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan) and in Egypt, for instance, I’d say بَحَبك (ba7ebbak/ik). If I’m just talking about love in general, I’ll use the مصدر or verbal noun and be sure to make it definite: الحُبّ.

This particular verb, however, is hardly the only one you’ll hear used to describe love. In London-based Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif’s 1999 novel,The Map of Love, one of her characters – an avid Arabic student – goes looking for love in the Arabic language. In a lyrical journal entry, she writes about what she has discovered:

” ‘Hubb’ is love, ‘3ishq’ [عِشْقَ] is love that entwines two people together, ’sha3′af’ [شَغَفَ] is love that nests in the chambers of the heart, ‘hayam’ [هامَ/هَيم] is love that wanders the earth, ‘taym’ [تامَ/تَيْم] is love in which you lose yourself, ‘walah’ [وَلَهَ] is love that carries sorrow within it, ‘9abaabah’ [صَبَّ/صَبابة] is love that exudes from your pores, ‘hawa’ [هَوَى] is love that shares its name with ‘air’ and with ‘falling,’ ‘3′arem’ [غَرِمَ - pass.] is love that is willing to pay the price.”

If you’re yearning to know more about these specific words – well, yallah, look them up in our dictionary!

I generally try to back my claims with evidence. If Arabic is that difficult, then how is it that Hamza Yusuf, an American raised in California who started learning Arabic in his 20s, now speaks Arabic so fluently that many assume him to be a born Arab. Moreover, how has Tim Winter, also known as Abdal Hakim Murad and a lecturer at Cambridge University, mastered the language? Both of these men travelled to Arab countries to seek knowledge and, although they started learning Arabic as adults, they can now speak the language skillfully. This proves that Arabic is not such a difficult language to learn. My own mother, born and raised in Britain, managed to learn Arabic in her early 30s and can now have competent conversations with people.

The biggest challenge for Arabic learners is the lack of available resources and native-Arab people to practice with. Recently, with the emergence of sites such as ArabicPod.net, people are starting to realise that learning Arabic can be a great and pleasurable experience, far from the complex and stressful experience many claim it to be. Of course it’s inevitable that the learning of a new language means also understanding new grammatical rules different from those of your mother tongue. However, this shouldn’t mean that learning the language is exceptionally difficult. Every foreign tongue is different and unique in its own way. Thus, acquisition of a new language always requires determination and motivation.

We often see questions over the internet concerning the difficulty of learning Arabic. When People worldwide think about learning Arabic one of the first questions they ask is: “Is Arabic difficult?”. To summarize, it certainly is a challenge, but a challenge that can be easily surmounted . Do not listen to those who don’t speak a word of Arabic but claim it to be the most difficult language to learn. Give the language a chance, you will find it is well worth it!

• Audio and text examples
• Related lessons
• Multiple results per search
• Random search

This is still in a beta version because the dictionary doesn’t cover all Arabic words at the moment, but words searched for that are not in the dictionary will be recorded so that we can add them soon after, until the dictionary covers all the words out there.

Click here to go to article link

An example of a colloquial word is the word فلوس which is pronounced ‘fuloos’ and means money. This word is colloquial and is used everywhere. The classical word for this is مال which is pronounced ‘maal’. So we try to use such common Arabic words in addition to classical Arabic as we believe this is the most effective way to learn Arabic.

We don’t believe one should concentrate on a specific dialect only used in certain parts of the Arab world when one can learn Arabic that is widely understood throughout the Arab world. It is not necessary to learn the Egyptian dialect if your travels take you to Egypt. Our Arabic lessons will enable you to communicate, not only there, but also in other Arab regions.

To cater for all needs, we occasionally teach dialects in our lessons but we always mention the dialect that is used. An example of this can be found in the beginner lesson called ‘wake up!’ which uses the Sham dialect.

For those of you who are still unsure about which dialect to learn, we advise you to avoid worrying about dialects too much and start learning the Arabic that we teach, which will certainly enable you to become more universally communicative in Arabic. After learning this ‘Universal Arabic’, you will, undoubtedly, find learning the various Arabic dialects much simpler, if you so wish to delve further into the wonderfully, rich world of the Arabic language!

Arabic is one of the most spoken languages in the World. It is the official language in 22 countries and is also learnt as a second language by millions of people due to the influences of Islam, culture and others. I found a good article on http://www.vistawide.com/arabic/why_arabic.htm called “10 excellent reasons to study Arabic” which is worth a read if you’re wondering why you should study Arabic.

From a personal point of view, I find Arabic very rich. The vast number of words that are available and the way they are formed can deliver a very powerful and touching speech, for example, more so than if it was done in another language. If I was to compare the language to a Swiss Army Knife then it would be a fully loaded one with all the tools needed to easily provide vivid explanatory speech.  Those romantic gestures that you might give to your loved one can sound even more romantic using this tool.

If you have started learning with us at ArabicPod then we urge you to continue and promise you will find the outcome rewarding, and if you are thinking of learning Arabic then all we can ask is what are you waiting for? Start downloading those podcasts and embark on a journey that will lead you to the treasure at the end of the rainbow.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=11§ion=0&article=107210&d=26&m=2&y=2008

You may have noticed some of the new features added in the last few weeks, including:

• An Arabic Keyboard for lesson discussions:  You can now get writing Arabic letters with ease and share your Arabic comments.

• Arabic text align: Arabic text has now been programmed to align to the right, as it should be, making the Arabic easier to read on lesson comments.

•  ‘Audio Transcripts’: These are exclusively for Premium Users, you will now be able to listen to each sentence in the pdf and really get to grips with the words.

• Exclusive games that were created to help you learn certain aspects of the Arabic language.

Keep your eyes peeled for more new features coming your way soon!

We set up a tripod and hung a pair of headphones on it, we then connected it to the laptop, placed our chairs at the ready and recorded our very first lesson, “How are you?”. At first we were a bit hesitant about releasing the lesson on the website, but after sending it to a few friends and receiving good feedback, we made the decision to use it. You can probably tell that the quality of the first lesson isn’t as good as the others. Fortunately, we had our new microphone, “Samson SP01”, delivered by the time we recorded the next lesson.

We hope for ArabicPod to become the leading source for learning Arabic on the Internet. The website will provide much more than lessons; needless to say, we hope to make learning the language “an entertainment” by not only providing MP3 podcasts, but videos, games and more. Above all, our success depends on you. We understand that there would be no need for an ArabicPod.net if there were no users, and that’s why we would be grateful if you spread the word. Tell your friends about it. Submit reviews on iTunes or write about it on your blog.