Arabic for Beginners (Hippocrene Language Studies) [Paperback]

Syed Ali (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2001 | Series: Hippocrene Language Studies

Now completely revised and updated, this popular guide to the Arabic language has been a valuable resource for students for many years. In Arabic and Roman script, the book includes a guide to writing in Arabic, model sentences and vocabulary, explanations of irregular forms, and illustrations from the prose and poetry of eminent Arabic writers. Forty-four lessons offer grammar instruction, from the rudimentary to the more complex.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr Syed Ali

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books; Revised edition (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0781808413
• ISBN-13: 978-0781808415
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,532,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I do not recommend this book as a "Teach Yourself" text, May 26, 2003

By 

"bensami" (NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arabic for Beginners (Hippocrene Language Studies) (Paperback)

This book is not your beginner's "Teach Yourself" text. It is disorganized and does not introduce the student to the language in a step-by-step fashion. There are no hint as how to pronounce the words. Voweling is used sporadically and inconsistently, and the vocalization via transliteration is inconsistent with the voweling on the Arabic text, leaving one to wonder whether the pronunciation is like the Arabic text or like the transliteration. The first four lessons introduce the alphabet, the vowels, and a host of grammatical rules that are more confusing than helpful at this stage. Lesson five starts with 5 paragraphs in Arabic with English translation which would cause any beginner studying on their own to abandon the attempt to learn Arabic. I had studied Arabic as a child years ago, and I am fluent in Hebrew. Thus, I could understand the text by either bringing back forgotten memories or by inference from Hebrew since the grammatical constructs of the two languages are similar. However, for the English speaking student to whom this is his/hers first introduction to the language, the task is nearly impossible. Arabic is very different from English in the way the verb is used and the way nouns and adjectives are conjugated. The author introduces these forms without explanation. Each lesson includes a list of new vocabulary. However, it is not organized alphabetically either in the text body or as a glossary at the end. I suppose that as a classroom text with the aid of a teacher to fill the gaps, demonstrate pronunciation, and provide examples for usage of the grammatical rules, this could be a useful text, although I will be surprised if even then this would be your best choice of text. Personally, I am in search of another text with audio cassets.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not for Beginners, May 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Arabic for Beginners (Hippocrene Language Studies) (Paperback)

I found the structure of this book to be quite confusing. The explanations of grammatical patterns seemed haphazard, at best, and were difficult to follow. Many chapters started with paragraphs of arabic sentences, with English translations, with explanations of the grammar used following. Important information often comes pages after the arabic examples it explains (for example, the fact that singular indefinite nouns are always prounced with 'un' at the end, three pages after seeing the words and the incorrect transliterations). The romanization used was inconsistent across the book.

I am not stranger to foreign languages, with my studies spanning the globe from standard Romance languages (French and Spanish) to Japanese. Despite that, and unfortunate experiences with many extraordinarily bad texts, I still had trouble following this one.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Inconsistancies, innacuracies, lack of organization, January 16, 2002

By 

Christopher Pang (Danville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arabic for Beginners (Hippocrene Language Studies) (Paperback)

I will first state the few good things about this book. It is fairly accurate in its grammar explanations. It also has several selections from modern Arabic literature that however don't come with a glossary. Also, this book can be used to learn Arabic, but only should be used if it is the only book available.
The words in vocabulary lists are in no apparent order, neither order of appearance, English alphabetical order, or Arabic alphabetical order, and it is almost impossible to find the meaning of words from the texts. Furthermore, there is no glossary at the back of the book.
The text is sometimes fully voweled, sometimes partially vowelled, and sometimes not vowelled at all in the first ten lessons. Although the book uses a romanization system, the romanizations given are often inaccurate, and no romanization is given for plurals or synonyms even though the Arabic is given.
Finally, the book is confusing giving complicated texts in the first few lessons that use verbs and complicated grammar, though the book has not yet even talked about how to form verbs at that point.
This book has led me to be hesitant about purchasing other title published by Hippocrene Books.
I recommend Teach Yourself Arabic by J.R. Smart, which is almost perfect except for the scarcity of romanization after the first four chapters and the poor quality of the audiotapes.