Customer Reviews

Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar, 2E (Verbs and Essentials of Grammar Series)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you don't study Arabic script first, this book is going to be unnecessarily difficult. Otherwise, it is the best introduction to verbs I have found. It is a short book (123 pages + the Appendixes and Verb Index). The chapters are clearly organized and with easily understandable explanations focusing on verb grammar without any distractions.

Key words in lessons are transliterated (using a easily comprehensible system) along with the Arabic text.

The book also has something that I have not found in any other Arabic language instruction books: It has two verb indexes (Arabic-English and English-Arabic) listing 400 common verbs that are used in the lessons. This is something I have been very frustrated in searching for--a list of commonly used verbs to study that I can access through English-Arabic as well as Arabic-English. Additionally, each verb entry in the index has 1) the 3 or 4 letter root, 2) the two principle parts, 3) transliteration of the principle parts, 4) verb type (for example: I, defective), and 5) page in the book that uses the verb.

Since I have spent a lot of time searching and not found any verb index nearly as helpful, the verb index alone is a study tool that seems worth the price of the whole book!

I've heard that nowadays publishing houses no longer employ proof-readers; I don't know if that's true; if it is, this book shows. Perhaps it's just me, but I don't expect typos in a reference work. In this otherwise very useful, slim volume, you can find not only the conjugation paradigms, but also all the other basic things you need to know: the i'Daafah, the broken plural, the demonstrative and relative pronouns etc; the explanations are always brief, but spot-on. I'm looking forward to a typo-free 3rd edition.

I own the 1st version and this newer version. I was a fan of the 1st one and used it until it fell apart. I saw this edition at the local library and decided to try it. I really loved it and bought one right away. I think the index is better, it is easier to find verb examples in the newer version than in the old. I highly recommend buying this one even if you already have the other version.

The Arabic verb is both simpler and harder than that of languages more familiar to English speaking learners. Simpler, because basically you have two tenses: Perfect and Imperfect. (The future, negative future and past habitual tenses, as well as the jussive and subjunctive moods are all formed by small changes or additions to the imperfect). Harder, because of the bewildering variety of sizes and shapes in which the verb can appear. The simplest form, which is usually referred to as Form I, consists of words built upon a 'root', almost always of three consonants (once in a while four), with eight of the remaining nine forms, which usually change some nuance of the Form I's meaning, being derived by an internal change to the original verb or by attaching a prefix to it.

This little book is a great resource for keeping track of all this, and it is a particularly helpful reference when it is necessary to deal with the often confusing doubled or hollow verbs. You can't beat the price, either.

This reference is a must-have for all Arabic students. I am in my 2nd year of studying the language and it is such a great resource to have handy. Not only does it give concise and simple (when many things in Arabic are not so!) explanations and rules for the different verb forms and tenses, but it also has chapters on pronouns, the dual and plurals among other things. I found the glossary in the back of the book most helpful: a list of verbs, their roots, meaning, and form all listed neatly. And it to top it all off, it's a thin book which makes it easy to carry around (bit simplistic but very helpful when you have a hundred other books to carry). I say, buy it! Whatever level you are in...the information within it will always be useful.

Jane, and Mahmoud do a good job of explaining what needs to be explained. The only irk about the book is they left out transliteration for most sentences; but transliterated the important sections, namely the verbs. I had purchased another book by them "Easy Arabic Grammar", which really boosts up the common what's what of Arabic, and did transliterate all example sentences, but was more of a student reference guide, with activities, this book "Verbs & Essentials of Grammar" details a lot more, and gives the necessary verb forms, Jussive, Imperative, Subjunctive and so on. This book coupled with perhaps a Hans-Wehr dictionary would become indispensable, and you will be on your way to fluency with practice. The book basically answered all the questions I had scratched by head over when looking at verbs, wondering how to use a verb this way or that way. If your goal is fluency, all the things they explain are not typically necessary to know advanced rules for but it will make it clearer for you, so I recommend it to get a foothold on the language, but then remember always to bulk vocabulary to a few thousand words, and practice in the field with native speakers.

This book is simple, concise and insightful. It presents the verbal forms and tenses, the adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and other important grammatical categories and rules. The examples that are introduced reflect real-life situations.

On the whole, the work is a very good introduction to the basics of Arabic.

Joyce Akesson author of The Complexity Of The Irregular Verbal And Nominal Forms & The Phonological Changes In Arabic and Arabic Morphology and Phonology: Based on the Marah Al-Arwah by Ahmad B. Ali B. Masud (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics)

This book is simple, concise and insightful. It presents the verbal forms and tenses, the adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and other important grammatical categories and rules. The examples that are introduced reflect real-life situations.

On the whole, the work is a very good introduction to the basics of Arabic.

Joyce Akesson author of The Complexity of the Irregular Verbal and Nominal Forms & the Phonological Changes in Arabic

This book is well organized and written to facilitate a beginner or intermediate Arabic student.

That said, I wish the preview had more content available because, unbeknownst to me, this book is a bit under my level.

Still, it could be a handy reference for learning or an effective teaching tool.

I would recommend this book, but please be aware of what you are purchasing.

Good book for intermediate Arabic learners looking to boost verb vocabulary and conjugation. It is small but packs a wealth of info. Probably not the best place to start learning Arabic, but a good resource for those who already have a solid base to build upon. Discusses the root structure, regular verbs, irregular verbs, forming verbal sentences, negation, the dual, and a couple of other grammatical topics (adjectives, pronouns, plurals).

I had 12 hours of Arabic instruction in college, but felt like I really didn't understand the different types of verbs and how to conjugate on the fly. This book definitely helps.