Customer Reviews

First 1000 Words in Arabic (First Thousand Words)

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"First 1000 Words" is a picture reference book with numerous scenes similar to the picture on the cover of the book. Even though this appears to be a children's book, I recommend it to adults who are trying to learn Arabic, too.

All of the words in the book are nouns, so a more appropriate title might be "First 1000 Nouns in Arabic". The book is really easy to use. Under each picture is the arabic word (in Arabic script). Beneath that is the English transliteration. This is helpful if you don't know how to read Arabic script or aren't very good at is. For example, under the picture of a fish, you will find the Arabic script, then the tansliteration of fish in Arabic, which is "samak".

A glossary in the back of the book helps you easily locate the word you might be looking for and to clear up any confusion caused by a picture that could mean two or more things, like a picture of a wall, the word beneath the picture could be the word for "brick" or for "wall". The glossary eliminate this confusion.

This book is great! Each page is loaded with with colorful pictures and familiar objects from the house, outside, inside stores, animals, etc. Obviously it is essential to have a fluent speaker to get the proper pronunciation for each word, but the transliterations are intuitive enough to be close. My son is almost 3 and he loves looking through the book while I teach him how to say the objects in Arabic and English. Its a good way for me to spend time with him while trying to stay in "Arabic-learning" mode since I don't know all of the objects contained in this book yet.

My two-year-old and I took this to Morocco with us and popped it out at the end of every day. It was a fantastic companion, then, to what we were hearing in conversation, because the words and pictures were quite complementary to what we were encountering in everyday life. We were able to use it to isolate words we were hearing and piece together what folks were talking about. My daughter began identifying things by their Arabic names. A very cute book, too--very well drawn and appealing to children.

Wish this were aboard book. Also this is in Lebanese dialect. Wish I knew that. I would not have gotten it.

Overall, I think it is a great and useful tool for learning Arabic.

-It is divided into subject area, such as vocab for the kitchen, bathroom, etc. However, I disagree with the placement of some vocab into certain categories. I also wonder if some of these words are included in the first 1000 words of a child...circus and tool, other than the basic hammer, nail, etc., terms do not seem like they would be a child's first 1000
-The pictures are not always clear. They do have a nice glossary, but if you don't know what it is at all...then I wouldn't know what to look up since it is English-Arabic only
-The words do not include the vowels which I think is very critical to include, for pronunciation reasons, for beginners
-The pictures are colorful and fun. It has the vocabulary as borders around a main scene using all of the words. This is useful for practicing your vocab: making sentences and describing what is happening.

My complaint on this is that the words are printed so small that i can barely see them, much less my daughter. Better for older kids who already read.

This is a great book. I already know how to read arabic but have trouble with reading without vowel markings. So the english pronunciation really helps with that. Although I do agree that its hard to tell exactly which object they are trying to name at times.

this is a great book - don't get me wrong. however - the pictures aren't ALWAYS clear. as my daughter is learning arabic from her father - i would like to help her some. the transliteration is great - however - sometimes i can't tell her what each word is in english. i can't tell a sawhorse from a tool shelf, etc. yes - if you speak arabic already - you're set. it just may be hard for the non-arabic speaking parent to help!

I was expecting a bunch of images together with the related arabic script and transliteration. But there is a mini dictionary in the end of the book. And you can hear how the word is pronounced on the Internet (I didn't realize this feature when I read the book description.)

Off course, some people would prefer the english translation to be next to the arabic script and transliteration. But I think that's ok (the extra lookup may be helpful to learn.)

This book is a great book for learners of all ages. The vocabulary is well-organized and there's even pronunciation along with the Arabic words. The only problem is that sometimes you can't tell exactly what the word is matched up with in the picture, so things can be a little confusing at times. Other than that, it's a great way to develop vocabulary.