The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read & Write It 12th Edition

by Nicholas Awde (Author), Putros Samano (Author)

675 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0818404306

ISBN-10: 0818404302

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Ever larger numbers of people are starting to learn Arabic, while even more have some contact with the Arab world. Anyone who wishes to learn the language faces a hitherto formidable initial problem: the alphabet. This book proceeds step by step through all the letters of the Arabic alphabet, showing the sounds they stand for and how they are combined into words. Nothing essential is left out, but no unnecessary complications are added. Readers will find that progress is rapid and will be surprised at the relative ease with which they master the first steps in learning this increasingly important world language.

The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read and Write It belongs on the desk of every student of the language, in the luggage of every visitor to the Middle East, in the briefcase of all business people with Arab clients, and in the back pocket of all employees of British or American companies working for a time in an Arab country.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nicholas Awde was born in London in 1961 and spent much of his childhood in Africa. He studied Arabic at London University.

Product details

Publisher : Lyle Stuart; 12th edition (October 1, 2000)
Language : English
Paperback : 95 pages
ISBN-10 : 0818404302
ISBN-13 : 978-0818404306
Item Weight : 3.39 ounces
Dimensions : 5.35 x 0.28 x 8.36 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #62,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #42 in Language Experience Approach to Teaching
- #45 in Travel Language Phrasebooks (Books)
- #111 in Foreign Language Instruction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
675 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		74%
4 star		14%
3 star		7%
2 star		2%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Bill Henderson Jr.

Best way to start learning Arabic.

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

I started learning Arabic in 2004 - I've spent countless hours studying and practicing as well as a fortune on Arabic books. This short and simple book was the best value of time and money spent. You won't know the language after this, but it has a very easy way of introducing the script so when you start building your vocabulary, you won't have to rely on transliteration. Read this first! After a week, you'll have it down. Pass the book on to someone after you've got it mastered.

52 people found this helpful

Helpful

Ricardo S

I learned the alphabet in less than 2 weeks. This book helped.

Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2015

Verified Purchase

When I bought this book it was with the goal of being able to read and write Arabic. I can honestly say that over the course of a week and a half I was able to both read and write Arabic with no more than about 8-10 hours of study.

What I did was read the explanations in the book and simply write every example given for two full lines (right to left) on a standard notebook paper. By the time I was done with every example in the book, I was basically able to read and write with very little difficulty.

Of course this doesn't make my pronunciation perfect and it doesn't mean I know what things MEAN when I read them, but this book did exactly what I wanted it to do and that is guide me through the alphabet. I read a guy's blog that said a book is not necessary when learning the Arabic alphabet. I agree this is true. The same can be said of Japanese hiragana/katakana, and Korean Hangeul. Indeed, I learned those writing systems both with and without the aid of books. In my opinion, a little guidance and reassurance is nice when first learning a language and I chose to pay the premium on having my information given to me in a handy form of small, paperback book.

If you want to learn the Arabic Alphabet and are willing to spend some money for convenience, this book is great and it can work for you.

46 people found this helpful

Helpful

CillacellaTop Contributor: Pets

Best book for learning to read!

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

Everytime we teach the Arabic alphabet we use this book. It explains every letter, vowel and all the diacritics better than any other book we've used and we've used them all. Highly recommend if you are trying to learn how to read and write Arabic.

10 people found this helpful

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Jason D. Sanchez

Excellent tool

Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2017

Verified Purchase

The book explains how to use you guttural sounds for many letter and gives you examples. Unless you have a teacher or interpreter there is no way to know unless you have someone show you first hand. Also I can use this book in the area that I am in. There are many things that Egyptian Arabic does that are not customary to the way this book works for me. I have begun to read and write words and practice out in about in public with success. Arabs love to teach you the language as long as you show them you are trying.

12 people found this helpful

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Martina

Pushes islam on you.

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2020

Verified Purchase

Really excited about this book because of it's simple format, HOWEVER to force the first chapter or two of the koran on me in order to learn the language is unacceptable. Especially since Arabic predates islam.
The authors could have used a kids a story or even a excerpt from the Bible which is also older than the koran. They could have used lyrics from a song anything other than shoving the writing of a religion I detest in order for me to learn a language. Unacceptable and a hindering motive.

4 people found this helpful

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Amazonean Queen

Need a teacher

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2020

Verified Purchase

The book is not helping, is all in Arabic, hard to understand. I’m not in a class, trying to learning on my own . I can trace the letters but don’t know what the mean, no inglés or Spanish.

3 people found this helpful

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BGD

... Arabic course 3 times now and this is really perfect for what it is - teaches the script and ...

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2017

Verified Purchase

I've taught a little intro to Arabic course 3 times now and this is really perfect for what it is - teaches the script and gives a fabulous overview of the Arabic language. Really janky font/printing, but doesn't interfere from the good content.

12 people found this helpful

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Aeries

Good, but not quite Great

Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2009

Verified Purchase

This book starts out fantastically as a guide to someone wanting to learn the Arabic alphabet. It is very well organized and very effective in its methods. The first 30 or so pages describe how to use this book and help the reader gain an understanding of how the letters are pronounced and how words are formed and so on.

In the section where it describes each letter and how it is written in each of its forms, Awde doesn't go through the alphabet in order, but rather goes by the simplest and most common used letters first, such as baa, taa, and thaa. With each letter, the pronunciation is briefly reviewed and how it is written in each of the four possible positions is shown.

However, as the book progresses further into the letters, it seems the editing fell apart a bit. With some letters, the guiding arrows that help direct the reader in a step by step formation of the letter are missing. Now, the few times where this is the case, it can usually be figured out, but is still a little annoying.

The one letter family I thought was poorly executed was the jiim, Haa', and khaa' family. The way to write the initial and medial forms is shown in a way that is never used, and the way that I have always seen it written is not shown. It is close to it, but not the same.

However, despite these couple minor hiccups, the book is definitely helpful in gaining a better understanding of the Arabic alphabet. But by no means is this book where you should stop if you are looking to learn the language at any level.

18 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Mbeckford

Well worth the money!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

A really good book for absolute beginners. I would not have beleived you could learn to read Arabic so fast, it looks so complicated and alien from English. The book is well laid out and introduces you to the alphabet in small chunks, with practice exercises after each part. By the end I found I could read most words correctly.
Of course that is transliteration, and not translation. I now have to learn what all these words mean! But I feel as if I'm half way there and very much motivated to start increasing my knowledge of the language.

2 people found this helpful

T. R. Jones

Very useful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2016

Verified Purchase

This little book promises little but delivers quite a lot and does so in a structured, progressive manner. As new letters are introduced so words constructed of what one has learned up to that point are shown, so that one can see the letter in its natural context. Hence, one also learns some Arabic vocabulary which is a useful bonus. It is probably most effective if combined with an audio-visual course on the Arabic alphabet (this is how I used it) although as a standalone resource I think it would still be an effective learning tool.

4 people found this helpful

Greybeard

Good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 31, 2017

Verified Purchase

Interesting and absorbing. Not easy for a westerner of course, but not totally impenetrable. Would be better if it came with an audio disc for help with pronunciation. Content seems satisfyingly comprehensive for such a slim volume.

2 people found this helpful

R. Stockley

Arabic - The Perfect Starting Point

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 6, 2011

Verified Purchase

Like (I believe) a lot of people, I began learning Arabic by getting hold of a basic phrase book and trying to learn it parrot fashion. This is all well and good if you want to learn a few useful phrases, but if you want to truly learn Arabic as a language, as it says in this book, you've got to learn the alphabet and the basics first. The book isn't an 'Arabic for Dummies', although it is written in a technical and intelligent format, its explanations and logical layout make it very easy to understand, even for relative simpletons such as myself. After just a few weeks I can recognise and pronounce Arabic writing on the television and shop signs. What Awde and Samano have produced is an excellent piece of work and should be a must for scholars, tourists and business folk alike.

6 people found this helpful

Brett

A great starting point for learning Arabic.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 16, 2012

Verified Purchase

This is my first review on here after years of buying from this site; I simply felt compelled to say a thing or two about this book.

So, straight to the point, this book, quite simply, will teach you the Arabic alphabet, help you understand how to roughly pronounce each letter and then show you how to write each letter in all of it's forms (all letters have multiple forms, some more than others). Going beyond that, it will also teach you about extra letters and such which arn't necessarily part of the Arabic alphabet, but are commonly used anyway.

If you've ever looked at any Arabic text and felt completely overwhelmed by it, by the end of this book you will, instead, be able to actually read the words you are seeing, albeit with rough pronounciation. The point being, you'll understand what's written even if you don't know the meaning of the words. It's not a big book, you could easily get through it in a couple of hours at a slowed pace to take in the information. But the information that's given ultimately serves the purpose of this book, and that makes it a fantastic starting point to learning the Arabic language.

Highly recommended!

3 people found this helpful