Arabic Books

Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic

Hans Wehr

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 57 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An outdated, frustrating reference book. 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I was very excited about getting my Wehr dictionary having read so many good reviews about it, and was very disappointed when I began to use it. First of all I got the small 3rd edition, which uses size 5.5 print, which is small enough to give one a headache when reading. Also, the print process is obviously insufficient, as many pages are not printed evenly, which, when combined with the already tiny type, makes them almost impossible to read. Also, some of the pages in the "ya" section were blank; not just extra pages added in, but missing words.
As for the content, it is indeed comprehensive, but not very useful. Many modern terms are not included, and a large amount of the lexicon is extremely outdated and obscure. Very often I've found terms in my Awde & Smith Arabic Practical Dictionary which the Wehr won't have, which is surprising given the difference in number of words between the two. The simple fact is that this is an outdated book. I might recommend it for someone studying scholarly or Koranic Arabic, but for the modern student, I found it more frustrating than useful, and more trouble than it was worth.

Editorial Review:

Its scholarship, accuracy and reliability make it one of the most significant contributions to Arabic lexicography. It is hoped that this masterpiece will point the way ot wider use of modern lexicographical principles in the compilation of dictionaries for earlier periods of the Arabic language.

Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya with DVDs: A Textbook for Beginning Arabic, Part One Second Edition

Kristen Brustad, Mahmoud Al-Batal, Abbas Al-Tonsi

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Al-Kitaab Part 1 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a well designed textbook. Heavy on vocabulary, but presented in context. The DVD that accompanies it is very helpful for pronunciation and listening practice. Assumes a knowledge of Arabic script and the 150 vocabulary words presented in Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds, so if you haven't already gone through Alif Baa, I recommend starting there.

The authoritative text for learning Arabic 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This product is by far the undisputed standard for learning how to read, write & speak arabic. I have purchased many others before buying this one, including 'teach yourself arabic' and 'living language complete arabic' but they fell far short of expectations.

The text is thorough and is filled with challenging and interesting exercises. The DVDs complement the text very well, and make the learning experience more interactive and interesting. The native speakers featured are excellent and the dialogues relevant. One of the best features of this course is the positioning of standard arabic alongside egyptian colloquial arabic. I found this especially helpful as over the years, I have developed a basic command of spoken egyptian arabic and had no idea what the standard equivalent was. This course has given me the ability to differentiate between both and switch accordingly depending on the situation.

I would recommend this course to anyone interested in learning arabic without hesitation. Other courses I have purchased in the past are far inferior and do not even compare to this one.

Editorial Review:

Al-Kitaab: Part One develops skills in standard Arabic while providing additional material in colloquial and classical Arabic. With new video material and revised and updated texts and exercises, the bound-in and revised DVDs supersede both the former CD audio set and video DVD previously only available as separate items - making this singular volume a comprehensive whole for those immersed in the early and intermediate stages of learning Arabic.

The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read & Write It

Nicholas Awde, Putros Samano

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 86 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Arabic Alphabet not so basic 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Awde and Samano's The Arabic Alphabet is a very good introduction to a complex language. I enjoyed the initial section, but became quickly discouraged with the language. This is not the fault of the authors. I think they succeeded in putting together a slim and accesible book. I hope to pick it up again soon.

Editorial Review:

Ever greater numbers of people are learning Arabic and/or coming into some kind of contact with the Arab world. Anyone who wishes to learn the language faces a hitherto formidable initial challenge: 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, and no unnecessary complications added. Readers will make rapid progress and will be surprised at the relative ease with which they master the first steps towards command of 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 business people with Arab clients; and in the back pocket of every employee of British or American companies working in Arab countries.

Answer Key To Al-Kitaab Fii Ta'allum Al-'Arabiyya with DVDs: Part 1, 2nd Edition

Kristen Brustad, Mahmound Al-Batal, Abbas Al-Tonsi

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Good Answer Key 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a good supplement for the text and definitely helps in learning Arabic.

good, but not complete 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

These answers are great to use while self teaching yourself the material from al-kitaab. The only problem is that not all of the problem sets are answered.

teacher 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is very necessary to help you understand when you have missed an answer; it helps you get back on track.

Great answer key to workbook! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

It is worthwhile buying the answer key to Al-Kitaab Fii Ta'allum Al-Arabiyya! I am not a native speaker of the Arabic language but I have found that this answer key is very useful when having to check my work before turning it into my professor at CSUSB. I paid less than $5.00 for it and it is was one of the wisest decisions I made.

Answer Key to Al-Kitaab 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Clear and well formatted answer key, makes the use of the Original work text easy to use.

Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds

Kristen Brustad, Mahmoud Al-Batal, Abbas Al-Tonsi

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 57 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The beauty of the Arabic language, both spoken and written--and the richness of the Arabic-speaking world, its history and culture--has recently become of increasing importance and a matter of revelation for the English-speaking world. It is essential as this new century unfolds, that understanding develops between nations--and language is the magic key.

The Al-Kitaab Arabic language program is among the English-speaking world’s most widely used Arabic language learning texts. Alif Baa with DVDs: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds is the first part of the Al-Kitaab program. This revised, second edition contains updated readings, new and revised exercises, and completely new audio/video materials on two DVDs bound into each volume.

In teaching the sounds and letters of Arabic, Alif Baa provides a variety of exercises aimed at developing the crucial nascent skills of reading, listening, writing, speaking, and cultural understanding. In conjunction with learning how to read and write the alphabet, Alif Baa introduces about 150 basic vocabulary words, including conventional forms of politeness and social greetings.

Standard Arabic vocabulary is distributed throughout the book, enhanced by the visual and audio materials on the DVDs and implemented in practical exercises. It introduces a range of Arabic from colloquial to standard in authentic contexts, including social greetings in dialogues that take place in an Egyptian context, the most widely-used and understood Arabic dialect.

Finally, Alif Baa includes capsules on Arab culture as well as an English-Arabic glossary. Alif Baa provides the essential first twenty contact hours of instruction that are the foundation for the rest of the Al-Kitaab language program.

Arabic Practical Dictionary: Arabic-English English-Arabic (Hippocrene Practical Dictionaries)

Nicholas Awde, K. Smith

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Very useful and practical 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

A most helpful dictionary for both the expert and the beginners.
It is extensive and includes around 17,900 entries, with original transliterations
phonetics and dialects sounds.
It is practical, and easy to follow.
Most suitable for people visiting the Arab countries.

Important characteristics:
The selection of the words is very thoughtful, because the entries contains words frequently used in day by day business transactions, deals, dialogues, and affairs.
It is not boring at all.
I do speak fluently Arabic, because I am Egyptian.

I highly recommend this dictionary.-From Zaki Rustum Abaza, Egypt, Cairo

Editorial Review:

This dictionary is an essential resource for students of Arabic and English alike. It covers their needs with the most up-to-date entries in handy reference form, and will especially prove to be an aid in navigating the growing vocabulary of politics, telecommunications, technology, the Internet, tourism, business, and travel. Compact and concise, the dictionary includes more than 18,000 entries in clear, easy-to-read format the Arabic is provided with Romanised transliterations and the English with phonetic transliterations, while grammatical forms such as verb conjugations and plurals, are given for each word in both languages. The selection of current words and expressions and their practical arrangement make this a comprehensive and reliable dictionary that is not only a principal tool for the study of Modern Standard Arabic, bit also a perfect two-way portal for students of both Arabic and English.

Teach Yourself Arabic Complete Course Package (Book + 2CDs) (TY: Complete Courses)

Jack Smart, Frances Altorfer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Talk like an Egyptian. Teach yourself Arabic!

With Teach Yourself it's possible for virtually anyone to learn and experience the languages of the world, from Afrikaans to Zulu; Ancient Greek to Modern Persian; Beginner's Latin to Biblical Hebrew. Follow Teach Yourself Arabic at your own pace or use it as a supplement to formal courses. This complete course is professionally designed for self-guided study, making it one of the most enjoyable and easy to use language courses you can find. Teach Yourself Arabic includes an instructional paperback book and two companion 60-minute audio CDs.

.

Prepared by experts in Arabic, the course begins with the basics and gradually promotes you to a level of smooth and confident communication, including:

.

.
• Step-by-step guide to pronunciation and grammar.
• Regular and irregular verb tables .
• Plenty of practice exercises and answers .
• Practical vocabulary and a bilingual glossary .
• Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout .
• An exploration of the culture .
• And much more .

501 Arabic Verbs: Fully Conjugated in All Forms

Raymond Scheindlin Ph.D.

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

useful, but needs much better indexing 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Used together with Hans Wehr's indispensable dictionary, this book is very useful for the intermediate learner of Arabic. However, the lack of English indexing is extremely frustrating. In short, it's definitely worth having until the next edition comes out - hopefully with a much-improved index.

PROS:

1. Each of the 501 verbs is conjugated neatly in its 65 different forms according to:

- person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd)

- number (singular, dual, plural)

- gender (feminine and masculine)

- voice (active and passive)

- mood (perfect (maadhi), imperfect (marfoo'a), subjunctive (mansoob), jussive (majroor), imperative (amr))

- active participle (sighat al-fa'il), passive participle (sighat al-maf'ool), and verbal noun (masdar)

These are all the forms that Arabic professors expect you (as an intermediate or advanced student) to know off the top of your head, but that few of us can actually recite perfectly - especially for weak verbs, hollow verbs, etc. So it's great having it all in once place as a reference. Even for the beginner, seeing all of this laid out for each verb in one place will give you a good visual schema for how Arabic verbs work.

2. Each verb comes with three or four example sentences using different forms of the verb in context. Very helpful if you're trying to learn new verbs.

3. Each verb comes with its verb pattern (wazn, I to X) and root (jadhr). The book is alphabetized by jadhr, just like Hans Wehr. The verbs are also indexed at the back of the book alphabetically in Arabic as well (i.e. by spelling of the pattern of the verb listed, not just by root).

4. Unlike some other reviewers, I don't find the type to be too small. It's fine. A lot of Arabic texts are written in smaller print than this anyway.

CONS:

1. Although each verb comes with the English meaning, there is no way to look up a verb by its English meaning without flipping through the entire book. This quickly becomes really annoying. It would have taken the publisher a couple of hours and added only a few pages to the end of the book to include an index of the 501 verbs by English definition. This is by far the biggest problem with the book. Without this problem, this would be a five-star book. The way it is, it's about 3 1/2 stars.

2. Although the verbs are indexed at the back of the book and numbered 1-501, page numbers aren't listed to lead you to the verb. Even worse, although the index tells you what verb #70 (out of 501) is, there's no #70 written next to the verb in the body of the book! So the index numbering is completely useless. A big oversight.

3. To make this book even better, it would help to have (a) the plural of the verbal noun (masdar) listed (since these are often irregular) and (b) the prepositions that are used with each verb. I find that I have to look to the example sentences to sort out which preposition comes after each verb, and sometimes that doesn't even clear up the question.

4. There are a few typos to watch out for - I've noticed a couple of sukkuns that should actually be hamzas. But this is a very minor gripe - it's almost 100% correct as far as I can tell.

Editorial Review:

Barron’s 501 Arabic Verbs is printed in Arabic script with exemplary sentences in English for each verb. To reflect correct Arabic style, 501 Arabic Verbs has been printed back cover to front and back page to front. Verbs are arranged alphabetically in a table format, one verb per page with English translation, and conjugated in all tenses and forms. The book’s additional features include common idioms with example sentences to demonstrate verb usage and a grammar review.

Oxford Picture Dictionary: English/Arabic (Oxford Picture Dictionary)

Jayme Adelson-Goldstein, Norma Shapiro

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

ESL Resource Book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The intention of the Oxford Picture Dictionary Series is to instruct English Language Learners with parallel text. They are not meant to instruct English speakers to learn a second language. Keep this in mind before you buy the text.
It IS an excellent tool for beginning ELLs no matter what age level. Check out the tapes and CD rom, too.

illustrated nouns and verbs 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent source book that names everything with pictures. For the English-speaking student of Arabic as well as the Arabic-speaking student of English, everyone learns how to name everything. This book is an essential language-learning tool.

IS INDEED an Excellent Resource for Eng-speaking Students 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Contrary to what's been said here, this book is invaluable for those who
have mastered pronunciation and have a few years of Arabic. In so many Arabic-study
texts, you don't find words grouped together by theme. E.g., you learn apple, spoon,
body part, etc., but rarely all together. If you're serious, this and the 1000 Arabic media words
are helpful. No, it's not for newbies; neither is much of what is offered. In that case, go
to the Kitab (Georgetown Series) or other fine beginner's texts.

Editorial Review:

The remarkable new edition of the best-selling Oxford Picture Dictionary, features over 4,000 words and phrases illustrated with all new vibrant, crystal-clear artwork. The topics, based on extensive input from teachers and students, have been thoroughly updated to meet the needs of today's English language learners. The new bilingual editions have complete second language indexes.

Answer Key To Alif Baa: Introduction To Arabic Letters and Sounds

Kristen Brustad, Mahmoud Al-Batal, Abbas Al-Tonsi

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

I love Alif Baa 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

My only gripe is that I bought the book in the store and had to buy the answer key online. The answer key should be included with the book in store as well or INCLUDED in the damn book.

This is the answer key to an AWESOME product 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is the answer key. It is very useful if you want to check your work and it isn't very expensive.

Below is my review for the Alif Baa: Introduction to Letters and Sounds set (just to help you while you are looking).

This is the answer key to a product that is AWESOME! The explanations are very clear. The listening exercises give students exposure to colloquial Egyptian Arabic. The listening exercises also help the learner to distinguish between letter sounds and reinforce their letter sound pronunciation.

You really should buy this if you are learning Arabic. It is that useful!

It's the standard for a reason 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Alif Baa is SO much better than the later "Al-Kitaab" books in this series. If you want to learn the Arabic script, buy this and do the drills (then turn elsewhere for the language).