Product Description

The most frequently used Arabic verbs are conjugated, one verb to a page. The book is arranged in alphabetical order. Here is a concentrated review of Arabic verb forms for both beginning and advanced students. All verb patterns are represented.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #582818 in Books
• Published on: 1978-04-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Language Notes
Text: English, Arabic

Customer Reviews

poorly done, of limited use
201 Arabic Verbs offers precisely what it says: 201 Arabic verbs fully conjugated. Conjugating verbs in semitic languages is not a simple task because there are many structures and those have many exceptions, so right there, a book that lists fully conjugated verbs is a useful thing. This book, however, is a failure because it doesn't live up to what it could have been and because it was initially poorly thought out. Let me explain:

First off, as a project, the book was poorly done:

- There is no index of the verbs conjugated in the book, so the only way to see whether a verb is there is to look it up.

- The verbs were chosen from a list of words compiled in 1940. The verbs do not represent the most useful verbs the author could have chosen from each of the verb structures in Arabic.

- The organisation of the book is alphabetical rather than by the type of structure (fa'ala, naf'al, etc). Of course, the lack of an index makes this organisation nessary but this is a poor design choice.

- Examples of usage would have been nice.

But beyond these technical points, the basic idea of a list of 201 conjugated Arabic verbs is of limited use. If the point was JUST to give the student an example of conjugating different kinds of verbs, then fine, but this is a very humble task. This book could have been INFINITELY more useful had it given exactly ONE example of a fully conjugated verb from EACH verb category, and then contained a HUGE list of thousands of verbs and a reference to their respective category and page number... that way, rather than compiling a mindless and mind-numbing repetition of similar conjugations, the book could have covered all verb structures AND several thousand verbs all within the same space! The title would then have to be changed to something like 50001 Arabic Verbs Fully Conjugated in all the Forms and it would still be about the same size. Such a book would be of immense value to beginners and experienced students alike.

If you understood how to use it, you would have liked it...
One common thread unites those who did not like the book...they did not figure out that the paradigms shown (the 201 actual verbs conjugated) are to be used by referencing the index in the back to find the type of verb you want to conjugate and then looking at the paradigm it references. The meaning that the book gives is not important since many verbs have many meanings (often) anyway. Context and your dictionary is always the source of meanings. You can find the correct way to conjugate almost any verb by identifying its type in the back and referencing it's model paradigm. If you know how to do this, this book CAN be helful for beginners. Intermediate and advanced students often have a sense of how conjugations go and after a while don't need a tool to tell them. Those who understand how to use the book, give it good reviews.

Could be better but
There isn't another commonly available resource of this type that I know of and I have found it very useful. You don't get very far into Arabic before you learn the joys that are the hollow verb (those with a long vowel in the middle) and the defective verb (those that end with ya or alif maqsura) not to mention the shuffling short vowels between present and past tense. My textbook (Ahlan wa Sahlan) conjugates only a small representative few in the index so I really needed a reference such as this.

As you can guess from the title, this book takes 201 verbs and conjugates them in Active and Passive voice (where relevant) giving these forms:

1.) Past
2.) Present
3.) Subjunctive
4.) Jussive

As well as providing the imperative, active and passive participles, and the root-very handy for beginners dealing with quadriliteral verbs. Each verb is provided along with a brief definition. No, it's not as thorough as a dictionary but that's what Al-Mawrid is for, right?

I liked the selection of verbs (I was very happy to see that the verb for "to see" was included), the index that listed the type of verbs (e.g. verbs with initial hamza, verbs with final waw, etc.) and the printface is legible and of decent size. Compare with the Hans Wehr budget print dictionary and you'll appreciate how nice this is. They also clearly provide all short vowel markers which aren't always in dictionaries.

The biggest complaint is, as other users have stated, there is no index of the specific verbs provided as examples. As I've looked them up, I've started just writing them in the index but this is messy. I'd also think some brief explication on how to create passive, subjunctive, etc. would be a good addition but perhaps that is beyond the intended scope.

If you have a particular verb type that really confuses you-defective verbs give me fits-then this reference will definitely be helpful.