Product Description

This concise, two-in-one book provides an accessible introduction to Arabic grammar and a comprehensive explanation of verbs in their various forms.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #263698 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-11
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Language Notes
Text: English, Arabic

About the Author
McGraw-Hill authors represent the leading experts in their fields and are dedicated to improving the lives, careers, and interests of readers worldwide

McGraw-Hill authors represent the leading experts in their fields and are dedicated to improving the lives, careers, and interests of readers worldwide

Customer Reviews

Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar
This book is a complementary work to Mastering Arabic by the same authors. It is called Arabic - Verbs & Essentials of Grammar. It appears to be a nice complement for beginners to studying Arabic.

This is an Arabic language book. It assumes the student might have the companion book, Mastering Arabic and begins with learning basic grammar and sentence structure. Obviously verbs are essentials to nearly all sentences with their tenses, cases and gender. My objectives are not to speak Arabic so much as to be able to read and write it.
It is really a little too early to tell how far this book and the other will take me since it will be several years before its benefits are fully known to me.

I am a typical Mid-west American with some interest in languages and I have studied Spanish, German, with some Hebrew and Russian exposure. I thought I would tackle Arabic because it is an entirely different language in structure and speech than any other language that I have studied. I also see more and more written Arabic in the news media; and much as I love the news media, I would like to be able to judge what is said for myself (i.e. to keep the news media honest). I am 68 also and this is an adventure.

Transliterations Not Good for Pronounciation
The review by "Cat Marie" is very similar to my initial review of "First 100 Words" by the same author. I wrote that review before receiving classroom instruction in Arabic from native speakers. As a result of that experience, I amended my review as follows:

There are basic sounds and sound patterns that simply cannot be represented by English phoneticisms, period. So for the purpose of learning the *sounds* represented by Arabic *script*, English phoneticisms are misleading in some cases, and flat out wrong in others.

For those already familiar with Arabic sounds, phoneticisms or transliterations are merely "codes" rather than representations. Unfortunately, this book gives the (often false) impression of *representing* the sounds. Readers who get a false sense of confidence in mispronunciations learned from this book (as I did) may be discouraged when they first encounter the difficulties of correct pronunciation.

For the English speaker, many Arabic sounds and ways of verbally connecting sounds are totally unfamiliar. To learn to properly pronounce Arabic on even the most basic level, inter-personal instruction is an absolute must. Recordings are good supplements for "ear training," but they cannot provide the correction essential for properly *verbalizing* Arabic sounds.

Good start, but you've got a little further to go
As a beginner to the Arabic language, I was grateful to find this book. In the past, I've been subjected to dry-as-toast Arabic grammars that made NO sense whatsoever (because they often used jargon that would only be familiar to Arabic scholars with PhDs, probably). Wightwick and Gaafar's book is a nice, slim reference for basic Arabic grammar. What is particularly nice for the elementary student is that while grammar is shown in Arabic script (in my opinion, this is necessary for any Arabic guide worth its salt), the words are also transliterated so that the reader can accurately learn the pronunciation of a word.

HOWEVER, it should be pointed out that the subtitle is a little misleading. This is NOT a practical guide for the "mastery" of Arabic. While a great desk reference, it is still a good introductury Arabic grammar. There are other books for advanced grammar. This isn't it.

Also, this book is not for the absolute beginner. You should have a foundation in the Arabic alphabet and some basic vocabulary. This book teaches none of those things, just how a sentence fits together and various verb tenses.

Looking back on this review, I have to amend a few things. I began studying Arabic with a tutor and would add that while the pronunciation used in the book is close, sometimes it's inaccurate. Really, you need to use this book in conjunction with an Arabic course, because you won't be able to teach yourself. You NEED to hear the language firsthand, and flat words on paper aren't going to give you that.

Honestly, I recommend this more: A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic (Reference Grammars). This is a fuller, more complete picture of the Arabic language (so why waste your time on a very skinny intro grammar that occasionally makes transliteration mistakes?). Wightwick's book is a decent reference but really, for your time and money, you can do better.

I'd change the stars on my original review but unfortunately the edit option doesn't seem to allow me.