‫كبير‬ ‫البيت‬

kabeer al-bayt
big the-house
The house is big.

‫ممتاز‬ ‫األكل‬
mumtaaz al-akl
big the-house
The food is excellent.

‫صغيرة‬ ‫البنت‬
Sagheera al-bint
small the-girl
The girl is small (young).

Note that when describing past occurences, the verb "to be" is necessary:

‫كبيرا‬ ‫البيت‬ ‫كان‬

kabeeran al-bayt kaana
big the-house was
The house was big.

The word "kaana" is the past tense of the verb "to be".

Arabic has two grammatical genders.

In Arabic a word can be either masculine or feminine - just like in French. Feminine

words are usually easy to spot, because most of them end in ‫( ـة ة‬taa' marbooTa).
Below are some examples:

Word Feminine Singular Masculine Singular

student ‫طالبة‬ ‫طالب‬

Taaliba Taalib
friend ‫صديقة‬ ‫صديق‬
Sadeeqa Sadeeq

moslem ‫مسلمة‬ ‫مسلم‬

muslima muslim

ambassador ‫سفيرة‬ ‫سفير‬

safeera safeer

dog ‫كلبة‬ ‫كلب‬

kalba kalb

Arabic words are formed according to a root system.

Most Arabic words derive from a three or four letter root. This can best be
explained using a concrete example.

The following words all derive from the same three root letters - ‫( كتب‬k t b):

to write ‫كتب‬
kataba

writer ‫كاتب‬
kaatib

written ‫مكتوب‬
maktoob

book ‫كتاب‬
kitaab

writing ‫كتابة‬
kitaaba

office ‫مكتب‬
maktab

bookstore / library ‫مكتبة‬

maktaba
dictation ‫استكتاب‬
istiktaab

Once you've figured out how this system works, you will be able to construct a lot
of words from the same root, saving you valuable time in memorizing voaculary.
For now, simply try to recognize similarities between words and see if you can spot
the three (or four) root letters.

Arabic verbs change according to the subject.

Another similarity Arabic has to French is that verbs change according to their
subject. In English, verbal conjugations have been grately simplified over the last
few centuries. All that remains now is the "s" added to verbs for "he", "she", "it".
E.g. "I run", but "he runs". So, let's take a look at the verb "to write":

You will notice that Arabic has more personal pronouns than English. Specifically,
Arabic has something called a "dual" that only applies to two persons. There is also
a feminine and a masculine "they".

I write ‫أكتب‬ ‫أنا‬

aktub(u) ana

you (sgl.) write (masculine) ‫تكتب‬ ‫أنت‬

taktub(u) anta

you (sgl.) write (feminine) ‫تكتبين‬ ‫أنت‬

taktubeen(a) anti

he writes ‫يكتب‬ ‫هو‬

yaktub(u) huwa

she writes ‫تكتب‬ ‫هي‬

taktub(u) hiya

you two write ‫تكتبان‬ ‫أنتما‬

taktubaan(i) antuma

we write ‫نكتب‬ ‫نحن‬

naktub(u) naHnu

you (pl.) write (masculine) ‫تكتبون‬ ‫أنتم‬

 taktuboon(a) antum

you (pl.) write (feminine) ‫تكتبن‬ ‫أنتن‬

taktubna antunna

they write (masculine) ‫يكتبون‬ ‫هم‬

yaktuboon(a) hum

they write (feminine) ‫يكتبن‬ ‫هن‬

yaktubna hunna

1. Note that in Arabic it is not necessary to use the personal pronouns in front of
the verbs. This is because the conjugated verb itself makes it clear who its subject
is.

In the example below both sentences mean "I write a letter".

ana aktub(u) risaalatan

aktub(u) risaalatan

"letter" is risaala ( ‫)رسالة‬.

2. Note that some endings (e.g. the "a" at the end of taktuboon(a) ) are usually
omitted in normal speech.