Introduction to Arabic (Modern Standard): Lesson 3
Hey there! It’s time to learn a second verb. This is the verb for "to read," and it’s very similar to the verb yashrabu, which you already know. Remember what you know about verbs -- how they work with case endings, the negation with la and the question formation with hal, and the conjugation of yashrabu.
Okay, so the verb he reads (or he is reading) is yaqra’u. You can remember this because it comes from the same root as al-qur’an, the Islamic holy book. Now, knowing what you do about verb conjugation, what do you think the feminine form is?
?She is reading.|Taqra’u.
Recall that the anta form is the same as this. The anti form, however, has a different ending. Do you remember it from the other verb?
?You (f.) are reading.|Taqra’eena.
Finally, there is the ana form. This is the easiest of all. Can you guess it?
?I am reading.|Aqra’u.
Excellent! Now, there are a few things that people often read. The first is, of course, a book! The word for book is kitab in Arabic. It sounds similar to "key tab," and is masculine, so it takes -un or -u when it’s the subject of a sentence. But do you know what it would be in the accusative?
?You (m.) are reading the book.|Taqra’u al-kitaba.
The second thing that people often read is a newspaper. The word for newspaper is saheefa, and here we have to revisit something that you may have forgotten about, which you learned in your very first lesson. Recall how the word for the man is ar-rajul, not al-rajul. S is another such sound; al- before the s sound become as-. Keep this in mind. Also note that saheefa is feminine, so it uses the -t- between itself and the case ending.
?He is reading the newspaper.|Yaqra’u as-saheefata.
The final thing that somebody might read is a magazine. The word for magazine is also feminine, and it is majalla, the start of which sounds somewhat similar to English. Can you figure out the next sentence?
?You (f.) have a magazine.|Indaki majallatun.
The next word we’ll learn is another verb
NOTE: This appears to be the last lesson so far. The course is not marked as finished so there should probably be more lessons in the future. In the meanwhile, you might want to check out some of the other courses we have:
| Arabic Alphabet | a course of Arabic with 14 lessons produced by CarlKenner |
| An Introduction to Arabic | a course of Arabic with 1 lessons produced by Hashimi |
| Introduction to Estonian | a course of Estonian with 5 lessons produced by Linas |
| Introduction to Portuguese | a course of Portuguese with 5 lessons produced by Linas |
| Introduction to Turkish | a course of Turkish with 5 lessons produced by boracasli |
You can also return to the main page of the labs to see all of the courses we have here.