Learn Arabic

Easier to learn Arabic

In the beginning, I found it difficult to learn Arabic. Now, since I overcame the first obstacles, learning Arabic is only fun and easy. I have built this website - Learn Arabic - to make it easier to learn Arabic. I use smart functionality to help people overcome the obstacles that hindered me to learn Arabic.

Start reading Arabic before you learn the alphabet

I would have learned Arabic faster if it had not been for the Arabic alphabet. Because every letter have different shapes, and the letters are joined, it was time-consuming and annoying to try to read Arabic.

It barely helped me to have a table with the Arabic alphabet next to me. I still could not tell where one letter ended and the next started. I did not have any patience to memorize the Arabic alphabet. I wanted to get starting with Arabic words and sentences immediately, just like I did when I learned other languages.

The only times I felt hope, was when some books and websites showed a word with the letters split up.

It got so much easier. I wished that they could do that with more words, preferably all the words. Even better would be if I could have a link to each letter, with more information about that letter.

But I found no tool with that functionality, so I build one myself. The result is this website: Learn Arabic. So far, there are 8216 Arabic words. For each word, you can see the letters split up.

Here, you can start reading and writing Arabic without having to memorize the alphabet first. You will learn new letters and letter shapes as you learn new words.

Learn Arabic sentences and words at the same time

The first thing I did when I decided to learn Arabic, was to get an Arabic phrasebook. That gave me nothing. The sentences seemed impossible to perceive, like random cascades of sounds and letters.

I have little use for knowing that the sentence above means 'Arabic is the source of my happiness'. It is only when I know what the individual words mean, and why they are combined in that way, that I learn anything, and that I can build on my previous knowledge.

I can hear that al-3arabiyya means 'Arabic'. Regarding the other words, I can only guess their meaning, that maSdar means 'source' and sa3aada means 'happiness'. My guess is true. But it is not always the case that two sentences with the same meaning in Arabic and English has the same word order, or even the same words. The sentence still leaves me with more questions than answers. Where is the verb 'is' and where is the pronoun 'my'?

That is why almost every word in every sentence and phrase on this website is clickable, and takes you to a page with generous information about the word. That is why there is an eye icon next to each sentence and phrase on this website. When you click the icon, plenty of information about the sentence is displayed.

Now I will see that my guess about the meaning of the words was correct, and I get a chance to learn more. I will learn that sa3aadatii is a combination of sa3aada that means 'happiness' and ii that means 'my'. I can see that the sentence is an Arabic nominal sentence, that has no verb. I realize that al3arabiyya is definite form of 3arabiyya that is feminine of 3arabiyy that means 'Arabic'.

So far, there are 2624 Arabic sentences and phrases on this website. Each one has detailed information, and a link to each of the words.

Learn Arabic with associations

We build knowledge through associations. Information will more likely stay in memory if we can connect it to things we already know.

Did you know that the word maSdar that means 'source' is related to Sadr that means 'chest' and 'aSdara that means 'to publish'? The Arabic root system makes it easier to remember new words.

Did you know that maSdar that means 'source' has the same patterns as maktab that means 'office' and maSbaH that means 'swimming pool'? All three words start with ma, has the vowel a in the middle and describe places. That is not a coincidence. Arabic words have patterns that makes it easier to recognize them.

We build knowledge through associations. That is why all the word in Learn Arabic comes with so much information. Sentences where the word occurs, related words, words with the same patterns and, of course, information about each letter in the word. That is why all sentences has links to all words they are made of. That is why all texts and poems has links to all the sentences and words that they are made of.