Arabic Alphabet and Pronunciation

The huge diversity of the cultures that have interacted with classical Arabic over the centuries have resulted in numerous dialects and pronunciations. However, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), exists as an established, exemplary code that everyone goes by.

The following shows the Arabic letters and the corresponding English words they are pronounced like:

Nouns

Arabic has no indefinite article comparable to the English (a) or (an). It does have a definite article the [al], which is always attached to the words it defines.

A house = [bayt] بيت

THE house = al+bayt = [albayt] البيت

When using two or more nouns in conjunction, the word (wa), consisting of the single letter (و) is used to link the items.

رجل و ولد

[ragul wa walad]

A man and a boy.

دراجة وسفينة وسيارة

[darraga wa safina wa sayyara]

A bike and a ship and a car

Verbs

Arabic verbs change their form in accordance with their subjects. There are two important forms, which indicate, masculine and feminine.

Present Tense

In the sentence, The man is walking [arragul yamshi], the subject (man) is masculine. In this case, (ya) is attached to the verb (mshi) to make up the form (yamshi). In Arabic script, that is ي + مشي = يمشي. The full sentence is then: الرجل يمشي.

When the subject is feminine, as in The woman is sitting = almar-a taglis, (ta) is attached to (glis) to form (taglis). That is again ت + جلس = تجلس and in full: المرأة تجلس.

Verb forms starting with (ya) can express the plural masculine when put at the beginning of the sentence, as in يجري الولد والرجل [yagri alwalad wa arragul] / The boy and the man are running.

A verb form with (ta) at the beginning of the sentence can indicate the plural feminine, as in تمشي المرأة والبنت [tamshi almar-a wa albint] / The woman and the girl are walking.

It is important to note here that Arabic uses the same form for both types of the present, the simple and the continuous. Thus, we would use the same form to say ‘the man speaks Arabic’ and ‘the man is speaking Arabic’, that is الرجل يتكلم عربي [arragul yatakallam araby].

Future Tense

The easier tense to learn after the present is the future, since it simply adds the marker سوف [sawfa] / will before the verb.

Present: الرجل يشرب الكولا [arragul yashrab alcola] / The man is drinking Cola.

Future: الرجل سوف يشرب الكولا [arragul sawfa yashrab alcola] / The man will drink Cola.

The future marker سوف [sawfa] can be reduced to its short form س [sa] and attached to the verb.

Past Tense

The past tense often changes the vowel pattern of the verb and any additional gender or number indicators are attached as suffixes (endings).

Present: هي تشرب [hiya tashrab] / She drinks / She is drinking

Past: هي شربت [hiya sharibat] / She drank

Notice how the vowel pattern in the verb has changed from ‘shrab’ to ‘shariba’, or from ‘a’ alone to ‘a+i+a’. Also note that that there is a ت [t] at the ending.

Prepositions

Prepositions are words used to express location/position.

Example:

البنت تذهب إلى غرفة المعيشة [albint tadh-hab ila ghorfat alma-isha]

The girl is going to the living-room

الرجل في المطبخ [arragul fi almatbakh]

The man is in the kitchen.

With the verbs ‘look’ ينظر [yandhor] and ‘sit’ يجلس [yaglis], ‘ila’ takes on the meaning of ‘at’, as in the sentences:

الولد ينظر إلى السيارة [alwalad yandhor ila assayara] / The boy is looking at the car.

السكرتيرة تجلس إلى الكمبيوتر [assecretira taglis ila alcomputer] / The secretary is sitting ons.

Arabic Subject Pronouns – ضمائر الفاعل (Damaa’ir al-faa3il)

It’s worth noting that subject pronouns are often dropped in everyday speech. The verb conjugation lets you know who the subject is, so using the subject pronouns in those cases is only a matter of emphasis. But, in verbless sentences, you need to use pronouns to let your audience know who you’re talking about.

Subject pronouns in standard and Egyptian Arabic

• أنا أتحدث العربية (‘ana ‘atahadath alearabia) – I speak Arabic.
• انت لطيف (‘ant latif) – You’re kind.

Arabic Object Pronouns – ضمائر المفعول به (Damaa’ir al-maf3uul bihi)

Object pronouns are the words you use when the action of the sentence affects someone or something directly. In English, these are words like “me”, “you”, “us”, “him”, “her”, and “them”. But, in Arabic, object pronouns are suffixes. This means that these pronouns are attached to the verb. Here’s an example:

• كلمني (kalmuni) – Call me!

Object pronouns in standard and Egyptian Arabic

Arabic Possessive Pronouns

These pronouns show ownership. In English, these are “my”, “you”, “his”, “her”, “our”, “your”, and “their”. Just like object pronouns, Arabic possessive pronouns are also suffixes. But, instead of attaching to the verb, they attach to the noun that is owned. There are also differences in gender in the 2nd person Arabic possessive pronouns. Here are some examples of this kind of pronoun in Egyptian Arabic:

• كلبي (klbi) – my dog
• كلبك (kalbak) – your dog
• كلبه (klbah) – his dog
• كلبها (kalabaha) – her dog

Possessive pronouns in standard and Egyptian Arabic: