xpsal

Many people are wondering what they should expect if they start learning Arabic, How important is it? How hard or easy is it? Whether it has different rules from English (concerning Arabic Grammar, Arabic Vocabulary …)

First let's talk about how important Arabic is, Today Arabic is spoken throughout the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Mauritania, and Chad. It is the mother tongue of over 225 million people in Africa and Asia. And since the Qur'an is written in Arabic, people in other Muslim countries have from basic to advanced knowledge of Arabic like in Indonesia (largest Muslim population), Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Israel, India also has one of the world's largest Muslim populations, although Islam is not the principal religion there. Djibouti, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, and Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania (Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim), Nigeria ...and in many places where Islam is the dominant religion, or even among small Muslim communities, since Arabic is related directly to the Qur'an, the holy book of Muslim.

Arabic is like any other language, easy in some aspects and hard in some others, depending on the learner’s background, and ability to adapt to new rules. A person whose mother tongue is Hebrew will find it easier than a person whose mother tongue is Spanish or English, because of the similarities, also a person who speaks more than one language is more likely to learn it easier, because his/her brain is already trained to deal with more than one language and adapt with new rules, new vocabulary…

Arabic has 28 consonantal phonemes (including two semi-vowels). Arabic is different than English when it comes to the way it’s written (right to left) and some sounds don’t exist in English like the glottal stop, usually transliterated by (‘) like in the word ‘elm (science). Also the consonants (q) and (gh) are the sounds produced the farthest back in the mouth in English (called 'velars' because the tongue touches the soft palate or velum), like in qalam (pen), and loghah (language). (kh) which sounds like the Scottish ch as in (Loch Ness lake).

Like many other languages, Arabic has a different grammar than English, that doesn’t make it hard, but makes it only distinctive, because having different rules doesn’t mean that they’re hard to learn, besides all the fun is in learning different things …, some grammatical rules are easier than the ones existing in English, all what you got to do is to discover them yourself!

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- Learn Arabic, Arabic Calligraphy, Spanish, Arabic Keyboard
- Phrases in more than 52 languages
- Try some Brain Games.
Salim ۞ ۩ ۝ ۩۩۩

touaregsand

Wow! I'm teaching myself Arabic. Your website is fantastic.

Nana_Brazil

Salim.. I do not know how LOCH is pronounced in Scottish, I heard the sound of KH is similar to "J" Spanish as in " jamon" (ham), right?
Another thing, if this sound I asked you is correct, so it is wrong to pronounce the "KH " like a " K" or a "CK" in English like in : lock , stock ?

xpsal

loch in scottish is pronounced like the jota (j) in reloj (watch) in Spanish, and I'm sure you know how does that sound, yes something like Jamon.
And talking about if it's correct to pronounce it like "k" or "ck", then I will simply tell you, it will be the same thing if you pronounce "reloj" as "relock" a Spanish person may recognize the word you're saying or may not, so if you pronounce the "kh" like "k" or "ck" then you will have to depend on the other person to be able to understand you or not, if you tell me in Spanish "ckamon" or "kamon" it will be hard for me to think that you mean "Jamon" so the "kh" is hard to pronounce but I think it's vital for a better understanding of the word pronounced, besides for you since you're brazilian it wouldn't be as hard

__________________
- Learn Arabic, Arabic Calligraphy, Spanish, Arabic Keyboard
- Phrases in more than 52 languages
- Try some Brain Games.
Salim ۞ ۩ ۝ ۩۩۩

Nana_Brazil

Ok... I got you Salim, thanks. I asked you that because I saw some Brazilians pronunciating KH as K - I understand this is wrong ... ok

Nana_Brazil

Let me give you an example Salim. There is an Arabic show house in SP city named KHAN EL KHALILI and people here say : KAN EL KALILI - so the correct form is.. "JAM EL JALILI" ( Spanish J), right?

Nana_Brazil

Hey Salim !! Touaregsand is right....... your site is veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy good!!! wowwwwww