Introduction To Arabic - Intensive Class

Alhamdulillah, this Ramadhan I was blessed with the opportunity to learn (and revise a bit) basic understanding on Arabic Language.

It was a 24-hours intensive course, broken down into 3 hours spread over 8 days. Dr Mu'tasem Am Ali, a Palestinian who holds a PhD (UM) in Teaching Arabic to Non-Native speakers using the methods he developed from his studies. It was a very rewarding, well-spent 24-hours, Alhamdulillah. The course was offered by Al Furqan Academy, TTDI.

The Arabic that we had learnt was called Fusha, a classical arabic, based on Quran.  The most important thing to learn in Arabic (and many other languages) is know how to do derivation or conjugation, in arabic it is called Ishtiqaq (اشتقاق ).  Understanding of this concept will give us the knowledge to derived more words from one given/learnt/known root word, mainly verbs.

1st Lessson - Pronouns - ضَمَائِر
There are altogether 14 pronouns used. However, for this course, we learnt 12 most commonly used in Quran.   The 12 pronouns that are important to remember: 

ضَمَائِر  Pronouns (in Arabic)	Pronouns (in English)	Meaning
انا	Ana	I , 1st person
نحن	Nahnu	We, 1st person
انت	Anta	You, M (Male), 2nd person
أنتِ	Anti	You, F(Female), 2nd person
انتما	Antuma	You, 2F/2M/1M&1F, 2nd person
انتم	Antum	You, Group (G), All M/F/M&F, 2nd person
أنْتُنَّ	Antunna	You, Group of Female only, 2nd person
هُوَ	Hu-wa	He , 3rd person
هِيَ	Hi-ya	She, 3rd person
هُمَا	Hu-maa	They, 2F/2M/1M&1F, 3rd person
هُمْ	Hom (like home)	They, Group (G), All M/F/M&F, 3rd person
هُنَّ	Hunna	They, group of female only, 3rd person

 I had also put this in simpler form ... as per the table below.  

انا	I, Me		هُوَ	He
نحن	We		هِيَ	She
انت	You, M		هُمَا	They, 2P
أنتِ	You, F		هُمْ	They, G
انتما	You, 2P		هُنَّ	They, G F
انتم	You, G
أنْتُنَّ	You, G F

   

From Pronouns we moved on to the next topic - VERBS

In Arabic, there are 3 forms of tenses that are important for us to remember: 

Past Tense -  ماضِي    (Maadhi)

Present Tense - مُضَارِع   (Mudhori')

Command - أَمْرُ  (Amru/Amir)

We then must learn how to make the verbs go into the pronouns.  The verb that is commonly use to demonstrate the how to "He did", which is in ماضِي form.  The basic or root word is normally given in ماضِي  form.  From here, we can find out what is the مُضَارِع / أَمْرُ form as well. This can be looked up in the dictionary.   Find Arabic-English dictionary that will give all 3 forms in the table form.  Always start looking at the ماضِي form. 

He did is  فَعَلَ (fa'ala).  The verb "فَعَلَ" changes its form as it goes together with the pronouns. Arabic verbs always tell gender and the number of people/objects that we are talking about (Singular, 2 Persons, Plural)    

Verb Form –  ماضِي (Maadhi )	Pronouns – (Dhomair) ضَمَائِر		My Notes
فَعَلْتُ	أَنَا		Add تُ (tu) at the end of the verb and make the last letter of the verb sound as “sukun”;  تُ + فَعَلْ  - (in this case “fa’ala” becomes “fa’al)
فَعَلْنَا	نَحْنُ		Add نَا at the end of the verb; last letter of the verb a sukun;  نَا + فَعَلْ
فَعَلْتَ	أَنْتَ		تَ + فَعَلْ
فَعَلْتِ	أنتِ		تِ + فَعَلْ
فَعَلْتُمَا	أَنْتُمَا		تُمَا + فَعَلْ
فَعَلْتُمْ	أَنْتُمْ		تُم + فَعَلْ
فَعَلْتُنَّ	أنْتُنَّ		تُنَّ + فَعَلْ
فَعَلَ	هُوَ		This is the root word that we start with, it will not change. We use this as basis for others
فَعَلَتْ	هِيَ		Follow the basic word and just add تْ  (ta sukun) at the end تْ + فَعَلَ
فَعَلَا	هُمَا		ا + فَعَلَ
فَعَلُوا	هُمْ		وا + فَعَل Change the harakah of the last letter to dhommah and add وا
فَعَلْنَ	هُنَّ		Change the harakah of the last letter to sukun and add نَ نَ + فَعَل

The notes that I had written described the rules of conjugation, how the root word, the verb in   ماضِيform is then derived into new verb following the pronouns that should be applied to it.  For the verb  ماضِي , we always , always add something at the back of the root verb (suffix). 

End of  Day 1 lesson.  Practice the derivation/conjugation using other verbs... using the following empty table ... example: 

ماضِي	ضَمَائِر
	أَنَا
	نَحْنُ
	أَنْتَ
	أنتِ
	أَنْتُمَا
	أَنْتُمْ
	أنْتُنَّ
أَكَلَ	هُوَ
	هِيَ
	هُمَا
	هُمْ
	هُنَّ