Write It in Arabic: A Workbook and Step-by-Step Guide to Writing the Arabic Alphabet

by Naglaa Ghali

The Arabic script should no longer look like scribbles. With no lengthy introductions or linguistic complication, this book is a hands-on guide to learning how to read and write in Arabic. The book illustrates how to write the basic shapes of the letter and how to join letters to form words. It offers plenty of exercises and examples, and introduces readers to commonly used Arabic words and how to pronounce them.

Genres: Language, Linguistics, Nonfiction

124 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2004

Reviews

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would give this five stars, except that she teaches the Egyptian pronunciation of letters (e.g. hard 'g' for ج instead of the soft 'j' used by all other dialects, let alone classical Arabic), so can be confusing for beginners who are unaware of dialectical differences, or looking to learn classical Arabic. Otherwise, a great little resource!

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this slim book, from the indie press, with the palm tree cover and the way it's designed to open and be read like actual Arabic books (rather than the majority of beginner's Arabic books, designed to open and be read the way English books are). But if I hadn't already learned the alphabet in an Arabic class, I would be learning the language through this book, not realizing its several pitfalls.

For one thing, it transliterates some words with double letters, but doesn't teach nor show the symbol to mark double letters, so it leaves me not knowing whether the transliteration is inaccurate or whether the Arabic writing is inaccurate. Similarly, it transliterates with the short vowels from the beginning of the book, but doesn't teach the symbols for them till nearly the end of the book; I know that the short vowels aren't typically written in Arabic, but I have found it much easier to learn new vocabulary if I start out writing them with them, and feel it would have been much harder to learn new words if I'd been forced to simply memorize the pronunciation without also writing the short vowels (no matter whether I start omitting them later).

There are several other oddities about the book, such as words involving the softer "d" often being transliterated as "dh" but without either Arabic "h" present, leaving me to wonder: Is this because of some quirk of dialect? Should the word be pronounced with an "h" sound, even though there is no "h" present in the written word? Or what? After initially simply skipping the words that I wasn't sure of and practicing the rest, the number of words I was skipping grew the further I went in the book, and finally I put it aside in favor of other books that I found clearer to follow. I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately, I can't say that I do.

[Itai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm using this to teach the alphabet to a couple of my Hebrew students who are beginning the study of Modern Standard Arabic. While there are some minor problems, since they are learning from a person and the book is just a tool, I am pretty sure I can work around whatever short-comings Ghali's book might have (such as waiting until the middle of the book to introduce the vowels and other diacritics). There is so much I like about this thin volume, it's a pleasure to use.

[Omar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice little workbook. Sure it doesn't get too detailed, but I used this to practice writing arabic script and picking up some basic vocab + a familiarity with everyday handwriting. The explanations given about each letter, as well as common handwriting, were very easy to understand. Next, I may explore Naglaa's book on grammar.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent beginner's guide. It got me reading arabic in a couple of weeks! Some great activities for learning the phonics and certain vocabulary letter by letter.