Unbeatable for learning the alphabet
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There are a few popular books designed to help you learn the Arabic alphabet, but they're mostly very dreary! This one, on the other hand, is quite readable and if you read a bit every day you'll soon have the alphabet learned. As well as the basic alphabet, there is also a good deal of information about other related stuff: numbers, basic structure of verbs and whatnot, grammatical case endings, etc. I found myself skipping over that stuff and getting on with learning the alphabet, but it's useful to read afterwards.
It says in the introduction that mastery of the alphabet should be prerequisite to learning the language, and this little book will definitely help you achieve that.
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One of those really useful books
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This isn't a physically big book, but it's well laid out, clear and the sort of book that'll you'll wear out because it's so good. The authors start off with something like "read the first bit but don't worry if you don't get it, we'll refer back to it and all will become clear" and it does. You soon find yourself easily transliterating words and you can pronounce them quite well even if you don't know what they mean and you've never seen them before. At the price, you won't be disappointed.
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Brilliant and invaluable
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If you have any interest in Arabic, either as a student, traveller, or simple dilletante linguist, this is a must-have book.
A letter-by-letter introduction to all the characters in the seemingly impossible Arabic alphabet will have you reading and writing Arabic words in days. As a preliminary to any sort of multimedia or home Arabic studies, simply a must: most Arabic language programs give the script itself short shrift, which can be fatal to beginners.
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Excellent
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I put off learning Arabic for a long time because I feared it would be incredibly difficult. This book is brilliant because it takes you through the alphabet concisely but clearly, and after the 70 or so pages (takes maybe a week) you really can read and write Arabic. I only hesitate in giving it 5 stars because there are several little things like the use of Taa marbuuTa which aren't explained as well as everything else. Don't let this deter you though, it's a minor drawback in an otherwise brilliant (and cheap) book.
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Essential if you want to master the written language
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I started learning Arabic using the Linguaphone PDQ Arabic course. I struggled to learn letters and words. I bought this book and was amazed at my progress. It made all the difference it explains fully and methodically how each of the letters is formed and changes in use. Letters are grouped into similar types. It was the key to klick the spoken word into written form. You still need to study the book and practice. I finally bought Linguaphones Arabic in Action V2, which is superb. I can now read and write arabic as well as speak it. All only in limited quantities, limited by what I have learned. I have only been learning for a couple of months in my spare time. Without this book, I would have given up by now.
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