This was originally posted by Selma-Ibrahim.
Welcome back! مرحباً بكم من جديد
Writingالكتابة
I'm not gonna lie, writing in Arabic can be complicated.
For starters, there are basically no (short) vowels.
In the last lesson, I gave you the word "walad", which means "boy".
In Arabic, it's written like this: ولد
However, you should know that it's made up of only 3 letters: و-ل-د
Which are: w - l - d.
Where did the "a" sounds go? They're not written.
In Arabic, short vowels are not letters. They're called "harakaat", or "tashkeel".
There are many types of "harakat", but the main 4 are: fat-ha, dhamma,kasra, and sukoon.
Today, I'll only give you the "fat-ha" and "dhamma", since I don't want it to become complicated.
- Let's start with the fat-ha.
It's basically a little line or dash that's written above a letter. It gives it the vowel sound "ah".
(You write the letter in place of the little dots)
Let's take the word walad, and write the fat-has on it.
Since there's an "a" sound after the "w" or "و", you should put the fat-ha on the "و". And since there's an "a" sound after the "l" or "ل", you should put the
fat-ha on the "ل".
This way: وَلَد
(Please listen to it on google translate) (https://translate.google.com/?sl=ar&tl= ... =translate)
Easy? Not? Don't worry, just keep practicing.
- The Dhamma - الضمّة
This is what a dhamma looks like:
- Screenshot 2022-03-08 095848.png (3.67 KiB) Viewed 280 times
Like the fat-ha, it's written above the letters. It gives the sound "oh".
If you were to write the dhamma on the word "ولد", (although it's not a word in Arabic) this is what it would look and sound like: (https://translate.google.com/?sl=ar&tl= ... =translate)
- Screenshot 2022-03-08 095905.png (1.2 KiB) Viewed 280 times
The "harakaat" are very important in Arabic, since misusing them could lead to a person completely misunderstanding what you want to say.
For example, let's take the word "ولد" again. If you want to say boy, this is how you would write the word: وَلَد.
However, if you changed the harakaat and wrote this for example: وُلِدَ, (wolida) the meaning has changed entirely because "wolida" means "(he) was born."
Let's take another example: أَكَلَ (akala) means "he ate", while أُكِلَ (okila) means "he was eaten".
This is why it's important to use the "harakaat" properly.
Note: Most native speakers don't use harakaat when the meaning is clear. I advise you to use them until you're proficient in Arabic, though.
Was that too much for your brain?
- Screenshot 2022-03-08 095808.png (181.92 KiB) Viewed 280 times
Okay, I get it, you probably think Arabic is very hard.
Well, here's something to cheer you up =)
In Arabic, there are no indefinite articles (a - an), which means, if you want to say, "I have an apple", you'd say, "I have apple".
لديَّ تفاحة.
Although Arabic does have genders (male - female), nouns of both genders take the same definite article (the), which is "al" or ال.
TuffaHa (تُفّاحة), which is feminine, and kitaab (كِتاب), which is masculine, both take "al".
Therefore, attufaHa: التُفّاحة and alkitaab: الكِتاب.
Pronouns:
He: (howa) هُوَ
She: (hiya) هِيَ
They're usually written without the "harakaat", but since this lesson was mostly about harakaat, I'll write them.
Now, can you say:
He is happy
She is a happy cat
You are an apple
Write them in the comments below!
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First lesson: viewtopic.php?t=1980