Top products from r/arabic
We found 28 product mentions on r/arabic. We ranked the 18 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
1. Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (English and Arabic Edition)
Sentiment score: 6
Number of reviews: 5
2. Mastering Arabic 1 with 2 Audio CDs (Hippocrene Mastering) (English and Arabic Edition)
Sentiment score: 2
Number of reviews: 2
3. Media Arabic: A Coursebook for Reading Arabic News (Revised and Updated Edition) (Arabic Edition)
Sentiment score: 2
Number of reviews: 2
Amer Univ in Cairo Pr
4. Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds [With DVD]
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 2
Georgetown University Press
5. Kallimni ‘Arabi Bishweesh: A Beginners’ Course in Spoken Egyptian Arabic 1 (Arabic Edition)
Sentiment score: 2
Number of reviews: 2
6. Al Mawrid Speaking Dictionary & Multimedia Color Device
Sentiment score: 0
Number of reviews: 1
Translates between Arabic, English and FrenchLarge colored touch screen, Learning English through multi-mediaInternational TOEIC test questions and answersPlay movies / MP3 songs stored on the unit or on a memory SD cardChosen and certified by the UN (United Nations) for its accurate English to Arab...
7. Practice Makes Perfect Arabic Vocabulary: With 145 Exercises (Practice Makes Perfect (McGraw-Hill))
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
Used Book in Good Condition
8. kullu tamam!: An Introduction to Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (Arabic Edition)
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
Amer Univ in Cairo Pr
9. Building Arabic Vocabulary through Reading: For Advanced Students of MSA (Arabic Edition)
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
10. ‘Arabi Liblib: Egyptian Colloquial Arabic for the Advanced Learner. 1: Adjectives and Descriptions (Arabic Edition)
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
Amer Univ in Cairo Pr
11. Kalaam Gamiil: An Intensive Course in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. Volume 1 (Arabic Edition)
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
Amer Univ in Cairo Pr
12. Unload Your Own Donkey (English and Arabic Edition)
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
13. Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya with DVDs: A Textbook for Beginning Arabic, Part One Second Edition (Arabic Edition)
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
interactive CD'S
14. Modern Standard Arabic Grammar: A Learner's Guide
Sentiment score: 0
Number of reviews: 1
Wiley-Blackwell
15. Apricots Tomorrow
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
Used Book in Good Condition
16. The Son of a Duck is a Floater (English and Arabic Edition)
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
Wall of text incoming:
Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum Al-'Arabiyya (al-Kitaab generally) is nearly universal for beginning and intermediate Arabic learning in the States. There are three books, and it teaches fusha, which is media Arabic. All educated Arabs are proficient in this dialect, though it is rarely used outside formal settings.
Only one dictionary you'll need: Hans Wehr is the Arabic student's bible. You won't find much use for it off the bat because it's not strictly alphabetical, it's alphabetical by root. So until you learn to spot the root of a word it'll be hard to look anything up. It's also only Arabic-to-English, but al-Kitaab provides more than enough vocab to get you on your feet and Google Translate can fill in gaps (ONLY use Google Translate for individual words, then Hans Wehr to verify; Google Translate will botch sentences).
The most widely understood dialect would most likely be Egyptian, though oddly it is also one of the weirdest/most divergent from Classical Arabic due to Coptic influence. Fortunately, because it's so popular, there are lots of materials out there. That said, probably best to start with fusha, and branch out into dialects after you have a good handle on it. It'll help you understand where a lot of dialectical words come from. Additionally, al-Kitaab has a small Egyptian lesson at the end of each chapter, so you can get some basic exposure without having to functionally learn two languages at once.
Farther down the line, you can get Media Arabic, which is a collection of short articles by topic, with little exercises and loads of really useful vocab. Not strictly necessary if understanding the news isn't in your wheelhouse, but if you're serious about learning Arabic it's a really good intermediate/advanced step.
If you get serious about Egyptian, Pimsleur's Egyptian course is a good jump start, but also not really necessary and hard to do right because of the time commitment. It gets expensive, too, so make sure you're going to use it.
Some of my favorite books for Egyptian come from the American University in Cairo Press:
the Kallimni Arabi series is basically al-Kitaab for Egyptian Arabic. Very useful place to start.
the Arabi Liblib series
gets really into the weeds of how Egyptian speakers communicate. They're basically dictionaries of dialectical adjectives, idioms, and proverbs.
In addition to books, check out Memrise. It's a great vocab tool, and entirely user-generated, so there's a lot of content.
I also like to listen to BBC Arabic Radio. It's 24/7 so you can just pick it up whenever. Both fusha and various dialects. Exposure is extremely important in language learning, and even moreso when learning a language as alien to English as Arabic is.
On top of all this, just putz around on YouTube and Twitter. Arabs are all over social media and it's not hard to get exposure there.
Honestly, neither of these are great sources, but if you've already invested money I recommend completing both and not worrying to much about the discrepancies, treat them as two dialects of the same language. You'll still learn something and you can revise your understanding later on with more experience. I've listed some better resources below. Hope that helps.
Here's a place to start.
If you don't already have a dictionary I recommend this one if you have a good grasp of English. You can also find it the some libraries.
For Listening you can use BBC as well as many songs, Al Jazeera is great too. I recommend finding a news item in English to familiarize yourself with the topic then reading the same story in Arabic.
I also recommend Duo Linguo for learning the basics.
Someone here mentioned Pimsleur, but I wanted to make my own post rahter than reply to that person to make sure you saw it, OP.
I've used Pimsleur three times now, and whenever I recommend it to someone, I always tell them that they should be learning alongside another program. Pimsleur is great in that it gets you speaking and listening right off the bat, but it's not helpful in learning semantics and rules beyond feeling how things should go (though arguably feeling how a sentence should sound is more helpful).
When I was learning Korean, I used Pimsleur as well as Rosetta Stone, which helped with learning the alphabet and expanding on vocabulary. And on that note, Pimsleur is pretty constrictive with the vocabulary it teaches you. You learn a lot of important phrases, such as expressing want, asking names, numbers, etc. but it's really not good at all with teaching everyday conversational skills.
I highly recommend this book to get you started if you would like to learn on your own. It is MSA, but it's still, in my opinion, a great starting point for learning alphabet, sentence structure, etc. It has CDs for audio instruction and conversational exercises. However, I would avoid the second book because it assumes that you have made big leaps in your arabic skills since the first book.
Good luck!
Have a look at Memrise and Anki where people have put entire decks of flashcards to learn vocabulary. That way you can practice during your commute or any free time you may have.
As for dictionaries, I'm sure you've heard of Hans Wehr—it's less of a dictionary and more of an encyclopedia of information on Arabic roots and word forms.
Another good dictionary I use on a daily basis is Aratools Arabic-English Dictionary. It's concise enough to be useful, but it gives helpful information like the root of the word, and it's able to detect the inflection of a particular word.
I would suggest Mastering Arabic for learning Modern Standard Arabic (the written form). It seems to be a pretty good introduction to the language. What really helped me learn to write Arabic letters was Alif Baa.
For Egyptian Arabic, I have been dabbling with Kullu Tamam. It assumes you don't have any prior experience with Arabic and uses a transliteration system (i.e. written with latin letters). Their goal with using this system is so that you focus on the language itself, rather than focusing on both the language AND a new script. Bear in mind, it uses linguistic terms such as "demonstrative pronouns", "possessive suffixes", "genitive construction", so if you are new to 2nd language learning, these terms may be new. But I have no doubt you can learn these terms very easily.
OR, you can finish book 1 (and maybe book 2) of the Mastering Arabic series and move on to Kalaam Gamiil, which is geared towards people with a lower-intermediate knowledge of MSA. The book is completely written in the Arabic script aside from grammar explanations and vocabulary lists. The audio is exceptional for this text.
There is also Kallimni 'Arabi Bishweesh, which is apparently almost exclusively written in Arabic. It appears to be written mostly in Arabic (including instructions for the exercises), so reviewers say that it is much more accessible when used with a teacher or native speaker. I can't comment too much on this book as I am still waiting for my copy to arrive :).
Bottom Line: If you want to learn to read and write Arabic first, pick up Mastering Arabic 1 and Alif Baa. It will give you a good introduction to the formal, written side of the language. Alternatively, if you want to learn Egyptian Arabic, check out Kullu Tamam. It won't teach you to read or write the script, but it will get you speaking some basic Egyptian Arabic right away as you begin the lessons. Whichever book you get, make sure you get whatever audio component (CD) that comes with it (if you buy used, like me).
Not exactly...there's the al-mawrid app for iPhone/Android that at least will sometimes link to words from the same jithr. I know you're looking for a website, but I can't recommend Hans Wehr dictionary enough. It has exactly that function, excellent organization of words via jithr and wizn. I've found it to be an invaluable resource!
How about overly simplistic ones? Like literal translations of proverbs and sayings (plus the English equivalent)? ِA bit pricey for what they are, though.
The Son of a Duck is a Floater ابن البط عوام
Apricots Tomorrow بكرة في المشمش
Unload Your Own Donkey نزل الحمولة من جحشك
Children stories from a Dubai-based web store. Shipping is pricey.
The Wolf and the Lamb الذئب والخروف
The Lion and the Mouse السبع والفأر
The Tortoise and the Hare السلحفاة والأرنب
The Clever Raven الغراب الذكي
The Monkey Farmer القرد المزارع
The Dragon Gate باب التنين
The Fox Allotment قسمة الثعلب
The Coward Rabbit الأرنب الجبان
The Tiger and the Frog النمر والضفدع
The Fox and the Grapes الثعلب والعنب
The Wolf and the Bunnies الذئب والأرانب الصغيرة
The Colt Crosses the River المهر يعبر النهر
The Fox and the Crow الثعلب والغراب المغرور
The Little Farmer Bear الدب الصغير المزارع
Little Kitty Learns Fishing القط الصغير يتعلم الصيد
قصص للأطفال
You can find bilingual books for grownups but these are mostly Arabic translations of English classics like Little Women, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and a few Sherlock Holmes books.
Sure. If you don't particularly need the older 3rd editon, this version is a bit cheaper: http://www.amazon.com/Arabic-English-Dictionary-Modern-Written-Arabic/dp/0879500034/
Although, I have the paper version, and end up leaving that one on the shelf and using the online version instead. It is both easier to look up words (type in the root and voila), and also more portable assuming you have a smartphone.
https://www.amazon.com/Mawrid-Speaking-Dictionary-Multimedia-Device/dp/B00Q1W4T5S
Looks like this is a newer version
Dictionary, Arabic-English: http://aratools.com
Dictionary, Arabic-Arabic: http://www.almaany.com
For vocabulary: "A Frequency Dictionary of Arabic"
http://www.amazon.com/Frequency-Dictionary-Arabic-Vocabulary-Dictionaries/dp/0415444349
For grammar and awzaan: "Modern Standard Arabic Grammar"
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Standard-Arabic-Grammar-Learners/dp/1405155027/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1451927199&sr=1-1&keywords=modern+standard+arabic+grammar
For harakat: Harakat app
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/harakat/id840162013?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.multillect.harakat&hl=en
I am using Alif Baa.
Student of Arabic here: Alif Ba, Al Kitab (volumes 1 and 2) and this http://www.amazon.com/New-Arabic-Grammar-Written-Language/dp/085331585X