I really want to learn Arabic, but I don't know where to start. Any advice?

VERIFIED

DrBadi M

Experienced Academic and dedicated tutor for all levels.

Arabic is a phonetic language so once you learn the alphabet the words are pronounced as they’re written, although unlike Indo-European languages it is Semitic and has many guttural sounds which are quite difficult and need repetitive training to master. It also depends on your mother tongue and background. For a Muslim person basic Quranic Arabic is a good start.

Mrs Thanvi A

Hard-working tutor and Linguist qualified from University College London (UCL)

Start with the alphabets and numbers. YouTube can be a good source or duo lingo

VERIFIED

Rabab Abdulhamid

Finalist Medical Student | Native Arabic speaker | Interpreter | Qur'an teacher

Start with the alphabets and the phonetics, and build yourself from there. This seems like a simple step (and it is!) but very rewarding because you'll start picking up words and sounds, which leads me to the second step. Watch the news with Arabic subtitles for example, and read along. The ultimate way for improving your spoken Arabic and becoming fluent is a technique called Shadowing but that's at an advance level. For reading, start with children stories and then you can move upwards. An Arabic-English dictionary in your phone apps will come in handy. Learn vocabulary with daily vocab apps which are widely avaliable. And most importantly; think in Arabic more. All the best!

Talibah Ilm

Knowledge is like an ocean which has no coast🌸

Arabic is a beautiful and unique language, I would recommend you to purchase yourself the al-madinah Arabic books. Because, they start from beginners and gradually help you each step.. any help needed for learning I'm here to help!

VERIFIED

Ahmed Al-Jabir

Senior Medical Student | MSc Surgery | Native Arabic speaker

So this really depends on your purpose for learning. If you want to learn conversational Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic) to be able to speak it, you can do the following things: 1) lots of Mastering Arabic books 2) Duolingo app is good for small 10 minute bursts of learning every day 3) immersive learning - do a Study Abroad in an Arabic country (warning: each country has a strong dialect i.e Egyptian is very different to Moroccan) 4) focusing on your reading skills because that will unlock more opportunities to learn and more resources 5) find a friend and study with them and converse in Arabic together 6) if you are at university, investigate if your university does an Arabic course. If so, often these carry credit for your current course! If you want to learn Arabic to be able to understand Quran better: 1) the Al-Madinah books come very highly recommended 2) have a dictionary with you and look up each word you aren’t sure about And (personal plug time), find a tutor on Scoodle!