Enrich Your Vocabulary Set 9

This video below introduces 14 items of vocabulary. These 14 items include the two connective letters [ق – ف] in various positions within the word. After you have watched the video and learned the words, you can scroll down this page to do the interactive quizzes and check your progress.

Arabic Vocabulary ONLY:

This resource may look simple to most learners. Actually, I designed it to be so. Although it is simple, it is very helpful for all levels of non-native speakers of Arabic once it is used properly. Such activities gain their power from their simplicity. If you watch the video you notice:

– Since I am keen on avoiding mother language interference in these videos, I resort to using only Arabic on the screen.

  • – To keep the learner’s focus on the identified (image) and the identifier (sound/written form, I use simple images.
  • –  I read slowly with clear native speaker voice to make sure that the learners hear all sounds of Arabic letters articulated properly and naturally especially the challenging ones such as ص ،ض، ظ، ح، ع، غ، ق
  • – The words selected are common vocabulary items.
  • – I use Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) as it is closer to the dialects of most Arab countries.

Remember to repeat the word after you hear it. Pause or rewind the video before you proceed if you are not sure that you can say the word properly.

Focus on the image to know the meaning and the written form of the word to gain fluency in reading. DON’T translate in your head. Say the word aloud several times in Arabic to avoid mental translation. Close your eyes if you want and envisage the written form or the image when you are saying the word.

Vocabulary Set 9 Words

This quiz covers Arabic vocabulary items with the two connective letters : ( ف - ق  ) occurring in different positions within the word. 

Look at the image and choose the correct answer.

Vocabulary Set 9 images

This quiz covers Arabic vocabulary items with the two connective letters : ( ف - ق  ) occurring in different positions within the word. 


Look at the image and choose the correct answer.

Listening Quiz [Shared Accommodation ]

You will hear a radio interview with Haifa about a flat-share. You will hear the recording twice.

After you have listened to the audio,  click ‘take quiz‘ to answer the questions. Your results will be provided after you have finished the questions.

This listening exercise is taken from: OCR 2009, Asset Languages , Intermediate Arabic [Listening], Grade 7

Listening Exercise


 

Damascus

دمشق

مدينة الياسمين

Read the following passage about Damascus and Listen to the audio provided. There is also a list of the key words in the passage. Structure analysis is also included. Do the quizzes below to evaluate your understanding of the passage.

Damascus the City of Jasmine

 Key words:

capital [عاصمة], republic [الجمهورية ], part  [جزء ], mountain [جبل ], bank [ضفة], river [نهر ], orchard [بستان], inhabited [مأهولة ], position, rank, place, value [مكانة], distinguished [مرموقة ], foreign [أجنبي ], state [دولة ], science [علم ], culture [ثقافة ], Arts [فنون ], Literature [أدب ], BC [قبل الميلاد ].

Structure

Nominal Sentences

This passage is aimed to show examples of nominal sentences. As you can see that there is only one verbal sentence which starts with the verb [كانت]. The rest of the passage is nominal sentences that start with nouns. Nominal sentences are very common in Arabic. They are equivalent to English sentences with the verb’ to be’ [is, am, are] as the main verb.

examples:

  • Damascus is the capital of the Syrian Arab Republic. [دمشق عاصمة الجمهورية العربية السورية]
  • The students are in the library. [الطلاب في المكتبة]
  • I am a teacher. [أنا مُعَلِّمٌ]

In the three examples, you can see that in Arabic the equivalent to the verb ‘to be’ [is, am, are] is not present neither in speech nor in writing; it is rather understood. This is the simple structure of a nominal sentence which starts with a noun and the rest of the sentence functions as predicate [خبر] to the noun.

Nisba

This passage includes also examples of [nisba] . Nisba is the formation of adjectives that relate something or somebody to their origin. We form nisba adjectives by simply adding a doubled [ّي] to the end of the noun of origin whether it is a science, branch of knowledge, material or country.

If there is [ا] or [ة], we delete them before we add the [ّي].

Country and Nationality :

I am from Syria [أنا من سوريّا] can be written [أنا سوريّ ]. Here the letter [ألف] in the end of the word [سوريا] is deleted and the [َّي] is added to the name of the country/origin to form the nisba adjective.

examples:

  • I am from Britain  [أنا من بريطانيا], I am British [أنا بريطانيّ]
  • Hans is from Germany [هانز من ألمانيا]. Hans is German [ هانز ألمانيّ]
  • Rebecca is from Scotland [ربيكا من اسكوتلندا ]. Rebecca is Scottish [ ربيكا اسكوتلندية]. Here taa marbouta  [ة ] was added because the head noun [Rebecca] is feminine.

Material : 

This is wood [هذا خشب] . This is a wooden chair [ّهذا كرسي خشبي].

examples:

  • gold  [ذهب], golden [ذهبيَ]
  • cotton [قطن]. made of cotton [ّقطني]
  • metal [معدن ]. made of metal [ معدني].

Science and branches of knowledge : 

I study medicine [أنا أدرس الطّبّ]. These are my medical books [هذه كتبي الطبيَّة].

examples:

  • Politics  [سياسة], political [سياسي]
  • Art [فن]. Artistic [ّفنيّ]
  • Economy [إقتصاد ]. Economic [ إقتصادي].
  • Philosophy [فلسفة ]. Philosophical [ فلسفي]

There are also many other nisba adjectives that can be formed by adding [ي]. For example:

  • international [دولي]
  • governmental [حكومي ]
  • foreign [أجنبي ]

Try to find in the passage the nisba adjectives of the following nouns:

  • Administration [إدارة]
  • Education [تعليم ]
  • Economics [إقتصاد]

Regular Feminine Plural

It is usually formed by deleting the [ة] in the end of the word and adding the suffix [ات]. To read more about sound plurals click here.

Try to find in the passage the plural forms of the following feminine words:

  • establishment [مؤسسة ]
  • ministry [وزارة ]
  • embassy [سفارة ]
  • organisation [منظمة ]

Prepositions with pronouns

In Arabic, the prepositions join with connective pronouns and are written and pronounced as one word. For example, in the passage there are three prepositions [من = from], [لــ= to, for] and [في= in] join with the feminine singular pronoun [ها] in one written form, respectively:

  • منها
  • لها
  • فيها

Quizzes

Try to do the four quizzes below to evaluate your comprehension.

Damascus Quiz 1

This quiz is about word groups. Read the word given and choose the right group the word belongs to. There are four groups of word to choose from:
Government [ حكومة]
Nature [طبيعة ]
Politics [سياسة]
City [مدينة]


Damascus Quiz 2

Look at the image and choose the right word.


Damascus Quiz 3

Read the statement and decide whether it is true or false! 

Your answer should depend on what was mentioned in the passage about Damascus.


Damascus Quiz 4

Choose the right answer to complete the sentence.

Reading Comprehension Practice

In this section, you will find short passages in the form of text messages. Here is the first one.

In this message Kareem has texted Sara to tell her that the classes in the institute were cancelled due to an emergency case. Read the message and listen to it and then do the quiz below.

Listen to the message here.


Now you can do the quiz here.

Quiz

Read the message above and choose the correct answer from A, B and C.

Reading [simple]

Read the notes about the three people Khalid [خالد], jamal [جمال] and Rania [رانية] and do the quiz below. You can also listen to the audio before you do the quiz to improve your reading and listening.

Read these notes and do the quiz below

Quiz

Read the notes above and choose the correct answer.

Prepositions

حروف الجر Prepositions

Prepositions in Arabic are the particles that join with nouns and pronouns to form phrases. Prepositions MUST be followed by a noun or a pronoun. They do not connect to verbs. They have meanings of their own and have an effect on nouns and pronouns. They will change the vowel of the last letter of the noun from Dhammah  [ ُ ] or fatHa [بَ] to kasra [ِ  ]  . The noun after these prepositions is in the genitive case and is called (majroor). After you have studied the examples of the prepositions, you will find a quiz in the end of the page. You can do this quiz to evaluate your comprehension. The quiz is a good practice not only to see how prepositions are used within a context but also to learn some communicative functions.

These prepositions are:


 








After you have studied the above examples try to do this quiz.

quiz [prepositions]

Complete the sentences with the right prepositions

Here is another quiz:

Quiz1

Read the short dialogues and choose the correct answer to fill in the gap. These questions are short dialogues from daily life. Each question is accompanied by a translation into English. The translation is not meant to help you find the answer but it is meant to help you learn the functions of the language. 


Hours of the Day

Hours of the Day

This section includes only the 12 hours of the day. Use the expression [ًمساء] for pm hours and [صباحاً] for am hours.

examples:

One O’clock

Two O’clock

Three O’clock

Four O’clock

Five O’clock

Six O’clock

Seven O’clock

Eight O’clock

Nine O’clock

Ten O’clock

Eleven O’clock

Twelve O’clock

Telling the time [hours] requires Ordinal numbers not cardinal ones.

Cardinal numbers are usually prefixed with [الـ] because they refer to order not to number.

Listening Practice

 

Listen to the audio and answer the quiz questions.

Mr. Farid

Listen to the audio above and click 'start quiz'. The map below is meant to help you comprehend the listening task.