Product Description

Ever larger numbers of people are starting to learn Arabic, while even more have some contact with the Arab world. Anyone who wishes to learn the language faces the hitherto formidable initial problem: the alphabet. This book proceeds step-by-step through all the letters of the Arabic alphabet, showing the sounds they stand for and how they are combined into words. Nothing essential is left out, but no unnecessary complications are added. Readers will find that progress is rapid and will be surprised at the relative ease with which they master the first steps in learning this increasingly important world language.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70147 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-16
• Original language: English, Arabic
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Review
'Demonstrates the letters in easy-to-follow, stroke by stroke diagrams. Excellent value.' Library Journal

About the Author
Nicholas Awde was born in London in 1961 and spent much of his childhood in Africa. He studied Arabic at London University. Putros Samano was born in Iraq in 1953. Since 1974 he has lived in Britain, where he studied Arabic and Arabic-English translation and now works as a translator and interpreter.

Customer Reviews

Essential if you want to master the written language
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.

One of those really useful books
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.

Brilliant and invaluable
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.