Quranic Arabic

Understand the Quran in its own language

Lessons in this course (6)

The root system: 80% from 20% — Quranic vocabulary is dramatically more learnable than it looks, because words come in root families. From ع-ل-م: 'alima (he knew), 'ilm (knowledge), 'alim (kno…
Reading with grammar eyes — Arabic marks roles with endings: the doer tends to -u (raf'), the done-to -a (nasb), the after-preposition -i (jarr). خَلَقَ اللَّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ — Allah(-u) i…
The verb engine: past, present, command — Arabic verbs are the root system in motion. From ق-و-ل (saying): QALA — he said (past, the story-telling tense of the Quran); YAQULU — he says or will say (pres…
Frequency-first: the vocabulary that compounds — Quranic vocabulary is mercifully top-heavy: a small set of words does an enormous share of the work. The name Allah alone occurs about 2,700 times; rabb around …
The small words that carry the meaning — مِن (from), إِلَى (to), فِي (in), عَلَى (on/against), بِ (with/by), لِ (for/to), عَن (about/away from), مَعَ (with). These appear on nearly every line. They are…
The word-by-word method, done properly — One: read the ayah aloud in Arabic. Two: go word by word, saying each meaning yourself BEFORE revealing the gloss. Three: read the whole ayah again in Arabic, n…