Learn Classical Arabic for Beginners | Complete Level 1 Course

This is Level 1, Lesson 1 of Fusha Classical Arabic. Listen to this Arabic conversation. In the next few minutes, you will learn not only to understand this conversation, but to take part in it yourself. Imagine an American man sitting next to a Syrian woman in someone's home. He wants to begin a conversation, so he says, The Arabic speaker is going to repeat this part by part, starting from the end. You are to repeat each part after him, trying to make your pronunciation sound like his. Be sure to repeat aloud. The ʿ sound at the beginning is very common in Arabic. Listen and repeat after the speaker, trying to match his pronunciation. How do you say excuse me in Arabic? Now he wants to ask the woman if she understands English. First a word English. Listen and repeat. How do you say English? Now imagine you are the American man speaking to the Syrian woman. Say excuse me. You should repeat after the speaker gives the right response, trying to make your pronunciation sound like his. Listen and repeat again. Say again English. Now you want to ask her, do you understand? Listen and repeat the word understand when addressing a woman. Say again understand. Here's how you say you when speaking to a woman. Listen and repeat. Say you. Now try to tell her you understand. Do you remember how to say English? Tell her again you understand. Here's how you say to her you understand English. Listen and repeat. Did you hear the sound between the last two words? Written Arabic has endings on most words, indicating parts of speech, verb tense, etc. These endings are dropped at the end during speech, but they do occur when the word is in the middle of the sentence. Say again you understand English. Say together you understand, you understand English. Any statement can be made into a question, just by adding another a sound in the beginning. Try to ask her, do you understand? Say excuse me. Ask the woman if she understands English. The woman answers no. Listen and repeat. How do you say no? She says no sir, just listen. Here's the word sir or mister. Listen and repeat. When addressing someone directly in Arabic, you add an attention-grabbing particle first. Listen and repeat. How does she say no? No sir. Ask her again if she understands English. Now listen and repeat part by part. First the word understand. Addressed by man. Here's how to say you when speaking to a man. Listen and repeat. Say you to a man. Try to say to a man you understand. And how do you say you understand to a woman? Say together you referring to a man and you referring to a woman. How would she ask you, do you understand? Remember, you're an American man. She says excuse me. Here's how she asks you, do you understand English? Listen and repeat. Did you hear the ending on understand in the middle of the sentence? Speaking to a man, say together you understand, you understand English. Here's how to say yes. Listen and repeat. Say yes. And here's the word miss. Listen and repeat. Do you remember how to address a man directly? And how do you say yes? Try to say to her directly, yes miss. You want to say I understand. First the word I alone. Listen and repeat. And now I understand. What's the word understand when referring to yourself? And how would you say I understand? Say yes miss. I understand. The word I remains the same whether spoken by a man or a woman. Say again, I understand. Now try to say I understand English. Pay attention to the endings. Say together I understand and you understand referring to a man. And how would you say to her you understand? Now say I understand English. Yes miss. Say excuse me. Ask her, do you understand? Do you understand English? How does she answer? No sir. Now she wants to say I don't understand. Listen and repeat. Now you use the word no to make the sentence negative. Say I don't understand. How would she say I don't understand English? Here's the name of the Arabic language. Listen and repeat. How do you say excuse me in Arabic? Note that the beginning of the two words is the same. Say Arabic. She says I understand. How would she say I understand Arabic? How does she say I don't understand English? She says again, I understand Arabic. And how would she ask you, do you understand Arabic? Answer, no miss. I don't understand Arabic. Say to the woman, you understand Arabic. Now she says, excuse me. Since you're speaking to her in Arabic, she asks again, do you understand Arabic? Here's how to say a little. Listen and repeat. Say a little. Try to say I understand a little. Now she says I don't understand English. Tell her, I understand Arabic. Now the woman wants to ask if you are American. Listen and repeat the word American. She wants to say you're American. In Arabic, it's you American. Try it. Which part of that is you that refers to a man? And how do you say you to a woman? Addressing you, she says again, you are American. Now she says, excuse me. And how would she ask, are you American? She asks, do you understand Arabic? You could say, no, I don't understand. Instead, try to answer, I understand a little. She asks, do you understand English? Are you American, sir? Answer, yes, miss. Now, sit back and listen to an Arabic conversation. The same one you heard at the beginning of this lesson, just a few minutes ago. Excuse me, do you understand English? No, sir, I don't understand English. I understand Arabic a little. Are you American? Yes, miss. Listen to it again. Excuse me, do you understand English? No, sir, I don't understand English. I understand Arabic a little. Are you American? Yes, miss. Now, let's try a conversation. Imagine that you are sitting next to a Syrian woman. You want to begin a conversation, so what do you say? She doesn't answer. Try asking her if she understands. Ask her if she understands Arabic. Still no answer. Now ask her if she understands English. How does she tell you that no, she doesn't understand English? How does she ask you if you understand Arabic? Tell her you understand a little. How does she ask you if you are American? Tell her yes, miss. She'll ask you a question. Try to answer it truthfully. She'll ask you another question. Answer it using the expression a little. Now, try this conversation again. Say, excuse me, miss. She doesn't answer. Ask her if she understands. Ask her if she understands Arabic. Still no answer. Now ask her if she understands English. How does she tell you that she doesn't understand English? Addressing you directly, how does she ask you if you understand Arabic? Tell her you understand a little. How does she ask you if you are American? Tell her yes, miss. Answer her next two questions. And that's true. Now you do know a little Arabic. Don't be concerned if you haven't made every response correctly. All that you've learned here will be reviewed in future lessons. If you've done this lesson once before, you're ready to move on to the next. Otherwise, you should invest another 30 minutes in doing this lesson over again. This is the end of Lesson 1 and the end of today's lesson. This course works most effectively when the lessons are done consecutively and on a daily basis. For best results, please continue with the next lesson tomorrow. This is Lesson 10 of Fusha Classical Arabic. Listen to this conversation. In the conversation, you heard فهمت or understood. Listen again. لا فيما بعد. فهمت. Do you remember the word for two cups? As in ordering two cups of tea. And how do you say two o'clock? Now imagine you're an American man working in Dubai. You're making plans with a colleague. How does she ask if you'd like to do something? You say you would, so she asks at what time? Say at one o'clock. Now say at eight o'clock. Do you remember how to say I understand Arabic? Here's how to say got it or understood. Try to say I got it now. Now try to tell her you would like to do something at eight o'clock. Say again understood. Here's you understood when addressing a man. Listen and repeat. Say to a man you understood now. Tell her I'd like to do something now. How does she ask? With whom? With me? Now she says understood. She asks what would you like to do? Say I'd like to buy something. How does she ask what would you like to buy? At what time? Say at one o'clock. Or at two o'clock. How would she say? I can't. I'm busy. She adds sorry. She says at nine o'clock, okay? Say no at eight o'clock. She says again I'm busy. And how do you think a man would say that? Say at nine o'clock I can't. Tell her I'm busy, sorry. How does she say I got it or understood? And how does she say to you you understood? Here's how she tells you you didn't understand. Listen and repeat. Note the different negative here with the past tense. Here's how you'd say to her you didn't understand. Listen and repeat. Say I can't, sorry. Tell her you didn't understand. Now tell her I'm busy now. Later you ask again. What would you like to do? She says I would like to buy something. Ask what would you like to buy? She says I would like to buy sweets. She adds with you. Now she says I'd like to do something. I'd like to eat at the hotel. Ask at what time? At one o'clock, okay? She says at one o'clock or at two o'clock? Ask with whom, with me? She says yes, with you. At two o'clock or at one o'clock? Say agreed. She checks her schedule. Now she says I can't, I'm busy, sorry. Tell your colleague you didn't understand, miss. Try to ask her if she would like to drink something here. Now she says sorry, I didn't understand. Do you remember how to say at the restaurant? Here's how to say at the office. Listen and repeat. How does she ask? At the office? Tell her I'm busy but... I'd like to drink tea with you. At the office. Two cups of tea. How does she say alright, I can? She confirms. At the office, at what time? Here's how to ask what time is it? Listen and repeat. You're literally asking how much the time. Now ask what time is it? She answers it's nine o'clock or literally the time the ninth. She adds I'd like to drink tea at the office. Later she asks you what time it is. Here's how to say it's five o'clock. Listen and repeat. Say it's five o'clock. She asks again what time it is. Listen and repeat the answer it's three o'clock. Say it's three o'clock. Now say it's five o'clock. Listen and repeat it's four o'clock. Say it's four o'clock. She says it's five o'clock. Now she says that it's three o'clock. Tell her sorry I didn't understand. She asks what time is it? Is it four o'clock? Say no it's three o'clock. Do you remember how to say Al Hijaz station is not here? Try to say it's not four o'clock. Now ask is it eight o'clock? She asks again what time it is. Say five o'clock. Three o'clock. Five o'clock. Tell her you didn't understand it's four o'clock. Now she says it's not three o'clock. What time is it please? Answer I don't know but I'd like to drink something. At the office. She asks at what time now? Say not now later. She replies sorry I didn't understand. She adds it's four o'clock. Tell her you didn't understand. She asks you what would you like to do? Here's how to say I'm going to eat something or I will eat something. Listen and repeat. You add س to indicate that something will happen in the near future. Say again I'm going to eat something. How do you say I would like to eat sweets? Now try to say I will eat later. How do you think she'd say you will eat or you are going to eat? Say I will eat at five o'clock. سأكل في الساعة الخامسة. How does she ask are you going to eat at four o'clock? Answer no at eight o'clock. Say again I will eat. Now try to say I will drink. Say but I'm going to drink something. Tell her at the office with you. Say I will eat sweets. At three o'clock or at four o'clock. She says I will drink something at nine o'clock. Tell her no miss you didn't understand. Ask what time is it now? It's one o'clock now. Tell her thank you I'm going to eat. Now you're going to converse with a young colleague. You're fine and in an agreeable mood. Answer her when she speaks to you. كيف الحال؟ أنت بخير؟ نعم أنا بخير. نعم أنا بخير شكرا. عفوا أتريد أن تأكل معي؟ نعم أريد أن أكل معك. في أي ساعة تريد أن تأكل؟ في الساعة الثامنة؟ لا ليس في الساعة الثامنة. في الساعة التاسعة. أفي الساعة الثانية طيب؟ لا ليس في الساعة الثانية. في الساعة الثالثة. الساعة الثالثة؟ لا وشكرا لكن أفي الساعة الرابعة طيب؟ لا ليس في الساعة الرابعة. في الساعة الخامسة. لا ليس في الساعة الرابعة. في الساعة الخامسة. لا ليس في الساعة الخامسة. Ask her when she would like to eat. متى تريدين أن تأكلي؟ She's not sure. Tell her that you're going to eat now. سآكل الآن. She says, you're going to eat now and... ستأكل الآن و... ستأكل. I will drink tea at the office. سأشرب الشاي في المكتب. This is the end of lesson 10 and the end of today's lesson. This course works most effectively when the lessons are done consecutively and on a daily basis. For best results, please continue with the next lesson tomorrow.