Let’s take a quick look at the rules which apply to numbers and counting objects.

Numbers One and Two

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There are many milestones and areas of proficiency students of Arabic seek. Chief amongst them is the ability to read without the vowel markings (tashkīl/ḥarakāt). And while vocabulary acquisition plays an important role in that so does knowing some of the finer points of grammar. For this short lesson, let’s look at another such milestone: the active…

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There are many milestones for students to achieve in their pursuit of studying the Arabic language. One of those is the ability to identify when a verb is being used in the active and passive voices, particularly in the present tense. Below is a short summary and guide to provide, in shā’ Allāh, some useful hints towards achieving that goal.

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In Arabic, not all visits are created equal.

For instance, let’s take the verb zāra (زار), “he visited.” While its meaning is clear in a general sort of way, it is somewhat vague as to how often. Additionally, there’s no indication as to whether or not they’ll come back. It's the language of a (maybe) one-time guest, like an awkward cousin or uncle who…

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Grammatical Rule: Diptotes (ممنوع من الصرف)

Definition: A diptote (in Arabic: mamnūʿ min al-ṣarf) is a noun that does not take tanwīn and is not declined with a kasrah, even in the genitive case (حالة الجر). Instead, it takes a fatḥah in both the genitive case and the accusative case (حالة النصب)—unless it is defined by al- or is part of a noun-noun co…

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al-Salām ‘alaykum everyone. I know it’s been a few minutes (well actually a lotta minutes) since we’ve posted on our Substack here but rest assured we haven’t forgotten ya’ll or gone away. We’ve just been so consumed with teaching at Middle Ground that sometimes the boots-on-the-ground realities take priority and at the end of the day it’s just a one man show. But I digress…

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So without further ado, here’s a short little post to hold you over until we catch up on our backlog of material. This is a lil’ sumsum from our new Arabic class, The Arabic Reader. You can check out the notes here as well as the YouTube playlist.

And to not completely leave ya’ll hangin’ like a bayt from the muʿallaqāt, here’s some screenshots of a chart I’m posting for our students about the Three Little Lāms. Enjoy!

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Exploring Arabic Vocabulary: Nawm and Ruqūd

In English we have many words for sleeping: slumber, doze, nap, snooze, and of course sleep. And although we have many synonyms for sleep it’s not readily apparent what the difference is between these words. Similarly in Arabic there are several words for sleep of which we’ll examine two: nawm (نوم) and ruqūd ( قود).

As you are already aware, most words in Arabic are derived from verbal roots, in this case nūn+wāw+mīm (ن+و+م) and rā’+qāf+dāl (ر+ق+د) of which we have nāma/yanāmu (نَامَ يَنَامُ) and raqada/yarqudu (رَقَدَ يَرْقُدُ). So how do these two forms of sleep differ in Arabic?

Nawm is what we commonly refer to as sleep but with an emphasis on it being a form of rest or relaxation. It differs from ruqūd in that the person sleeping is aware to a lesser or greater degree the passage of time as well as sensations such as pain or sound, both of which can rouse a person from their sleep.

Ruqūd on the other hand is a much deeper form of sleep. As stated here, 

So next time you take a nap, think about the various kinds of sleep in Arabic.