More books need to be written from the perspective of an exasperated professor
More books need to be written from the perspective of an exasperated professor
I am really really enjoying this book lol Terrible shame it's literally written for the US Department of War
The book is ALL THE ARABIC YOU NEVER LEARNED THE FIRST TIME AROUND
A properly OCR'd version is available on Annas Archive
Alt text didn't fit so here it is
How Should You Use This Book?
I know that students never read the preface to a book so I am including the material below in this section instead. Yes, I know that you know everything in the world about how to study Arabic and even more about how to work through a self-study guide. That is why your Arabic is weak and your I grammatical knowledge embarrasses you. So take a minute and read the following.
C. The Idaafa
The idaafa is an extremely important construction in Arabic. It is very easy, basic, and bold and uppercase ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL for any student of the language who wants ever to be able to do anythmg at all in Arabic. I am upset about the number of students who have had several years of Arabic and do not know the difference between an idaafa and a noun-adjective phrase. In fact, many students do not seem to know the difference between an idaafa and a French horn. The noun-adjective phrase will be taught in the next chapter. The French horn will not.
Now look at the second idaafa. The first term is مدرس. It does not have nunation because the first term of an idaafa bold and uppercase NEVER has nunation. The second term of this idaafa المكتب is in the genitive case because the second term of every idaafa in the entire length and breadth of the history of this great language is always genitive.
But we have a difference between this second idaafa and the first idaafa. The second term of the second idaafa المكتب is definite. Because it is definite, it will not have nunation. But there is something even more important. Because the second term is definite, bold and uppercase THE ENTIRE IDAAFA IS DEFINITE. Thus, this idaafa means, literally, "the director of the office". This means that the first term of this idaafa is definite even though it does not itself have the definite article. Now hear this: bold uppercase and underlined THE FIRST TERM OF AN IDAAFA NEVER HAS THE DEFINITE ARTICLE. This means that the first term of an idaafa never has the definite article.
I know that this explanation may seem repetitive. But you must know these things. If you do not understand what an idaafa is, or do not understand the relationship of the words in an idaafa to each other, you will never understand Arabic above the level of a two year old, or of an American journalist.
Here are some examples of these things that you should be aware of
1.The director of this office is a moron. 2.The study of Arabic grammar is enjoyable. 3. Her office is a large office.
In both sentences, هذا has been changed to هذه. I hope I do not have to explain this. Now, in both sentences you see that the adjective is now feminine and that all else remains the same with respect to agreement between the noun and the adjective. The message should be sinking in about now. Just in case, here are the rules of agreement between nouns and adjectives.