Your First Arabic Lesson

Arabic Lesson 1

Daraba


 ضَرَبَ

This word is a verb in Arabic. It means "He struck."

The word is pronounced as dha-ra-ba.

The pronoun "he" is understood to be in this Verb and is not written.

The word is formed by three constants and one vowel. The three constants include:

• Daad
• Raa
• Baa

The vowel used is called fatha. It is placed above the letter.

The vowel is pronounced after the constant is pronounced. It corresponds to the English "a."

In this verb the vowel fatha occurs three times.

The sound of the fatha is like the "a" in bad. In some countries it is more like the "a" in the word father.

Arabic is read from right to left. The first constant of this word is:

Daad

Transliterations for Daad differ depending on the transliteration system the writer chooses to use. Often, writers choose to indicate Daad in transliteration by means of a d which has a dot under it.

The Daad is like the "d" in dad and hand but it is stronger.

The three constants which you have seen in this lesson do not always preserve the form they are in. Rather, constants in Arabic have slightly different forms depending on if they occur at the beginning of a word, in the middle of a word, or at the end of a word.

Daad is written as follows when it is the first letter of a word

Raa is written as follows when it occurs in the middle of a word

ر

Baa is written as follows when it is not joined to a preceding or following word

ب

When Baa is connected to a previous letter it takes the following form

When Baa is connected to a word which follows but there is no word before it, it takes the following form

Raa cannot ever connect to a letter. Thus, its shape remains the same when it comes after a letter or before a letter.

As mentioned before, Arabic is read from left to right. Hence, the order of constants in the word Daraba is

1. Daad comes first
2. Raa follows
3. Baa is at the end

Note that Daa has a dot on top of it, and Baa has a dot under it. This dots distinguish this constants from others which are similar in shape. Daa cannot be written with the dot over it, and Baa cannot be written without a dot under it.

Vowels are usually omitted by the Arabs in writing. But, vowels are always pronounced when speaking.

Additionally, the entire Grammar of the language revolves around the vowel on the last the letter of a word.

Vowels are indispensable. The Qur'aan is always voweled. Such is not the case with other texts in Arabic.

Arabic does not have any capitals.