Reviews

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This Is a Great Little Book

5 Arabic, Books

I loved The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read & Write It by Nicholas Awde and Putros Samano. It is hard-core, sincere, and careful. I learned a ton from it. There is much useful vocabulary in there alongside…

It Says Easy, But It Didn't Work Out That Way For Me

2-5 Arabic, Books

I did not find Easy Arabic Grammar, by Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar, easy. I admit I had a brief spell of euphoric pleasure when I was reading the early pages, where I enjoyed an excellent and reassuring…

Teach Yourself Arabic? Nope, I Couldn't Teach Myself with This

2 Arabic, Books, Multimedia

I used Teach Yourself Arabic by Jack Smart and Frances Altorfer back in 2009, and it struck me as an example of language-learning marketing trumping actual usability. This book-CD combo was a total bust for me. I confess I…

Arabic Vocabulary, Available for Purchase on McGraw-Hill's Website and Elsewhere

Arabic, Books, Vocabulary

I haven’t used Practice Makes Perfect: Arabic Vocabulary by Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar, because it wasn’t around when I was studying Arabic. I would certainly have tested it if it had been! 

Arabic Verb Tenses: A New Book in the Arabic Language-Learning Market

Arabic, Books

Practice Makes Perfect: Arabic Verb Tenses by Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar didn’t exist when I studied Arabic. I would have tried it out if it had, since I was disappointed by a number of the…

Hans Wehr: A Comprehensive Arabic-English Dictionary

Arabic, Books, Dictionaries

The front cover of this Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic reads, “A Compact Version of the Internationally Recognized Fourth Edition,” but I can’t find a non-compact fourth edition. Confusing! I have read effusive things…

Complete Arabic Grammar: An Overview of Arabic, Supposedly Forthcoming

Arabic, Books

I have been trying to figure out what became of the book Practice Makes Perfect: Complete Arabic Grammar by Ali Almakhlafi, which was supposed to be published in 2014 but to the best of my knowledge has never…

An Encouraging Cover for Beginners

3 Arabic, Books, Flashcards, Vocabulary

This book by Mahmoud Gaafar is one of a series of similarly titled books for various languages. The concept for the series comes from Jane Wightwick (who also wrote the Easy Arabic Grammar reviewed in this directory).

Relevant Only If You Have the Second Edition of Alif Baa

3 Arabic, Books

This is the answer key to the second edition of Alif Baa with Multimedia, also reviewed in this directory. If you are using the newer, third edition of Alif Baa—which appeared in 2010, after I…

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