Practice Makes Perfect Arabic Pronouns and Prepositions

By Otared Haidar

Master Arabic pronouns and prepositions quickly and easily

The only way to build your skills in a second language is to practice, practice, practice. Following the successful Practice Makes Perfect approach, this book gives you clear explanations and all the tools you need to learn Arabic pronouns and prepositions. A valuable resource for advanced beginning– to intermediate-level Arabic learners, Practice Makes Perfect: Arabic Pronouns and Prepositions enables you to:

• Successfully grasp Arabic pronoun and preposition usage
• Review and compare different types of pronouns and prepositions
• Build your language skills with hundreds of exercises

With the help of many everyday examples, this book takes the mystery out of pronouns and prepositions and gets you on your way to communicating in Arabic with confidence!

Master these key topics and boost your Arabic language skills:
Possessive pronouns * Subject pronouns * Demonstrative pronouns * Separate and inseparable pronouns * Prepositional phrases

• Language: English
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
• Release date: Oct 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9780071759748

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-175974-8

MHID:       0-07-175974-3

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-175973-1, MHID: 0-07-175973-5.

All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps.

McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs. To contact a representative please e-mail us at [e-mail].

Interior design by Village Bookworks, Inc.

TERMS OF USE

This is a copyrighted work and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (McGraw-Hill) and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these terms. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw-Hill’s prior consent. You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use of the work is strictly prohibited. Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms.

THE WORK IS PROVIDED AS IS. McGRAW-HILL AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK, INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. McGraw-Hill and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. Neither McGraw-Hill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom. McGraw-Hill has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise.

To obtain PDFs for exercises from the printed version of this eBook, please click here.

Contents

Preface

I   PRONOUNS

1   Subject pronouns

Introduction to subject pronouns

Arabic nominal sentences

Subject markers

The subject pronoun it

2   Possessive pronouns

Introduction to possessive pronouns

The idafa construction

The possessive pronoun it

3   Object pronouns

Introduction to object pronouns

The object pronoun it

4   Prepositional pronouns

Introduction to prepositional pronouns

5   Pronouns and other particles

Particles

6   Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns of proximity

Demonstrative pronouns of distance

Definite predicates

Demonstrative pronouns that change meaning

7   Relative pronouns

Introduction to relative pronouns

Referent pronouns

Adjectival sentences

Relative pronouns of nonspecific statements

8   Interrogative pronouns

Information question particles

Yes-no question particles

9   Nonhuman third person neutral pronoun

The neutral pronoun it

10   Practicing pronouns in context

II   PREPOSITIONS

11   Inseparable prepositions

Introduction to inseparable prepositions

12   Separate prepositions

Introduction to separate prepositions

13   Dharf

Introduction to dharf

14   Different functions of prepositional phrases

Prepositional phrases as adverbial phrases

Prepositional phrase as a fronted predicate

The prepositional phrase as a hal

Prepositions with verbs

Prepositional phrases as nisba adjectives

Prepositional phrases as a replacement for other parts of speech

15   Prepositions with interrogative and relative pronouns

Prepositions with interrogative pronouns

Prepositions with relative pronouns

16   Practicing prepositions in context

Text I: My room

Text II: A vacation in Tartous

Answer key

Preface

Pronouns and prepositions are two essential parts of speech. Learning the grammatical rules of pronouns and prepositions is a preliminary task for anyone who is studying Arabic. Practicing them to consolidate learning their types and functions is a task that continues for many subsequent stages.

Most teachers and students of languages agree on considering pronouns as an area that will take lots of effort from both sides to master. In addition, the system of Arabic pronouns has its own distinctiveness such as having the dual system and the attachable pronouns. As for prepositions, my undergraduate students who are studying for a BA in Arabic and European Languages at Oxford University insist that prepositions are a tricky area to master in any new language and sometimes difficult to translate. This particularity of pronouns and prepositions is also viewed as a challenge by my graduate students studying at a more advanced level. Therefore, mastering