Talk:Arabic/Basic Phrases

New Ideas
Here are some possible catagories I would like to propose.


 * 1) I don't understand.
 * 2) Important sentences for tourists wanting information. (questions and answers)
 * 3) How are you, Meeting and greeting people.
 * 4) Polite expressions
 * 5) Accepting and giving gifts.
 * 6) Buying somehting (asking for a lower price, etc)
 * 7) Asking for things you want.
 * 8) Food preferences. Refusing food, and giving reasons.
 * 9) Talking about language capabilities.
 * 10) Talking about where you learnt Arabic, etc.
 * 11) Talking about what grade you are in. Or what school you go to. How long you have been there, How long you will stay.
 * 12) Talking about what you are doing (I am visiting, I am on vacation)
 * 13) Talk about occupation, and maritial status, Where one is from, etc.
 * 14) Apologizing
 * 15) Camera, am I allowed to take a picture, can you take this picture for me, etc.
 * 16) Talking on the telephone

I also think, that people who have no knowledge of Arabic, should add phrases to proper catagories. Later on others can translate them, and give information on meaning.

Major addition
Added:
 * some phrases (all are from MSA)
 * word by word transliteration (made it less ambigous)
 * syllable by syllable transliteration

I added some phrases. Including two words understood, but rarely used in the arabic of today (كلا and بلى). All additions are MSA as far as I can see. I improved the method of transliteration. I added curly brackets to distinguish digraphs even-though this method seems clumsy to me. The syllable by syllable transliteration should be very useful for beginners. There are different ways that such phrases could be broken into syllables. I included the most correct way. Perhaps, the other ways will be added later, to improve listening comprehension.

A few questions ought to be answered:
 * 1) What is the exact purpose of the "Arabic Basic Phrases" page?
 * 2) Is it living up to the purpose?
 * 3) Is this page in the right place?
 * 4) Does unilang have editable phrasebook pages, such as this one?

I think there is a need for :
 * Arabic phrase pages for each dialect
 * One phrase repository for phrases that are common to all arabic
 * One that introduces simpler phrases, and then more complex ones.
 * One that has phrases sorted by in what situation they are used.
 * Word by word translation of each word in sequence.

ex.   It should be done like this: الولد      فعل            شيء did         the                <---Top translation line thing                   boy                   <---Bottom translation line Transliteration: al-waladu fa`ala shay'an. (S) Translit.: al-wa-la-du-fa-`a-la-shay-an Translation: The boy did something. Notes: 

Notice how "the" lines up with ال because their function is similar. This might require the use of tables. Letters that attach to a word have translations that go on the top translation line, while the main meaning of the word goes on the bottom one.

I'll add some more phrases later.

Changes in appearance
I greatly appreciate your work on Arabic, because Arabic is a language that always thrilled me. I am really happy of being able to help you on it, and I hope you like my changes :-) However, if you think the letters are a bit too big (I wanted them to be easilly readable) just post it here and I'd be happy to change it. Or simply change  to whatever suits best. Please, please continue your work on it, and try to add more information. It's really interesting! :-) Oh, and, by the way, you can use  to change lines --seems you missed it ;-)

We could also move this page to a more appropriate name, such as Arabic:Basic Phrases, so as to maintain some order in this wiki :-)

Oh, and, for anyone interested, I believe [Course on Arabic alphabet] has lots of information on how to read and write, free of charge. --Wizard0 22:36, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Pronunciation
Isn't there a standard way of writing Arabic pronounciation in the latin alphabet? If there is, it might be a good idea to use it instead of doing it phrasebook-style -- Kowey 13:53, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Moved from page: This were some of the basic phrases in arabic, i wrote the pronunciation in normal english to make it comprehensible by any student of any age, sorry the page is a bit messy and misses a lot but i am new to wikibooks, and i am still getting used to the editor...

Age
I don't know how to type in Arabic but there is a mistake - the correct way to ask one's age is not "Cam Umrak?" but "Qadeish Umrak?"
 * Bet you aren't a native speaker, Kam Umrak? is a standard Arabic phrase that is quite understandable anywhere in the Arab World. The other variant you proposed is a one in the local dialect of Bilad Al Shaam (Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria). Please keep it as it is.195.229.241.182