Basic Arabic Workbook: For Revision and Practice

As a self-taught student of Arabic, I can't say enough good things about this book. I flip through every new Arabic book I can find at Borders, but most of them are either too easy (ie the Teach Yourself series) or require a teachers (ie Arabic Connectors, Al-Kitaab, etc). John Mace has finally produced a book that allows you to understand the grammar, learn and pronounce relevant vocabulary, and do short but very effective exercises.

However, don't use it as your first book! In my case (and I'm a language nut) I used a couple of Jane Wightwrick's books, Let's Read the Arabic Newspapers, 1000 Arabic Media words, and Kalila wa Dimna first. Otherwise, this book would have done me in: a) it is quite dry, with the majority of exercise sentences being something like "The conference of experts rejected the report of the Ministry". b) it introduces not only the relevant grammar, but also many exceptions / variations in endings / etc at the same time, so that you really need to read carefully in order to get it all. I have gone through most of the chapters 2 or 3 times, including all of the exercises. c) the pace is pretty brisk, as with present tense of all verb types in a single chapter (sound, doubled, initial-waw, 3 variants of hollow, 3 variants of ending-defective, and 6 doubly defective verbs)

A minor problem, there are a number of typos in the exercises, usually in transliteration, sometimes in the arabic spelling, or a wrong word used, etc. Most are not too hard to spot but, when I don't understand why my answer is wrong (since I don't have a teacher to ask) I often wonder whether it is my mistake or the book's...

I'm quite impressed with this book. The exercises given in each chapter are short, but effectively review each concept. The pace is good--knowledge of both vocabulary and grammar will increase at a reasonable speed. The transliteration of all Arabic words is a good touch to ensure one's pronunciation is correct. Also, no previous knowledge of grammar is needed to grasp the Arabic within this book (although knowing what a subjunctive or jussive tense, etc., certainly helps). I also purchased his "Arabic Verbs" and plan on buying the next book in this series once I complete this one.

My one caveat is that there are a few spelling errors sprinkled throughout, which in my experience is normal with grammars. Also, you won't learn phrases like "Hi, what's up?" And etc. This will more prepare you to read media Arabic.

A good instruction to simplify fus-ha/formal grammar without quite crossing the amiyya/colloquail border. For spoken communication purposes it's best to learn the actual amiyya of the region, but for spoken transregional purposes or just for the casual speaker this is great.

An unusual but excellent text. The author conducts a point by point review of grammar rules while also introducing a news and media-oriented selection of related vocabulary items in each chapter. The grammar overview is very concise, written in as non-technical a manner as possible and can be described as pithy. John Mace has a wonderful way of distilling rules simply and clearly. He also narrows the grammar down to the most useful subset possible. Although short exercises punctuate the text, the book is more a review than a workbook.

I purchased this book shortly after it was released, in approximately January of 2007. As background, I decided to learn some Arabic due to my work occassionally requiring me meet with individuals whose native language is Arabic. Last summer I attended a formal 3 week intensive Arabic college course in Chicago, but found that the grammar taught there was overwhelming and complicated. Further, a native Arabic speaking friend of mine told me that the formal class I took provided such a high degree of grammar usage - it was not practical for everyday communication. In all seriousness, communicating in Arabic using the formal "long pronunciation" would be analogous to walking into a bar in the South Side of Chicago and attempting to order a draft beer using "shakespherian English." As is quoted on page 12, "This book uses short pronunciation." Author John Mace gets directly to the point in this book, and the vocabulary is completely popular and practical without unnecessary complicated grammar. Do buy this book if you want to learn Arabic - but, do first obtain a solid grounding in the Arabic script. I learned the script in about 3 days of solid practice and it is not as difficult as I thought. I believe John Mace also has an Arabic Script book as well.
Special thanks to this author for his ability to provide practical information and vocabulary fi-l-'arabee. I have pre-ordered his second book due this month! Dave