The Connectors in Modern Standard Arabic

I have used this book as the class text for a grammar class taught at ILI in Cairo, and I have found this book to be very helpful in both providing structural help, but also in providing invaluable assistance in composition, something I had not really had prior to using this book. Not only is it useful as a an in class text, it is also useful as a reference; for example this book's discussion of the various uses of is particularly helpful. The reason I only give it 4 stars is two-fold: The first is that frequently the examples given require a body of vocabulary that is perhaps past the ability of a student who is using this as an in-class tool. This may not be an issue for a more advanced student who is using this as a reference, so bear this in mind. The other issue with this book is the physical quality of the book. Perhaps there is a better printing in the US, but version I purchased here in Cairo fell apart after opening the book twice. And I mean fell apart. The binding was of such poor quality that almost all the pages fell out immediately, so buyer beware.

This book used to be required for the third year Arabic program at UCLA. I still haven't found a book that only concentrates on 'connectors' in english and this book does an excellent job. After studying this book, it has become obvious to me that uneloquent translations of Arabic texts are largely the result of not having a solid grasp on the function that connectors serve. Unlike English where each sentence can begin without indicating its relationship to the previous sentence, the Arabic language expects the speaker to specify this relationship using connectors. Most books concentrate on constructing single sentences, but this book will help you connect sentences into eloquent texts using connectors.

This book is certainly one of its kind in presenting an important aspect of the Arabic language not well covered in the standard books on Arabic grammar. Each chapter begins with a text for reading highlighting some connectors that will be then discussed in detail. A translation of the text is provided. Each chapter has numerous examples followed by exercises.
The utility of the book can be increased by providing vocabulary and key to the exercises for someone studying the book without a teacher.

This is an excellent textbook for those students of Modern Standard Arabic who have studied a year or two of the language and would like to improve upon their writing skills. It is particularly useful in a traditional university classroom setting and in fact was the textbook that I used during my third year of Arabic study in graduate school. Organized into 27 short lessons that focus on specific connectors, each lesson includes the following: a presentation of the connectors and their meanings; a selection from an Arabic text (often authentic) that includes the connectors that the lesson focuses on; a translation of the text into English; additional grammatical lessons and linguistic remarks to further clarify the lesson; and numerous drills to challenge the reader. Although this book is very useful for students of Arabic grammar, it is not well suited for those interested in improving their reading skills and/or increasing their vocabulary.

Ths is the most useful book I've found yet for the intermediate or advanced student of Arabic. While a grammar book teaches you all about morphology and is usually sparse on details of syntax, this book will lead you towards the goal of writing idiomatic modern standard Arabic. But to the real beginner, it will seem daunting and over-specialized - it did to me when I first saw it.