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A**L
Get this book! Lots of information, condensed but well organized
This Lingualism book is excellent overall. I am beginning to learn how to construct basic ideas into Levantine phrases and sentences, and also how to interpret others' speech.The conjugated verbs are cleverly categorized by form. Then there's a list in the back that has a bunch more common verbs, ones that aren't conjugated. However, they *are* listed by form- so you can essentially guess the conjugations for these by looking at one of the conjugated verbs with that same form.The example sentences and the free accompanying audio really make this a powerful tool. I actually rearranged the audio files into a different order, based on what was logical to me. They are originally given to you by Arabic alphabetical order, but the order I put them in was guided by conceptual broadness or frequency of everyday occurrence. So, the basic stuff first, like 'to be', 'to do', 'to say', 'to see', 'to hear', etc.Memorize the vocabulary, all 103 of the third-person past-tense forms. Study the variations in the different conjugation forms. Gain additional vocabulary from reviewing the example sentences. Read and re-read the Grammar section near the back of the book about pronouns, forms and tenses. It'll be worth it! You will gain a deeper familiarity with the Levantine dialect based on much effort and time you put in.Caveat: The print is a bit small for me, but I am not a spring chicken. With reading glasses, it's fine. Besides, much Arabic literature is written in small-to-tiny font. Also, I personally wish the Arabic was either slightly bigger or to the left in order to be more prominent, and the English transliterations slightly smaller or to the right. This is sort of a petty quibble though, as the font is clear and the accentuation marking helps a great deal.
R**L
Great, succinct verb and grammar book for Northern Levantine (Lebanese and Syrian) dialects
This is a wonderful book that I've been using for a few months now. Not only does it give the most thorough conjugation tables that you will find anywhere, but it also gives you a very helpful, succinct introduction to Levantine grammar in the back of the book (how to use subject and object pronouns, how to make and how use verb tenses and forms, etc). And a very thorough index with even more commonly used words that directs you to which verbs conjugated in the book are similar. One caveat: There are significant differences in pronunciation and even spelling of verbs between Northern Levantine and Souther Levantine dialects. This book is perfect if you're learning Syrian or Lebanese Arabic. However, if you are learning Jordanian or Palestinian Arabic, you should buy the author's other book, Palestinian Verbs. It has the same format but it reflects the differences in spelling and pronunciation and even the subtle differences in grammar. This is a great resource for beginners or intermediate level students, especially self-study learners. I highly recommend both of these books!
J**B
Absolute perfection
If you're learning Levantine Arabic this book is perfect. Actual perfection!With this book you can expect to learn how to conjugate Levantine Arabic verbs in addition to the vocabulary of the verb itself.It gives you the full conjugation for 104 essential verbs. (The Conjugation includes: perfect, imperfect, bi-perfect, imperative and active participle for every pronoun. All these tenses are defined and explained in the book.) It also gives 750 verbs at the end of the book, with a chart system indicating how to conjugate those verbs. I have to say that the chart was very hard to understand but once you get the hang of it it's amazing.Things to keep in mind:1) It doesn't translate every single form of the verb. It only translates the infitive form of the verb and that's it, so you need to figure out what it means based on the pronoun. For example, they write that إجا (Íja) means "to come." So you need to figure out that جيت (jīt) means "I came" based on the pronoun they provide. Make sure you know your pronouns, because they don't translate that either.2) As I said, they provide 750 additional verbs at the end of the book for you to conjugate. Some of the words may be considered inappropriate (look at the photo I posted) so reader discretion is advised.3) There is an audio of the book available to show you how to pronounce the content in the book. Their website will be in the book.Great book!
R**S
Book is great website not so much
The book is amazing but accessing the website to listen to each exercise as you read is quite annoying. You have to sign in everytime and jump through about 3 to 4 hoops to get to the 1 minute lessons. If there was an easier way to access the lessons that would be amazing.
L**N
A+ Book, Definitely Recommend
This book is really good, I definitely recommend it. It contains a lot of great information. I found it to be a very professional language book, presentation-wise, AND it comes with free access to MP3 downloads of people saying all of the verbs in all of the tenses and also saying each sample sentence for you. That audio is very professionally done as well. It was really kind of the author to have created the audio, he must be more interested in people learning Arabic than making a lot of money, because he could charge extra for the MP3s and he doesn't. I was really surprised. The only thing, is that he calls the present tense "bi-imperfect", so I wasn't sure what I was getting into until I read page 110. Also, the sample sentences are almost all advanced sentences, so I can't make use of them myself, yet. It would be nice if there were some beginner sentences, as well as intermediate and advanced, since there are 4 or 5 sample sentences for each verb. Thank you very much for making this book, I am really happy to have come across it.
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