Watch me make a blog in January and then take until May to actually start posting.
I was actually thinking what I should be posting about and where I should start, but I decided that if somebody’s coming on tumblr to learn a language from a scratch, then they must be really naive, so I won’t attempt that. I suppose I’ll use the post format as a way to revise material as way as note new interesting info I might be learning. And we’ll see where it will bring me, I guess?
The first post will be about present tense because I probably need a good remainder of that.
Present tense is indicated by a prefix. The vowels in the present tense are not always obvious, so Arabic dictionaries (the ones that go alphabetically by roots) sometimes give the vowels of the present tense. I might actually make a post about Arabic dictionaries later, they're pretty neat.
Because I lowkey hate the فعل way of showing the patterns—because let's be real, the 3ayn in the middle is not making it any easier to hear whether it's فَعل or فَعِل or فِعَل etc.—I will use an easy verb as an example.
"To study"! It fits the purpose of the blog well, doesn't it?
I study – 'adrusu أَدْرُسُ
You (masc.) study – tadrusu تَدْرُسُ
You (fem.) study – tadrusiina تَدْرُسينَ
He studies – yadrusu يَدْرُسُ
She studies – tadrusu تَدْرُسُ
We study – nadrusu نَدْرُسُ
You (pl. masc.) study – tadrusuuna تَدْرُسونَ
You (pl. fem.) study – tadrusna تَدْرُسْنَ
They (masc.) study – yadrusuuna يَدْرُسونَ
They (fem.) study – yadrusna يَدْرُسْنَ
(side note: I think I will make a post about alphabet or more specifically the transcription I use because it might not be obvious to anyone)
So, that is a pretty typical stuff and everybody can read, but I want to draw your attention to a few things:
– the final short vowel is not said in spoken variety. i wrote it as a technicality but normally they're not said. saying all the final vowels (which in case of verbs tell us whether the verb is an indicative or a subjunctive; it's something I'll surely write about later) is ONLY done in FORMAL arabic. think Quran and such.
– notice that 2nd person sg masc is exactly the same as 3rd sg fem, which means you have to figure out from context which one it is
– notice that تَـ prefix usually indicates 2nd person (other than that 3rd sg fem) and then the suffix tells you more about the gender and number
– meanwhile prefix يَـ indicates 3rd person and then suffixes give you more information
– suffix for 2pl and 3pl masc. is the same and so is the suffix for 2pl and 3pl fem.
– mind that if the first vowel is different, then it will be different in conjugation, for example "I travel" would be "usaafiru – أُسافِرُ" with a damma, so a short "u"
That's just basic present tense conjugation, to get myself started on writing more stuff!
We'll see if I'll actually get around to write another post this month, shall we?
