Arabic Grammar in a Nutshell

This 298 page book is more or less for beginners of Arabic study. However, those who have at least already mastered the alphabet and simple grammar will benefit the most. The grammar is sparsely explained through example sentences. There are few examples given to each grammatical concept, hence the recommendation for students who have already learned some Arabic. The grammar and pronunciation are also explained in a technical jargon that is probably out of most people's reach. Even if you learn best from books on your own, unless you are familiar with the difference between velarized and nonvelarized sounds, fricatives, glottals and labials (for example), you will probably struggle through the pronunciation sections. Later, the author sometimes uses Latin phraseology to explain Arabic terms that do not have English equivalents, such as the nomen agentis and nomen patientis, which are roughly translated as the active and passive participants. Arab instructors also call these terms "the doer" and "the thing that receives the action" or "the do-ee." How to properly write tanwiin is explained, but no detailed explanation about the cases of Arabic grammar is given; because tanwiin is nothing more than a case marker for indefinite nouns and adjectives, the lack of explanation makes an otherwise relatively simple feature of the language seem random and difficult. Finally, nunation is used on proper nouns, such as names, which is rarely the case in written usage and never the case in spoken usage. Other than that, the vocabulary list is of little worth.

The strength of this book lies in cementing in concepts you may have already learned but could use additional examples for. The somewhat technical explanations may help clarify complex issues (such as which term of an idaafa is modified first by adjectives). One more extremely useful aspect of this book, which alone makes the book worth having, is a very robust set of verb charts, detailing all conjugations of Arabic verb types (hollow, weak, doubled, etc), in both voices (active, passive), in all common measures(I-X), and in each case. That's pretty impressive for a 300 page book.

8/10