Grammar: Personal pronouns

2. Counting
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0	—	sifr		1	—	wâhid
2	—	ithnân		3	—	thalâtha
4	—	'arbaca		5	—	khamsa
6	—	sitta		7	—	sabca
8	—	thamâniya		9	—	tisca
10	—	cashra		11	—	'ahada cashra
12	—	ithnâ cashra		13	—	thalâtha cashra
14	—	'arbaca cashra		15	—	khamsa cashra
16	—	sitta cashra		17	—	sabca cashra
18	—	thamâniya cashra		19	—	tisca cashra
20	—	cishrűn		21	—	'ahad wa-cishrűn
22	—	ithnân wa-cishrűn		23	—	thalâtha wa-cishrűn
24	—	'arbaca wa-cishrűn		25	—	khamsa wa-cishrűn
26	—	sitta wa-cishrűn		27	—	sabca wa-cishrűn
28	—	thamâniya wa-cishrűn		29	—	tisca wa-cishrűn
30	—	thalâthűn		35	—	khamsa wa-thalâthűn
40	—	'arbacűn		42	—	'ithnân wa-'arbacűn
50	—	khamsűn		59	—	tisca wa-khamsűn
60	—	sittűn		66	—	sitta wa-sittűn
70	—	sabcűn		73	—	thalâtha wa-sabcűn
80	—	thamânűn		84	—	'arbaca wa-thamânűn
90	—	tiscűn		91	—	'ahad wa-tiscűn
100	—	mi'a		1000	—	'alf

Grammar: Use of numbers

Numbers in Arabic are quite complicated, there are different rules for the numbers, numbers are declined according to gender. Getting the grip on numbers in order to make practical use of them (few Arabs used numbers correctly), is however reasonably easy.
From 21 to 99 you count like this: (example) 24: Four wa-forty.From 12 to 19 you count like this (example) 15: Five Ten. 11 is slightly slightly diverging.
When putting numbers together with nouns you do like this:

• 1: (example) 1 book is said as simply as "book", "kitâb", you leave 1 out, unless it is very important to emphasise that it is one book.
• 2: (example) 2 books is a special case, as Arabic not only has singular and plural, but also dual. The rules here are straight, but often ommitted by students, who wind up saying "2 books",
  ithnân kutub.
  That is not correct, and the correct dual for 2 books is
  kitâbâni.
  
• 3 and up: You place the full form of the number first, immediately followed by the noun: 42 books:
  ithnân wa-'arba^cűn kutub.
  While this is not the correct form, it is OK to say it this way at the present level. If you're curious, this is the correct way for saying 42 books:
  ithnân wa-'arba^cűn kitâbân.

mâ-smuk?
What's your name?

'ismî salîm
My name is Salim

'ismuhu rashîd
His name is Rashid

'ismuhâ warda
Her name is Warda

'anâ sâ'ih
I'm a tourist (as uttered by a man)

'anâ sâ'iha
I'm a tourist (as uttered by a woman)

'a^cmal hunâ
I'm working here

'anâ tâlib
I'm a student (as uttered by a man)

'anâ tâliba
I'm a student (as uttered by a woman)
 
Grammar: Basic Arabic sentences

"To be" and "to have" — verbs you don't use!

Two verbs are normally ommitted from Arabic (this thing makes learning the language a little bit easier). These two are to be and to have. The first of these two is well exemplified above. Instead of saying "My name is Erik", you say "Name mine Erik" — 'ismî 'îrîk
The same applies for qualities: Instead of saying "She is a teacher", you say "She teacher" — hiyya mudarrisa, "he tourist" — huwa sâ'ih
As for the verb "to have", which can also equal "to own": Instead of saying "He has a car", you say "To him a car" — lahu sayyâra, "to her a book" — lahâ kitâb, "to me a house" (="I own a house") — lî bayt
Elegant, don't you think?
Even if this could appear slightly confusing at the very first, the rules are terribly simple, and soon you will see yourself forming basic sentences,- without the use of any verb. However, be prepared, Arabic is full of verbs, and there is no way around them if you want to communicate properly in Arabic.

ayna l-funduq salâm?
Where is the Hotel Salam?

hal ladayka ghurfa?
Have you got vacant rooms?

min aiyyati l-darja hâdhâ l-funduq?
Of which class is the hotel?

hal 'al-ghurfa ma^ca l-hammâm?
Is there a bathroom coming with the room?

hal 'al-ghurfa ma^ca l-hâtif?
Is there a telephone in the room?

hal tilîfizyűn fî l-funduq?
Is there a TV-set in the hotel?

kam sa^cri l-layla
What's the price for one night?

uktub min fadlik
Please write

lâ 'afham
I don't understand

'afham
I understand

ghâlî
Expensive!

sa'askun hunâ li muddati th-thalâthati l-laylât
I'm going to stay here for three nights

'awwalân, urîd manzaru l-ghurfa, min fadlik
First, I want to see the room, please

shukran. al-ghurfa mumtâz
Thank you. The room is very nice

Grammar: The definite article

One of the things many should have noticed before embarking on learning the Arabic language, is the frequent use of prefixes like "Al" or "El". "Al" and "El" are the same two letters "a" and "l" put together, which indicate the definite article for a noun. But what is considered definite and what is not, is often different from many Western languages. Briefly one could make this as a rule: If it is not particularly important to stress the indefinite form, the definite article should be used. But this is only a valid rule at your present stage in learning Arabic.
When a noun is indefinite, no prefixes or suffixes are added, you simply use the core form of the noun.
Just to complicate things a bit here: In Arabic there are a group of "sun letters", letters which standing first in a noun, eat the "l" of the definite article. These are the following letters:

t, th, d, dh, r, z, s, sh, S, D, T, Z, n.

The result is that you never write, nor pronounce: "al-t.....", "al-th....", "al-d....", "al-dh....", "al-r....", "al-z....", "al-s....", "al-sh...." and so on.
You do write and pronounce: "at-t....", "ath-th....", "ad-d....", "adh-dh....", "ar-r....", "az-z....", "as-s....", "ash-sha....." and so on.
For the remainder of the letters, you leave the "l" of the definite article intact.