A Question of Arabic

Most teachers of Arabic start by saying Arabic is an easy language to learn - it is not. Students studying Arabic grammar in-depth are faced with two massive mountains to climb: 1. figuring out the often-bewildering (but often fascinating) rules of Arabic itself plus... 2. handicapped by a hazy or non-existent knowledge of grammar concepts in their OWN language. It‘s no wonder the vast majority despair and give up. The book is ed as handy lookup or reference to assist in climbing both mountains. One hundred grammar concepts are dealt with one by one assuming minimal prior knowledge of the concepts in Arabic or even in English. The Q&A format adds curiosity and perhaps even an element of fun and mystery and is ed to build up a deeper knowledge of each concept gradually. The WHY question is often more illuminating than the HOW question. Surprisingly the WHY question is usually totally ignored in standard (dry and dull) text books. Colour coding quickly identifies key parts: transliteration, technical terms or key letters / words.