Arabic learning resources
Arabic language learning links
Here are some links to websites with free information on Arabic, and
also media sources with free content that can help you practice Arabic.
Please feel free to email me with other useful links (as long as they
are free and contain a decent amount of content, not just one page with a
few words/phrases):
| General links on Arabic | Online dictionaries |
| The Arabic alphabet | Arabic media online |
| Standard Arabic | Television news |
| Egyptian Arabic | Newspapers |
| Levantine Arabic | Magazines |
| Syrian Arabic | Music |
| Lebanese Arabic | Movies |
| Jordanian Arabic | Entertainment television and video |
| Moroccan Arabic | Radio, podcasts and other audio |
| Tunisian Arabic | Books |
| Mauritanian Arabic |
WordReference Arabic Resources page - includes many useful links
Free FSI courses - for standard Arabic, Levantine and Saudi dialects, and comparative studies of different dialects
NMELRC Arabic Learner's Handbook (PDF, 141 KB) - general information and tips on the learning process
V-Arabic - Virtual Arabic blog with digitized language realia resources for Arabic learners & teachers
Arabic Corpus - a searchable Arabic corpus; great for seeing the contexts in which words are commonly used
Yamli - type and do searches in transliterated Arabic, and the site will "translate" back into Arabic script
MEMRI TV - news video clips with English translations
The Arabic Student blog - contains Arabic videos with transcripts and vocabulary
Learn Arabic Language website - a great resource with lots of Arabic textbooks and learning materials for download
GLOSS learning materials
- do a search for Arabic, and you'll find lots of lessons based on
authentic materials, on different topics, with several activities per
lesson.
Weekly training events - again, search for Arabic, and you'll find more lessons with authentic media and activities, on a variety of topics.
CultureTalk - features videos by native Arabic speakers from the Levant, Egypt, North Africa, Western Sahara, and Yemen. Speakers discuss a variety of cultural topics, mostly in Arabic, and transcripts and translations are included.
Mo3jam - a user-generated dictionary of colloquial Arabic slang, similar to Urban Dictionary but much more limited.
Arabic Online
from Western Michigan University - a set of instructional units with
authentic texts and audio/video excerpts with self-graded comprehension
questions. There are three units: Advanced Standard Arabic I, Advanced
Standard Arabic II, and Advanced Egyptian Arabic I.
Arabic Variant Identification Aid - an informative website focusing on the urban Arabic dialects spoken in the United Arab Emirates, Jidda (Hijaz, Saudi Arabia),
Jerusalem (Palestinian Arabic), Baghdad (Iraq), Kuwait, Qatar and Sanca (Yemen)
Foreigncy - Arabic news articles with vocabulary
DLI course in Egyptian Arabic - includes both PDF lessons and audio.
BYU Arabic course materials - Online vocabulary, exercises, and videos for both Egyptian and standard Arabic (beginner level).
CultureTalk Egypt - A great collection of videos, including transcripts and translations, on a variety of cultural topics.
An Arabist's Guide to Egyptian Colloquial
by Daniel Pipes (PDF, 8 MB) - Written for Arabic students with a
background in standard Arabic, this is a good introduction to the
Egyptian dialect.
Egyptian Arabic Dialect Course - a series of 15 lessons using songs to teach vocabulary and grammar.
Lisaan Masry - has a dictionary and a grammar introduction.
TalkEgypt - a collection of Arabic movies, TV, and music videos that have subtitles.
An Introduction to Egyptian Arabic by Ernest T. Abdel-Massih
A Comprehensive Study of Egyptian Arabic, Vol. 1: Conversations, Cultural Texts, and Sociolinguistic Notes by Ernest T. Abdel-Massih
A Comprehensive Study of Egyptian Arabic, Vol. 2: Proverbs and Metaphoric Expressions by Ernest T. Abdel-Massih
A Comprehensive Study of Egyptian Arabic, Vol. 3: A Reference Grammar of Egyptian Arabic by Ernest T. Abdel-Massih
A Comprehensive Study of Egyptian Arabic, Vol. 4: Arabic-English and English-Arabic Lexicon by Ernest T. Abdel-Massih
Egyptian Arabic Primer
by W.A. Betts, available to browse or as a free PDF download from
Google Books. Note that it was published in 1902, so some of the
content (vocabulary like "wabuur/babuur" for train; "Hakiim" for doctor;
"mara" for woman; and so on) is outdated, but it's interesting as a
historical document.
An Arabic-English Vocabulary of the Colloquial Arabic of Egypt
by Socrates Spiro, from Google Books. This book is old too (pub.
1895), but is nonetheless also interesting as a historical document.
CultureTalk Arab Levant
- video clips of interviews and discussions with Lebanese,
Palestinians, Syrians, and Jordanians. Most of the clips are in
colloquial Arabic, some are in English. Translations are given for all
non-English video clips.
Colloquial Levantine audio and video collection - audio, video, and sample syllabi for learning everyday Arabic as spoken by Jordanians, Lebanese, Palestinians, and Syrians.
Aswaat Arabiyya - an excellent archive of videos, sorted by level of difficulty. You can even slow down the video speed.
Arabic phone conversations
- an excellent archive of phone conversations in Egyptian, Levantine,
and Iraqi Arabic. You can sort by dialect, topic, and difficulty level.
Arabic Language and Iraqi Dialect Through Dialogue - a nice collection of dialogues, 48 in standard Arabic (beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels), and 55 in Iraqi Arabic.
Arabic Webcasts -
the news in simplified Arabic, including accompanying exercises. The
site hasn't been updated in a long time, but there's still a good
archive of material.
BBC Arabic - includes streaming video and radio news
- Al Arab - a great archive of streaming movies and TV shows
- Arab Cima - another archive of streaming movies and TV shows, including dubbed American movies.
In general, fantasy and historical dramas are dubbed into standard
Arabic, and contemporary-set comedies and dramas are dubbed into either
Levantine or Egyptian Arabic. There are also some dubbed TV shows.
- Foraten.net
- Sotwesoora.tv
- Al Mumiyaa' (The Mummy/The Night of Counting the Years) - a famous 1969 film with dialogue entirely in fuSHa. Subtitled version here.
- YouTube user omar1980TV
- many full movies, mostly old ones, starring such actors as Soad
Hosni, Ismail Yassin, Farid al Atrache, Fatin Hamama, Abdel Halim Hafez,
and others.
- YouTube user Hind0Rostom - a large collection of full movies starring Hind Rostom.
- Rotana Cinema - Arabic movies online
- MBC - streaming video of full episodes of many shows. Not available in the US.
- Sonara - Scroll down to choose from TV series, movies, and TV programs
- Ikbis - originally designed as an Arabic version of YouTube; you can now browse their channels to watch cooking shows, animation, and other videos.
- MTV Lebanon
- Shankaboot - a Lebanese web series
- Archive of episodes from ساعة لقلبك - a famous Egyptian comedy radio show from the '50s and '60s.
- France24 - Monte Carlo Doualiya - Click on the link at the bottom reading البث المباشر to listen to their radio stream.
- BBC Xtra podcast
- the BBC's flagship Arabic podcast, covering social and human interest
issues. Updated daily with approximately half hour long podcasts.
- Al-Kitaab Podcasts
- ArabicPod - over 100
beginner-level Arabic podcasts available for free (with registration);
however, for access to higher-level podcasts, a subscription is
required.
- Arabic e-books in PDF format (password for .rar files is tipsclub)
- Adab (Arabic poetry)
- Rashf - Arabic e-book database (must log in via Twitter or Facebook for download)
- 4shared - If you're looking for a book (or, for that matter, a song), do a search in Arabic on this site.
