SACE Stage 2 Arabic (beginners) cheat sheet

Use greetings appropriate to context: formal صباح الخير (good morning) / مساء الخير (good evening); informal أهلاً وسهلاً (welcome) / مرحباً (hello).

To ask a yes/no question, place هل before a nominal sentence or أ before a verbal sentence; e.g., هل أنت طالب؟ (Are you a student?) / أتدرس العربية؟ (Do you study Arabic?).

Use question words: مَن (who), ما (what), أين (where), متى (when), لماذا (why), كيف (how), كم (how many). They typically precede the subject.

To maintain conversation, use back-channel expressions: نعم (yes), صحيح (true), حسناً (okay), فهمت (I understood), ممكن توضيح؟ (Can you clarify?).

When replying to an offer, accept with شكراً، نعم من فضلك (thank you, yes please) and decline with لا شكراً (no thank you); use من فضلك (please) when requesting.

Use polite forms: لو سمحت (excuse me) to get attention; آسف/آسفة (sorry) for apology; the response to شكراً is عفواً (you're welcome).

In written interaction (e.g., emails, messages), open with تحية طيبة (greetings) and close with مع تحياتي (with my greetings) or إلى اللقاء (goodbye).

Use the appropriate pronoun of address: أنت (you, masc. sing.), أنتِ (you, fem. sing.), أنتما (you, dual), أنتم (you, masc. pl.), أنتنّ (you, fem. pl.).

To ask about well-being: كيف حالك؟ (masc.) / كيف حالكِ؟ (fem.); typical reply: بخير، شكراً (fine, thanks) or الحمد لله (praise be to God).

Arabic is written right-to-left; the definite article الـ (al-) is attached to the noun and is not a separate word.

Nouns and adjectives agree in gender (masculine/feminine), number (singular/dual/plural), and case (nominative/accusative/genitive).

The feminine marker is usually ة (taa marbuta) on nouns/adjectives, e.g., طالب (male student) → طالبة (female student).

Dual is formed by adding انِ (nominative) or ينِ (accusative/genitive) to the singular; e.g., كتابانِ (two books), كتابينِ (two books, oblique).

Sound masculine plural: ونَ (nominative) / ينَ (accusative/genitive); sound feminine plural: ات (e.g., معلمات teachers).

Broken plural changes the internal pattern; e.g., كتاب (book) → كتب (books); بيت (house) → بيوت (houses).

The idafa construction expresses possession: noun + noun (second in genitive), e.g., كتاب الطالب (the student's book); the first noun takes no definite article or tanwin.

Verb-subject agreement: a verb preceding its subject agrees in gender but remains singular; e.g., ذهب الطلاب (the students went) vs. الطلاب ذهبوا (the students went).

Common text connectors: و (and), ثم (then), لكن (but), لأن (because), لذلك (therefore), في (in), على (on), من (from), إلى (to).

For a formal letter/email: begin with سيدي/سيدتي (Dear Sir/Madam) or حضرة الأستاذ (Dear Professor); end with وتفضلوا بقبول فائق الاحترام (Yours sincerely).

For an informal message to a friend: use greetings like كيفك؟ (How are you?) and closings like سلام (bye) or أشوفك قريب (see you soon).

To narrate past events, use the perfect tense (الماضي): كتب (he wrote), ذهب (he went), كان (he was); add قد (already) for completed action.

To describe present/habitual actions, use the imperfect tense (المضارع): يكتب (he writes), تذهب (she goes); prefix سـ or سوف for future.

Use connectors to sequence ideas: أولاً (first), ثانياً (second), بعد ذلك (after that), أخيراً (finally).

In descriptive texts, place adjectives after the noun and make them agree: بيت كبير (a big house), سيارة جديدة (a new car).

For persuasive writing, use phrases like أعتقد أن (I believe that), من وجهة نظري (in my opinion), يجب أن (must), من المهم (it is important).

When writing instructions, use the imperative: اكتب (write), اقرأ (read), اجلس (sit); for negative commands use لا + imperfect: لا تكتب (don't write).

To report speech, use قال/قالت (he said/she said) + أن (that) + clause; e.g., قال إنه سعيد (he said that he is happy).

Arabic is written from right to left; letters change shape depending on position (initial, medial, final, isolated).

There are 28 letters; short vowels (fatha, kasra, damma) are usually not written in adult texts but are essential for beginners.

The definite article is ال (al-); the ل (l) is assimilated (pronounced as the following letter) before 'sun letters' (e.g., الشمس pronounced ash-shams).

The Arabic root system: most words derive from a three-letter root; e.g., ك-ت-ب (k-t-b) gives كتاب (book), مكتبة (library), كاتب (writer).

Nouns have grammatical gender: masculine (no ending) and feminine (usually ending in ة); some nouns are irregular (e.g., شمس sun is feminine).

Arabic has three cases: nominative (رفع) marked by ـُ / ـونَ, accusative (نصب) marked by ـَ / ـينَ, genitive (جر) marked by ـِ / ـينَ.

Cultural greeting: Muslims say السلام عليكم (peace be upon you), reply وعليكم السلام; add ورحمة الله وبركاته for more formality.

During Ramadan, greet with رمضان كريم (generous Ramadan) and reply الله أكرم (God is most generous); Eid greetings: عيد مبارك (blessed Eid).

Use titles respectfully: أستاذ (Mr./teacher), دكتور (Dr.), حاج/حاجة (pilgrim); for family: أب (father), أم (mother), أخ (brother), أخت (sister).