Composition and Letter Writing in Arabic
Domain 5 - Composition and Letter Writing tests your ability to produce connected fuṣḥā Arabic on a familiar topic and to format a letter correctly.
Paragraph recipe
- Topic sentence: أُرِيدُ أَنْ أَتَحَدَّثَ عَنْ مَدْرَسَتِي ('I want to talk about my school').
- Three to five supporting sentences joined by وَ، ثُمَّ، لَكِنَّ، لِذَلِكَ، كَذَلِكَ.
- Closing sentence that returns to the topic.
Letter layout
- Optional place and date: الْمَكَانُ ... التَّارِيخُ ...
- Salutation: إِلَى صَدِيقِي الْعَزِيزِ or عَزِيزِي ...
- Greeting: تَحِيَّةً طَيِّبَةً وَبَعْدُ.
- Body, one idea per short paragraph.
- Closing: مَعَ أَطْيَبِ التَّحِيَّاتِ، then your name.
Worked example
Opening of a letter to a friend about a school trip: عَزِيزِي سَعِيدُ، تَحِيَّةً طَيِّبَةً وَبَعْدُ، أَكْتُبُ إِلَيْكَ لِأُخْبِرَكَ عَنْ رِحْلَةٍ مَدْرَسِيَّةٍ جَمِيلَةٍ. Reasoning: عَزِيزِي is a vocative with the yāʾ dropped; تَحِيَّةً is accusative; لِأُخْبِرَكَ uses the lām of purpose with a subjunctive verb, and the attached كَ is the object 'you'.
Traps
- Mixing dialect (عَايِز، مِش) into a fuṣḥā letter.
- Using the wrong preposition: أَخْبَرْتُهُ بِـ ('informed him of'), not أَخْبَرْتُهُ عَنْ.
- Breaking gender agreement between a noun and its adjective.
- Forgetting the salutation or signature, which are marked.