Tips For Learning Arabic Vocabulary Fast

Is Learning Arabic Difficult?

Some people think this language sounds like gibberish simply due to the fact that it doesn’t sound like an Indo-European language. That makes them skeptical that learning Arabic quickly is possible. But linguistic researchers have debunked this myth! Their research has found that the process of learning Arabic is no different from any other language.

Memorizing vocabulary was shown to be the most important step in learning Arabic. And with highly efficient learning methods founded in scientific research, learning Arabic quickly is much easier than you think! Let’s review this beautiful language and then dive into how to apply these effective learning methods to learn Arabic in record time.

A Look at the Arabic Language

The Arabic language is a Semitic language that’s thousands of years old. Around 422 million people speak it globally, with 24 countries labeling it as their official language. Previously, Arabic experienced massive growth during the spread of Islam. In modern times, the language has seen a new stage of growth due to migration of Arabic speakers into the Western world.

Arabic fits into two umbrella categories: Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Dialectal Arabic, which can vary widely from region to region. Modern Standard Arabic is the national and official language across the Arabic-speaking world and is the Arabic used in literature, the media, administrative correspondence, etc. For this reason, it can typically be understood in any Arab-speaking country.

On the other hand, Dialectal Arabic is what is typically used in daily conversation. All dialects of MSA as a base, but are made of words and sounds that can vary and were influenced by other languages over time. This makes most dialects of Arabic a sort of patchwork of words. That being said, MSA and Dialectal Arabic co-exist in all Arabic-speaking countries.

How to Memorize Arabic Vocabulary Fast

Use the Spaced Repetition System (SRS)

In order to memorize 10-15 Arabic words a day, the Spaced Repetition System will be your best friend. This system allows learners to memorize words, concepts, and information for the long term by adjusting how frequently words need to be reviewed so the stay in your memory.

So to ensure that you review words before forgetting and see them only as often as you need, add this to your learning plans. If you’d like to have this implemented without have to worry about setup, check out how MosaLingua implements the Spaced Repetition System.

Classify Words by Category

When trying to learn words, sometimes just having lists of unrelated words that sound very different from your native language makes it very hard to actually make associations between words. One way around this is learning words based on their category. This will propel your fluency forward for the topics you’ve selected and make associations to other Arabic words easier.

Arabic is often called a “mathematical” language, meaning that the basic structure of words has lots of patterns built into it in order to clarify if something related to a topic is a place, a person, or the output of some verb. That’s why starting with root words or with words in a related topic is a great way to start learning Arabic.

Use Arabic Frequency Lists

All languages have “basic words” that comprise most of the vocabulary you’ll use in any conversation. To get a head start on learning Arabic while also creating a good base, we recommend utilizing frequency lists to begin memorizing words. With a base of just 15 words a day, you can learn 500 core words in only one month!

Memorizing frequency lists is simply applying the Pareto Principle which states that 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. For languages, this principle means that 20% of words are used 80% of the time! That takes a huge pressure off of learning.

There are many different frequency lists ordered by topic or context to get started on basic sentences, meeting new people, or just asking directions. Pair this with the Spaced Repetition System and you’ll be able to memorize Arabic in no time.

Memorize Phrases

Memorizing Arabic frequency lists is a very important and necessary step to begin your learning, but it won’t necessarily help in conversations. To communicate properly in any language, you not only need to know the words but how those words come together. An easy way to passively start learning sentence structure is by memorizing phrases.

By learning Arabic phrases early on, you’ll be bypassing a major problem many language learners encounter which is not mastering grammar or conjugation rules. You don’t have to know all the ins and outs of grammar when starting out, especially for Arabic. By learning Arabic phrases early on, your ear will get used to how sentences sound without needing to worry about grammar books.

Just like with frequency lists, there are different lists of phrases that you can find by category online as well. As an example, check out MosaLingua’s Free Arabic Travel Phrasebook to use for any upcoming travel you might have planned.

Go A Step Further

Once you have your basic vocabulary down, there are several other factors you can turn to in order to build up your base in Arabic. Pronunciation makes up a fairly large part of spoken communication, and Arabic is stacked with letters that can feel almost impossible to announce. So to take your speaking one step farther, add these things to your learning!

Pronouncing the Alphabet

The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters (as opposed to English’s 26), but recognizing the letters is only half of the battle. To get the most out of your learning, take some time to listen to the pronunciation of each letter. Not all of the Arabic letters have an equivalent in English, so listen closely and try your best to make the same sound for each letter.

The most efficient way to perfect your pronunciation is by:

1. Listening to the Sounds

Carefully listen to the different letters until you can tell them apart. Some letters sound similar to an English-speaking ear, like ت Taa’ ط. There are a ton of Arabic alphabet videos online, and even more where each letter is pronounced individually for you to listen to! You can even find videos comparing letters that might be hard to tell apart.

2. Carefully Pronounce Every Arabic Letter

Along with listening to the sounds for each letter, you need to try and make the same sounds with your own mouth! A great way to do that is by shadowing, which is listening to the sound, pausing the audio, and then trying to copy exactly. When I was a kid, we would use a curved peace of pipe to hear ourselves more loudly while we were learning to read, but today you could just record yourself on your phone.

Since some of the Arabic sounds don’t exist in English, if you’re looking for additional guidance, you can find phonetic Arabic alphabet videos that show you how to shape your tongue and mouth to create the letter properly.

You could also break the letters into different groups, like some of these categories below:

• Lightly pronounced letters (such as ت [ta], س  [si], ك   [ka] ,  ذ [dha]) vs strongly pronounced letters (such as ص [saad], ط  [tha] and ق  [qa]).
• Connecting letters (most letters in the alphabet) vs non-connecting letters (like أ [alif], د  [da], ذ [dha], ر  [raa] (rolled r), ز [zayn] and و [waw]).
• “Moon letters” vs “sun letters,” which affect how the article “the” (ال) is pronounced (whether that be with the L or without, respectively).

Getting your pronunciation down at any point in the learning process is a surefire way to ensure your language skills are communicated when you’re out in the real world.

A Few More Tips for Learning Arabic

Before you go, here are a few more tips to optimizing your learning:

• Don’t just learn Arabic rules: Contextualize your learning. Arabic is mathematical but has lots of rules that can make starting feel overwhelming. Focus on words and phrases, and the rules will come to you passively.
• Do the pronunciation practice: We cannot emphasize the importance of this practice enough! Later down the line, you’ll thank your past self.
• Keep it interesting: Learning should be fun so make sure to include activities, games, or shows that you already enjoy.

So get out there and know that you’ll be learning Arabic even faster than you thought!