Arabic vocabulary: how to learn & retain new words?

[muhammadnur]

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on how to learn and retain new vocabulary?

[Yahya]

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on how to learn and retain new vocabulary?

USE the words.

The more you use them, the better you will remember them. If you do not have a person to converse with in Arabic, then read. Read a lot.

There are a lot of books that are designed for Arabic Beginners, Intermediates, etc. that have short stories and glossaries in the back. If you read a lot, you will encounter the same words again and again, and eventually you will remember them.



Or you could just make flash cards and repeat them a few hundred times. But I usually forget the words when I use flash cards. Besides, reading not only provides context for the words, it helps you internalize native ways of using those words.

I recommend doing as much reading/listening and writing/speaking as possible.

[muhammadnur]

USE the words.

The more you use them, the better you will remember them. If you do not have a person to converse with in Arabic, then read. Read a lot.

There are a lot of books that are designed for Arabic Beginners, Intermediates, etc. that have short stories and glossaries in the back. If you read a lot, you will encounter the same words again and again, and eventually you will remember them.



Or you could just make flash cards and repeat them a few hundred times. But I usually forget the words when I use flash cards. Besides, reading not only provides context for the words, it helps you internalize native ways of using those words.

I recommend doing as much reading/listening and writing/speaking as possible.

I have mixed success with flash cards. Could you recommend some of the books designed for the various levels? That I believe will be more beneficial for me. Because I don't speak much but I enjoy reading.

[Husain]

I have mixed success with flash cards. Could you recommend some of the books designed for the various levels? That I believe will be more beneficial for me. Because I don't speak much but I enjoy reading.

I would also advise reading and reading and reading.
I wasted too much of my time writing down words and trying to memorize them.

Here are a few books you could use:

قصص النبيين
القراءة الراشدة
القراءة الرشيدة
صور من حياة الصحابة
صور من حياة التابعين
صور من حياة الصحابيات
المختارات للشيخ أبي الحسن الندوي
وحي القلم للشيخ الرافعي

[SeekerOfKnowledge]

Some more books are:

القراءة الواضحة
القراءة العربية
منثورات
نفحة العرب
القصص العربية - لكامل كلانى
القصص الادبية

[Yahya]

I found it very frustrating if I had to regularly look up more than 3 or 4 words per sentence. So, I would recommend that you either choose a book that won't involve so many unknown words, or that you choose a book that has a in-book glossary (or better yet, a glossary on the bottom of the pages). That way you won't waste so much time looking up words that you lose the meaning of the sentence.


That said, I didn't have any religious books when I was learning Arabic, so if the recommendations above are on your level, then go with those.

I used:
Beginner:
Various prepared lessons that were included in my textbooks

Intermediate:
An Arabic Reader For Beginners (by George Koury)
I also continued to use the lessons that were in my textbooks

Advanced:
Textbooks
Teacher prepared materials
Various works of Arabic literature, especially short stories by-
at-Tayyib SaaliH
Yahya Haqqi (he is sometimes hard to understand)
Yusuf Idrees (he mixes Egyptian dialect into his stories)
Zakariya Taamir

[XxHijaabixX]

some books that im learning from
lisaanul quran (urdu) - theres an english version to that aswell
i used to use Durusul lugatul arrabiya (that's excellent..!) (english)
Ilmus sarf (urdu) not too sure if there is an english version, But lisaan-ul-quran part 2 teaches the same thing..
arabi ka muallim (urdu) not too sure if there is an english version

i preferred lisaan-ul-quran, lessons were quite simple to understand and they've got excersizes on the new lessons learnt..so you get to practice!
Good luck insha'allah!

dua me yaad.

[muhammadnur]

I found it very frustrating if I had to regularly look up more than 3 or 4 words per sentence. So, I would recommend that you either choose a book that won't involve so many unknown words, or that you choose a book that has a in-book glossary (or better yet, a glossary on the bottom of the pages). That way you won't waste so much time looking up words that you lose the meaning of the sentence.


That said, I didn't have any religious books when I was learning Arabic, so if the recommendations above are on your level, then go with those.

I used:
Beginner:
Various prepared lessons that were included in my textbooks

Intermediate:
An Arabic Reader For Beginners (by George Koury)
I also continued to use the lessons that were in my textbooks

Advanced:
Textbooks
Teacher prepared materials
Various works of Arabic literature, especially short stories by-
at-Tayyib SaaliH
Yahya Haqqi (he is sometimes hard to understand)
Yusuf Idrees (he mixes Egyptian dialect into his stories)
Zakariya Taamir

Which textbooks did you use?

[mustajab]

I would also advise reading and reading and reading.
I wasted too much of my time writing down words and trying to memorize them.

Here are a few books you could use:

قصص النبيين
القراءة الراشدة
القراءة الرشيدة
صور من حياة الصحابة
صور من حياة التابعين
صور من حياة الصحابيات
المختارات للشيخ أبي الحسن الندوي
وحي القلم للشيخ الرافعي

Some more books are:

القراءة الواضحة
القراءة العربية
منثورات
نفحة العرب
القصص العربية - لكامل كلانى
القصص الادبيي

Are any of these books on the internet?

And, where can I buy them?

[tariq3]

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on how to learn and retain new vocabulary?

Well you could apply the Mauritanian Memorization Technique in some variation. It's tedious but the few times that I have used it I found it effective. It's just raw memorization. Because I'm usually on the run and have alot distractions (family) around I have to do what I can.

This is what I recall...rehashed. You can find the article on memorization techniques on google.

Monday:

Write whatever you intend to memorize on a (off-white/brownish) piece of paper (I used whatever I had). Tape it to a wall at eye-level (I carry pieces of paper around).

Sit in a quiet setting read it ALOUD (some say the louder the better) until you no longer have to look at it.

From here repeat (ALOUD) what you intend to memorize 300X. (I usually do mine 100X using dhikr beads to keep count. I also do this while driving or in idle time at work and elsewhere. Might try after salah in the masjid if you can spare 5-10 minutes)

Tuesday:

Repeat Mondays lesson 150x (again due to time you migh vary or you might do more to compensate for doing less on Monday)

Begin new lesson

Wednesday:

Repeat Mondays lesson 75X

Repeat Tuesdays lesson 150X

Begin new lesson


When all else fails drop 5k and attend the Zaytuna Arabic Intensive since Shaykh Hamza will be discussing this very topic.

Hope this help Akhi...don't forget the importance of diet in memorization. Greasy fried food, alot of dairy, white sugar, soda etc have an effect on the brains ability to retain information. You might try Cod Liver Oil and oher Omega12 rich oils/foods. Sweetsunnah offers Flaxseed Oil and Black Seed Oil it cost a bit but has overall health benefits. The important thing is that the brain has the ability and once you begin memorization you strengthen your capabilities and gain strength to memorize more, Insha Allah. Istighfar and dua as always and the brother(s) over at attalib.blogspot.com posted an articles about dua and dhikr related to hifz. You will have to look through their archives.