A complete beginning language course for Modern Standard Arabic!

This is an ideal introductory textbook--quickly teaching you everything you need to get started learning this beautiful and popular language. Spoken by over 400 million people, Arabic is the world's 5th most spoken language.

Each of the 20 lessons in this book includes:

• A real-life, practical dialogue that increases your proficiency and ability to communicate, and online audio recordings.
• The free online audio recordings by native speakers help you learn how to accurately pronounce all the Arabic words and sentences provided
• A list of common Arabic words and phrases along with sentence patterns and grammar notes
• Extensive drills and exercises to reinforce the lessons and help you progress
• Interesting information on culture, geography, customs, pastimes and everyday life
• "Reflections" that allow you to record what you have learned, helping you track your progress

Arabic for Beginners teaches you how to read and write the Arabic script, and comes with a set of free downloadable flash cards to help you memorize the alphabet and basic vocabulary. A glossary at the back allows you to look up the equivalents for common Arabic and English words.

With the book, students learn Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which is understood by all native Arabic speakers. Though spoken dialects vary widely by region, MSA is taught at schools throughout all Arab countries and is the prominent language of TV, print media, advertisements, signs and more.

Whether you are working in an Arabic-speaking country or wish to learn more about the richness of this ancient language, Arabic for Beginners is the perfect place to start!

Sarah Risha is Senior Lecturer of Arabic at Arizona State University. She has over 20 years experience teaching and developing coursework in the Maricopa Community College system, the Cisco Learning Institute and the Commission on International and Trans-Regional Accreditation. She is the author of Education and Curricular Perspectives in the Qur'an (2014), and Arabic Folktales for Langauge Learners (Tuttle, 2025).