The Big Fat Book of Egyptian Arabic Verbs

Book excerpt: The Big Fat Book of Egyptian Arabic Verbs contains conjugation tables for 264 of the most common verbs used by Egyptians in their everyday speech. Over 1,400 example sentences are provided to show the verbs in context, all available on MP3, free to download from www.lingualism.com. The tables show over 70 forms of each verb, for all persons, numbers, tenses, negative, imperative, participles, and verbal noun. Each table appears on a left-facing page, while the opposing, right-facing page gives several example sentences demonstrating the verb in various contexts. All of the examples were written by a native speaker from Cairo and then translated into English. Care was given to provide a variety of forms for each verb (different persons, numbers, tenses, negative forms, etc.) in the examples. Following these are notes shedding more light on the verb's meaning and usage. All of the Arabic in the book appears in both Arabic script and its phonemic transcription. The Arabic is written with tashkeel (voweling) so that each word's pronunciation is clear. The phonemic transcription provides an even more accurate representation of the sounds of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, which cannot always be represented by the Arabic script. It can also be helpful for learners who are not yet completely comfortable with Arabic script.