Fablingo / Fablingo Arabic / Level pre-A1
Episode 10 · Murájaʿa — all 28 letters
Duration: 5:07
After this lesson you can:
I can read whole voweled words now that I know every letter, and I point and name.
In this episode
Breather. Farid pins a card for every letter along the shop wall — the whole alphabet — and lets Sam walk the row and read it. Nour walks it faster, naturally. But the man who couldn't tell one squiggle from another now reads hādhā kitāb and points at the very thing: a book, named, in Arabic, by him.
Welcome back to the Book Quarter. It's been quite a journey, hasn't it? Twenty-eight shapes, sounds, and dots.
Today, Ustadh Farid has turned his shop into a gauntlet. Pinned along the wall is a card for every single letter of the Arabic alphabet.
Nour is already here, of course. She breezes past the first half of the line, reading the easy ones with her hands on her hips.
بَيْت!
She spots بَيْت, house, our very first word. But Sam is taking his time. He's standing at the tricky section.
قَلْب أَم كَلْب؟
Farid is testing him. The infamous heart versus dog.
قَلْب.
He gets it right. Heart. He lands that deep sound perfectly. He's never making that mistake again.
Farid taps a card pinned right above a beautiful, leather-bound volume on his reading desk.
هٰذا كِتاب. — This is a book. · HAA-dhaa ki-TAAB
هٰذا كِتاب.
هٰذا كِتاب. — This is a book. · HAA-dhaa ki-TAAB
Look at his face! Let's break down the sentence he just read. هٰذا means 'this', and كِتاب means 'book'.
هٰذا كِتاب. — This is a book. · HAA-dhaa ki-TAAB
In Arabic, you don't need a word for 'is' in a simple sentence like this. You just say 'this book', and it means 'this is a book'. Say it with me: هٰذا كِتاب.
هٰذا كِتاب. — This is a book. · HAA-dhaa ki-TAAB
A little slower. Notice that we stretch the 'aa' sound in both words. Try it: هٰذا كِتاب.
هٰذا كِتاب. — This is a book. · HAA-dhaa ki-TAAB
One more time, proudly, like you just read your very first full sentence: هٰذا كِتاب.
هٰذا كِتاب. — This is a book. · HAA-dhaa ki-TAAB
هٰذا كِتاب.
هٰذا كِتاب. — This is a book. · HAA-dhaa ki-TAAB
القَمَر!
القَمَر — the moon · al-QA-mar
Nour is showing off a bit. She's at the very end of the line, and she just read القَمَر, which means 'the moon'.
القَمَر — the moon · al-QA-mar
We have ال, which is the word 'the', glued right onto the front of قَمَر, moon. Say it with me: القَمَر.
القَمَر — the moon · al-QA-mar
Remember that deep, echoing sound from the back of the throat? Really feel it. Try it again: القَمَر.
القَمَر — the moon · al-QA-mar
القَمَر.
القَمَر — the moon · al-QA-mar
Let's pause and celebrate. We have a full sentence: هٰذا كِتاب. This is a book. And we have a beautiful word: القَمَر. The moon.
Just then, the bell above the door jingles. Umm Nadia walks in, carrying a tray of fresh mint tea for the scholars.
مَرْحَبًا!
Sam sees an opportunity. He grabs something off Farid's desk and holds it up like a trophy.
مَرْحَبًا! هٰذا قَلَم. — Hello! This is a pen. · MAR-ḥa-ban! HAA-dhaa QA-lam
مَرْحَبًا! هٰذا قَلَم.
مَرْحَبًا! هٰذا قَلَم. — Hello! This is a pen. · MAR-ḥa-ban! HAA-dhaa QA-lam
He's unstoppable now! He greeted her with مَرْحَبًا, our word for hello. And then he said هٰذا قَلَم.
مَرْحَبًا! هٰذا قَلَم. — Hello! This is a pen. · MAR-ḥa-ban! HAA-dhaa QA-lam
قَلَم means 'pen'. Notice it starts with that same deep sound as the moon. So he's saying, 'Hello! This is a pen.'
مَرْحَبًا! هٰذا قَلَم. — Hello! This is a pen. · MAR-ḥa-ban! HAA-dhaa QA-lam
Let's try his masterpiece. Say it with me: مَرْحَبًا! هٰذا قَلَم.
مَرْحَبًا! هٰذا قَلَم. — Hello! This is a pen. · MAR-ḥa-ban! HAA-dhaa QA-lam
Once more, with feeling. You're holding up a pen to your favorite barista: مَرْحَبًا! هٰذا قَلَم.
مَرْحَبًا! هٰذا قَلَم. — Hello! This is a pen. · MAR-ḥa-ban! HAA-dhaa QA-lam
أَهْلًا بِك. هٰذا شاي.
She played right back! She said 'Welcome. This is tea.' Sam doesn't know the word for tea yet, but he points to the tray, nodding.
هٰذا كِتاب.
Just a few weeks ago, this shop was a museum of locked doors to him. Every page was a secret he couldn't read.
Now, he's standing in front of twenty-eight cards, and the squiggles are gone. They are voices now. The doors are wide open.
What a milestone. Let's review our victorious phrases. First: هٰذا كِتاب. This is a book. Then, the moon: القَمَر. And our proud display: مَرْحَبًا! هٰذا قَلَم. Hello! This is a pen.
Next time, we step out of the shop and start using our new voice in the Quarter. Join us every Tuesday and Friday to see where reading takes Sam next. I'll see you then!
Vocabulary
| Phrase | Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|
| هٰذا كِتاب. | HAA-dhaa ki-TAAB — This is a book. | |
| القَمَر | al-QA-mar — the moon | |
| مَرْحَبًا! هٰذا قَلَم. | MAR-ḥa-ban! HAA-dhaa QA-lam — Hello! This is a pen. |
Grammar in this lesson
No new letters — the milestone that all 28 are known. The learner reads full words (kitāb, qamar, qalam), meets al- ("the") in passing on a moon letter, and hears hādhā X ("this [is] a X") as a whole — the verbless "is" that L1 will build on.