Which vowel sound was the most difficult for you to pronounce?

all the words in arabic are just like Hindi\urdu

Hi Sufian,

Shukran!

Nora

Team ArabicPod101.com

Hi William,

Thank you for your kind words. On our website we have lessons in Egyptian Arabic, Standard Arabic, and Moroccan Arabic. We try to cater to various learners' needs.

junuun-gunuun: The difference is just like you explained.

Thank you!

Nora

Team ArabicPod101.com

I see some comments below about the presenter's pronunciation of the vowel "i". A reply says she's from Egypt.

She also pronounces the consonant "jeem" as a "g". Specifically, the Arabic word for "madness" - gudoon", that I think in many other areas would be "judoon"

For language instruction, I would hope the standard would be, well, "standard" Arabic.

I should say, I find issues with all of the various Arabic Instructional materials found on the internet. There's one who strongly encourages his students to find additional sources of material outside of his own, b/c different ways of explaining things register with different learners. He is spot-on.

I should also say, when used in conjunction with other sources, I find your videos to be very helpful.

very helpful

Hi Suzanne,

That's a great way to memorize them! Is French your native language?

Nora

Team ArabicPod101.com

The shorter vowel sounds remind me more of French than English, especially the i and u.

Hi Khafash,

That's great! :thumbsup:

Please keep up the good work and in case of any doubts, please let us know.

Cristiane

Team ArabicPod101.com

This was fun. It was sorta easy. \(^•^)/

Hi Fricka,

Really? That's awesome!

Nora

Team ArabicPod101.com

so similar to the german vowels happily

Hi John,

Practice makes perfect!

Nora

Team ArabicPod101.com

Hi Joseph,

The culprit is the difference in dialect. The presenter is from Egypt, and Egyptians have a tendency to pronounce "i"s as "e"s.

Sorry about that!

Nora

Team ArabicPod101.com

The long I . Very difficult for me.

I agree with Cassy. The third short vowel references the "i" sound in "Sit". It sounds nothing like it. :laughing:

Hi Jason,

Yes, you absolutely can!

Nora

Team ArabicPod101.com

it was all hard for me but i am a absolute beginner:disappointed:. i can do this:thumbsup:

Hi Lannie,

Long and short vowels are a matter of getting used to. They will sound distinct and natural with time.

About the differences in pronunciation between the different parts of the US, we are simply trying to relate vowels in Arabic to a sound that most people know about, which is American English. We apologize if you felt they weren't accurate, but they are as close as we can get :).

Nora

Team ArabicPod101.com

Hi,

American pronunciation varies from region to region. It is dialect dependent and as such there is going to be differences in how the words you use for comparison are pronounced. I did not feel comfortable with the comparison of the sounds I was hearing with the English vowel comparisons. That Arabic only has 6 vowel sounds is hard to believe. English has so many vowel sounds:

The vowel names (a, e, i , o, & u) are the same as the long vowel sounds (hare, bee, eye, hold, chew) , but there are also the short sounds of those letters (at, get, it, dog, & but). The most common sound in spoken American is the schwa and we don't even have a letter for it. There are all sorts of other vowel sounds without an identifying letter, like the double oo that can have four different pronunciations (book, good, blood, room). We haven't even started on the diphthongs, triphthongs, etc. The point is that Arabic probably has just as vast an array of vowel sounds, but these 6 are the stand alone ones. It is a good start.

Okay. I am having trouble hearing the difference in the short and long versions of the vowels. Exercises to pick the correct symbol when the sound is heard might be helpful.