|
Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
|
 Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:37 pm Post subject: |
 |
|
Once you've convinced them it's an article like 'the,' naturally they assume that it should be connected to its noun just like the 'al.' Then you convince them not to connect and they learn to find the singular nouns... soon enough the only problems are the exceptions and the non-count nouns.
Heaven knows that is enough to keep us busy correcting until the end of time. 
VS |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
kuberkat
Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Posts: 358
Location: Oman
|
| Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 3:11 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| That, SJ is the crunch. It's not really about the "a" at all, but about the parts of speech, which I am repeatedly pained to discover my poor darlings cannot distinguish for the life of them. And I might add that the utterly inappropriate level of the materials we are prescribed to use is not helping. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
007
Joined: 30 Oct 2006
Posts: 2684
Location: UK/Veteran of the Magic Kingdom
|
| Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| Why do the Arabs insist on adding 'Al' to words? Should simply be Omar Khayyam not Omar Al-Khayyam! |
| Quote: |
| There is no indefinite article in Arabic, which explains their difficulty with the concept of 'a or an' in English. |
In Arabic we don't have equivalent for indefinite article such as 'a' and 'an'. For example, in Arabic we write the equivalent of the following as:
An American = 'Al Amriki"
A French = ' Al Firansi'
A book = 'Al Kittaab'
A city = 'Al Madinah'
An Engineer = 'Al Muhandiss'
Etc,
Also, names of people in Arabic, especially in the ME use 'AL' in the beginning of their names, for example, 'Al Khayam', 'Al Rayhan', 'Al Rasheed', 'Al Kubaissi', 'Al Abbas', etc.
Also, the same above names can be used without 'Al' in some of the ME coutries.
In Arabic, a name of an English city we do not use 'Al' :
New York = 'New York'
Paris = 'Baris' (note that 'P' will be pronounced as 'B' for names, in Arabic the letter 'p' does not exist)
Etc,
That's why the Arab students have problem with 'a' and 'an'. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
dmb
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 8397
|
| Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2007 10:32 am Post subject: |
|
|
| So what's Arabic for The Hague? Al Hague? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
This page is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling.
Contact Dave's ESL Cafe
Copyright © 2018 Dave Sperling. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
