التَّحِيَّةُ
The Salutations
The complete material of book lesson 1 in one place: the dialogue, the vocabulary, the expressions, the grammar (who you are talking to; the detached pronouns; pronoun + noun sentences), and everything the teacher's test adds.
- The dialogue
- Vocabulary
- Expressions
- Grammar I — “you”: ـكَ / ـكِ
- Grammar II — the detached pronouns
- Grammar III — pronoun + noun sentences
- What the teacher tests
- Role-play script
Why this lesson matters for your goal
Every Muslim greeting, every يَا أَخِي, every الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ in the Hadith literature uses exactly the endings you learn here. The pronouns of section 5 are the same twelve you will meet in every verse and every hadith — the Quran addresses أَنْتُمْ, هُمْ, هُنَّ constantly. Lesson 1 is small, but nothing in it is throw-away.
1 · The dialogue (p. 3)
Read each line aloud, in full, with every ḥaraka, before you click it to see the meaning. Reading Arabic first is the habit the teacher's checklist asks for (“can read fluently short paragraphs with harakat”).
2 · Vocabulary المُفْرَدُ / الجَمْعُ (p. 4)
The book lists nouns with their plural (الجَمْعُ الأَوَّلُ; a second plural column stays empty in this lesson). Learn singular and plural together — the plural of an Arabic noun is not predictable from the singular.
| Meaning | الجَمْعُ | المُفْرَدُ |
|---|---|---|
| salutation, greeting | تَحِيَّاتٌ | تَحِيَّةٌ |
| lesson | دُرُوسٌ | دَرْسٌ |
| first 1 | أَوَّلُونَ | أَوَّلٌ |
| how | — | كَيْفَ |
| brother | إِخْوَةٌ | أَخٌ |
| sister | أَخَوَاتٌ | أُخْتٌ |
| in | — | فِي |
| mosque 2 | مَسَاجِدُ | مَسْجِدٌ |
| house | بُيُوتٌ | بَيْتٌ |
| The twelve pronouns (أَنَا، أَنْتَ، …) also stand in this table; they are treated in section 5. | ||
1 Printed with tanwīn in the book (أَوَّلٌ); the title of the lesson uses the definite form الدَّرْسُ الأَوَّلُ, “the first lesson”. Your Anki card uses the diptote form أَوَّلُ — ask your teacher which he wants. 2 مَسَاجِدُ is a diptote: ḍamma, no tanwīn.
3 · Expressions التَّعْبِيرُ (p. 8)
Red = said to a male, blue = said to a female. The last two rows in the first block come from the teacher's test dialogue (Student Test p. 3), where one person greets one person.
| Meaning | To whom | التَّعْبِيرُ |
|---|---|---|
| Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy | anyone / a group | السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ |
| And upon you be peace, Allah's mercy and His blessings | anyone / a group | وَعَلَيْكُمُ السَّلَامُ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ |
| Peace be upon you (test, one person) | m / f | السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكَ / عَلَيْكِ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ |
| And upon you be peace (test, one person) | m / f | وَعَلَيْكَ / وَعَلَيْكِ السَّلَامُ |
| How are you? | m | كَيْفَ حَالُكَ؟ |
| How are you? | f | كَيْفَ حَالُكِ؟ |
| Oh, my brother! | m | يَا أَخِي |
| Oh, my sister! | f | يَا أُخْتِي |
| All praise be to Allah, I am fine | — | الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، أَنَا بِخَيْرٍ |
| Thank you, I am fine as well | — | شُكْرًا، أَنَا بِخَيْرٍ أَيْضًا |
| Welcome to you | m | مَرْحَبًا بِكَ |
| Welcome to you | f | مَرْحَبًا بِكِ |
| What is your name? | m | مَا اسْمُكَ؟ |
| What is your name? | f | مَا اسْمُكِ؟ |
| My name is … | — | اِسْمِي … |
| Where are you from? | m | مِنْ أَيْنَ أَنْتَ؟ |
| Until next time | — | إِلَى اللِّقَاءِ |
4 · Grammar I — “you”: ـكَ / ـكِ
Compare Ali's lines with Aisha's lines in the dialogue. Three words differ, and they differ in the same way. Ali speaks to a man, Aisha to a woman:
| Meaning | Aisha → Khadija to a female | Ali → Muhammad to a male |
|---|---|---|
| How are you? | كَيْفَ حَالُكِ؟ | كَيْفَ حَالُكَ؟ |
| O my brother / sister | يَا أُخْتِي | يَا أَخِي |
| Welcome to you | مَرْحَبًا بِكِ | مَرْحَبًا بِكَ |
The rule
The ending ـك means you / your. Its vowel is chosen by the listener, never by the speaker:
ـكَ fatḥa → to a male ـكِ kasra → to a female
The book's expression table gives three pairs, the test dialogue adds a fourth:
حَالُكَ / حَالُكِ · بِكَ / بِكِ · اسْمُكَ / اسْمُكِ · عَلَيْكَ / عَلَيْكِ
A Turkish speaker already has the reflex of gluing “your” onto the noun: hal-in, ad-ın. Arabic does the same — حَالُ‑كَ, اسْمُ‑كَ — but adds the listener's gender to the suffix, which Turkish never does. In the test dialogue (section 7) a woman says حَالُكَ to a man and he says حَالُكِ back — the speaker's own gender plays no role.
5 · Grammar II — the detached pronouns الضَّمَائِرُ المُنْفَصِلَةُ (p. 9)
Arabic has twelve independent pronouns where Turkish has six (ben, sen, o, biz, siz, onlar) and English seven. The extra ones come from two distinctions Turkish does not make:
- Gender — “you” and “they” have a male and a female form (also “he / she”, which Turkish merges into o).
- Dual — a separate form for exactly two people (“you two”, “they two”), the same for men and women.
The examples are the book's own: each pronoun with أَخٌ / أُخْتٌ and their plurals.
| Meaning | Turkish | Example | Pronoun |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | ben | أَنَا أَخٌ / أُخْتٌ | أَنَا |
| we | biz | نَحْنُ إِخْوَةٌ / أَخَوَاتٌ | نَحْنُ |
| you one male | sen | أَنْتَ أَخٌ | أَنْتَ |
| you one female | sen | أَنْتِ أُخْتٌ | أَنْتِ |
| you two | siz (ikiniz) | أَنْتُمَا أَخَوَانِ / أُخْتَانِ | أَنْتُمَا |
| you group of males | siz | أَنْتُمْ إِخْوَةٌ | أَنْتُمْ |
| you group of females | siz | أَنْتُنَّ أَخَوَاتٌ | أَنْتُنَّ |
| he | o | هُوَ أَخٌ | هُوَ |
| she | o | هِيَ أُخْتٌ | هِيَ |
| they two | onlar (ikisi) | هُمَا أَخَوَانِ / أُخْتَانِ | هُمَا |
| they group of males | onlar | هُمْ إِخْوَةٌ | هُمْ |
| they group of females | onlar | هُنَّ أَخَوَاتٌ | هُنَّ |
6 · Grammar III — pronoun + noun sentences
The last item on the teacher's checklist: “forms nominative sentences with pronouns + nouns (أَنَا مُسْلِمٌ، هُوَ أَخِي)”. The pattern is the simplest sentence Arabic has — there is no word for “am / is / are”. You put the pronoun, then the noun, and the sentence is complete:
أَنَا أَخٌ = I [am] a brother · هِيَ أُخْتِي = she [is] my sister
Turkish comes close: ben kardeşim, o kız kardeşim — the “to be” is just a suffix or nothing at all. What you must do in Arabic, and Turkish does not force you to, is make the noun agree with the pronoun in gender and number. The noun after هِيَ must be feminine, after هُمْ masculine plural, and so on.
The word the test uses: مُسْلِمٌ
The book's own examples use brother / sister. The teacher's test (Student Test pp. 4–8) drills the same pattern with Muslim, which shows the agreement endings very cleanly — one word, five shapes:
| Used with | Meaning | Form |
|---|---|---|
| أَنَا · أَنْتَ · هُوَ (one male) | a Muslim (m.) | مُسْلِمٌ |
| أَنَا · أَنْتِ · هِيَ (one female) | a Muslim (f.) | مُسْلِمَةٌ |
| أَنْتُمَا · هُمَا (two) | two Muslims | مُسْلِمَانِ |
| نَحْنُ · أَنْتُمْ · هُمْ (group, males) | Muslims (m.) | مُسْلِمُونَ |
| نَحْنُ · أَنْتُنَّ · هُنَّ (group, females) | Muslims (f.) | مُسْلِمَاتٌ |
Feminine: add ـةٌ. Dual: add ـَانِ (as in أَخَوَانِ). Male group: add ـُونَ. Female group: add ـَاتٌ (as in أَخَوَاتٌ, تَحِيَّاتٌ). Note that أَنَا and نَحْنُ have no gender of their own — the noun after them shows whether the speaker(s) are male or female.
All twelve, as the test asks them (Student Test p. 4)
| English | Arabic | English | Arabic |
|---|---|---|---|
| I am a Muslim (m.) | أَنَا مُسْلِمٌ | he is a Muslim | هُوَ مُسْلِمٌ |
| I am a Muslim (f.) | أَنَا مُسْلِمَةٌ | she is a Muslim | هِيَ مُسْلِمَةٌ |
| you (m.) are a Muslim | أَنْتَ مُسْلِمٌ | they two are Muslims | هُمَا مُسْلِمَانِ |
| you (f.) are a Muslim | أَنْتِ مُسْلِمَةٌ | they (m.) are Muslims | هُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ |
| you two are Muslims | أَنْتُمَا مُسْلِمَانِ | they (f.) are Muslims | هُنَّ مُسْلِمَاتٌ |
| you (m. pl.) are Muslims | أَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ | we are Muslims (m.) | نَحْنُ مُسْلِمُونَ |
| you (f. pl.) are Muslims | أَنْتُنَّ مُسْلِمَاتٌ | we are Muslims (f.) | نَحْنُ مُسْلِمَاتٌ |
Joining two statements with وَ (Student Test pp. 6–7)
وَ = “and”. It is written attached to the next word and never stands alone:
| English | Arabic |
|---|---|
| I am Ahmad, and I am a Muslim | أَنَا أَحْمَدُ وَأَنَا مُسْلِمٌ |
| I am Aisha, and I am a Muslim | أَنَا عَائِشَةُ وَأَنَا مُسْلِمَةٌ |
| He is my brother | هُوَ أَخِي |
| She is my sister | هِيَ أُخْتِي |
Names such as أَحْمَدُ, عَائِشَةُ, خَدِيجَةُ take ḍamma without tanwīn (they are diptotes, like مَسَاجِدُ); مُحَمَّدٌ and عَلِيٌّ take tanwīn — copy the book's spelling of each name.
7 · What the teacher tests (Student Test pp. 3–10)
7.1 Read and translate (p. 3)
A second dialogue — Muhammad and Aisha. One person speaks to one person, so the greeting itself carries the ـكَ / ـكِ switch. Read it aloud first.
7.2 Translate the pronoun sentences (pp. 4–7)
Twelve sentences Arabic → English, twelve pronouns English → Arabic, then twelve more sentences each way — all drawn from the tables in section 6. The English side of the test writes “You (Male)”, “You (Group of females)”, “They two”, so match the labels used in the pronoun table above.
7.3 Introduce the pictured people (p. 8)
| The test says | You say |
|---|---|
| He is Muhammad. | هُوَ مُحَمَّدٌ. |
| She is Aisha. | هِيَ عَائِشَةُ. |
| They are Muhammad and Aisha. (two people → dual) | هُمَا مُحَمَّدٌ وَعَائِشَةُ. |
| They are Muslims. (a group of men) | هُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ. |
| They (females) are Muslims. | هُنَّ مُسْلِمَاتٌ. |
| We are Muslims. (a mixed group) | نَحْنُ مُسْلِمُونَ. |
7.4 The checklist (p. 10)
- Can read fluently short paragraphs with ḥarakāt → section 1, 7.1
- Good understanding of basic salutations → section 3
- Ability to use pronouns correctly → section 5
- Differentiates between the pronouns used when talking to the different genders → section 4, 5
- Grasps the method of forming nominative sentences with pronouns + nouns (أَنَا مُسْلِمٌ، هُوَ أَخِي) → section 6
8 · Role-play: introduce yourself (p. 9)
The last test page says: “Now role-play with your teacher and introduce yourself!” Prepare it out loud, twice — once as if the teacher were a man, once a woman. Only the coloured endings change:
(teacher: وَعَلَيْكُمُ السَّلَامُ …)
كَيْفَ حَالُكَ؟ / كَيْفَ حَالُكِ؟
الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، أَنَا بِخَيْرٍ، شُكْرًا.
اِسْمِي سَرْدَار، وَأَنَا مُسْلِمٌ. وَمَا اسْمُكَ؟ / وَمَا اسْمُكِ؟
مَرْحَبًا بِكَ / مَرْحَبًا بِكِ.
إِلَى اللِّقَاءِ.
Ask your teacher how to vocalise your own name, and let him stop you at every ḥaraka you swallow — he is the only one who can check your pronunciation.
Primary source
Study Book pp. 3, 4, 8, 9 are the whole lesson (pp. 5–7 are empty tables — no synonyms, verbs or participles yet). Student Test pp. 3–10 is exactly what the teacher will put in front of you.
Next
Lesson 2 — Getting to Know One Another (Study Book pp. 10–16): the first verbs and the possessive endings whose first member, ـنَا, you met in مَسْجِدِنَا.
A separate quiz file for this lesson can be created whenever you ask for it.