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المقهى الصغير في أصيلة

The Little Café in Asilah

A newcomer inherits a tiny family café and plans to leave. A stubborn local recipe and the regulars slowly turn it into home. Start from absolute zero Arabic.

Chapter 1A1

مرحبا يا جدتي

Hello, Grandma

Before you read
No word for is

Arabic often leaves out the word is. هذا مقهى literally says this café, and means this is a café. المقهى صغير says the café small, and means the café is small.

small: صغير and صغيرة

Arabic adjectives change with the gender of the noun. مقهى، باب، and مطبخ are masculine, so small is صغير. طاولة is feminine, so small becomes صغيرة.

ال glued onto its word

ال in front of a word means the, and it is written glued on with no space: قهوة is coffee, القهوة is the coffee. Both are the same word, just with ال added.

و glued onto the next word

و means and, and Arabic glues it onto the front of the next word instead of leaving a space: والباب means and the door, وتخبز means and bakes. Read the glued و quickly, like and joined onto the word after it.

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About this story

The Little Café in Asilah is an A1 Arabic reader.

A newcomer inherits a tiny family café and plans to leave. A stubborn local recipe and the regulars slowly turn it into home. Start from absolute zero Arabic.

This free chapter contains 59 learner-friendly sentences. The complete book has 10 chapters.

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