Arabic Language
Arabic here is taught for a purpose: to read the Quran and hadith in the original. The course covers grammar (nahw), morphology (sarf) and Quranic vocabulary, with conversational Arabic available alongside. Six to twelve months builds a working foundation.
Translation will always be someone else’s reading of the text. Arabic gives a student direct access to it — and the variety used in the Quran is more learnable than most beginners expect, because its vocabulary is finite and repeats heavily.
Students who want to speak as well as read can take conversational Arabic alongside the classical track; the two support each other.
Course at a glance
- Level
- All levels
- Typical duration
- 6–12 months
- Suitable for
- Ages 10+ and adults
- Format
- One-to-one live video classes
- Class length
- 30, 45 or 60 minutes
- Teachers
- Male or female, your choice
- Fees
- From $35 per student per month
- Free trial
- 3 classes, no card details
What you will be able to do
- Arabic grammar (nahw) and morphology (sarf)
- Core Quranic vocabulary
- Read and understand simple Arabic texts
- Everyday conversational Arabic
Who this course is for
- Students aged about ten and up who want to understand the Quran without translation
- Adults studying tafseer who keep hitting the limits of an English rendering
- Hifz students who want to know what they are memorising
- Anyone preparing for formal Islamic study, where Arabic is assumed
What you need before starting
- Ability to read the Arabic script. Students who cannot yet read should take Noorani Qaida first — it is a few months’ work and makes everything after it faster.
What the course covers
Stages run in order, each one assuming the last is secure. Timings assume two to three classes a week and are adjusted to the individual student.
- 1
Script, sounds and basic sentences
4–6 weeks
Reading with understanding rather than only pronunciation; nouns, simple verbal sentences and the pronoun system.
- 2
Nahw — grammar
3–5 months
Case endings and what they tell you, the nominal and verbal sentence, prepositions, and the structures that carry most Quranic meaning.
- 3
Sarf — morphology
2–4 months
Verb forms and patterns: how one root generates a family of related words, which is what turns a small vocabulary into a large one.
- 4
Quranic vocabulary in context
ongoing
The words that recur most across the Quran, learned from verses rather than lists, alongside the hadith vocabulary that overlaps with them.
- 5
Conversational Arabic (optional)
parallel track
Everyday spoken Arabic for students who want to use the language as well as read it — greetings, questions, describing and narrating.
What a class looks like
- A short grammar point, then immediate application to a Quranic verse containing it.
- Reading practice where the student parses a sentence aloud — identifying subject, verb and case — rather than translating word for word.
- Vocabulary is revised from earlier verses so it accumulates instead of being forgotten.
How progress is measured
- The measure is an unseen verse: can the student break it down and explain its structure and meaning without help?
- Periodic review of grammar covered, applied to new passages rather than to rehearsed examples.
Arabic Language — common questions
- How long does it take to understand Quranic Arabic?
- Six to twelve months of consistent classes builds a working foundation — enough to follow the structure of a verse and recognise most of its vocabulary. Fluency in reading classical texts takes considerably longer.
- Do you teach modern standard or classical Arabic?
- Classical Arabic is the focus, since the goal is the Quran and hadith. Conversational modern standard Arabic is available as a parallel track for students who want to speak the language too.
- My child is learning Arabic at school. Can you follow their syllabus?
- Usually yes. Send us the syllabus or textbook and the teacher will work with it, so the child is not learning two conflicting approaches at once.
Try Arabic Language free
3 one-to-one classes with a teacher matched to this course, in your own time zone. No card details, no obligation.
Prefer to chat? WhatsApp +44 7923 122356Free trial registration
Select Arabic Language in the course list and we will match a specialist teacher.
What usually comes next
Further reading
- Noorani Qaida explained: what it covers and how long it takesEvery Quran teacher starts here, and almost no one explains why. A section-by-section look at what the Qaida does and how long it should take.
- Starting the Quran as an adult beginnerYou are not too old, and you are not the only one. What the first six months actually look like when you start from the alphabet as an adult.