ABSTRACT
This chapter covers some grammar points in which students would expect to encounter in their first year of learning Arabic. Examples and exercises are provided throughout, allowing students to reinforce and consolidate their learning. Arabic prepositions comprise a small closed class of words that receive no case. Prepositions can take pronoun suffixes, and can be followed by nouns; however, they are not immediately followed by verbs. In the case of intransitive verbs, in particular, prepositions constitute an important aspect of meaning, grammar, and usage. Thus, when consulting a dictionary, careful attention should be paid to prepositions that are used with verbs. Prepositions provide the following kind of information: temporal and locative, participatory, agency, ownership, relationship, as well as adverbial information. Basic Arabic is an ideal grammar reference and practice resource for both beginners and students with some knowledge of the language. It is suitable for both class use and independent study.
