حرف الألف

This chapter presents a collection of alphabetically listed modern standard Arabic idioms that start with the first letter of the Arabic alphabet (حرف الألف). The idioms are diacritically marked to show their correct pronunciations, according to the most reliable Arabic literature sources. The meanings of each idiom are given in English, then model sentences are presented, together with their English translations. These examples show the idiom’s typical contextual use and elucidate the grammatical peculiarities, the morphological modifications, and the cultural aspects of the idiom. The model examples are also diacritically marked to display grammatical and syntactic features, to demonstrate accurate pronunciation of the words, and to make it easier for the learner to fully comprehend the modifications that occur to the Arabic grammatical modes.