Arabic · Dialect course
A modern standard arabic course online, taught from the alphabet up
Modern Standard Arabic is what the news, the paperwork and the books use. It is nobody's mother tongue, and it is the only variety that works across the whole Arabic-speaking world in writing.
- The written standard everywhere
- Formal use across 22 countries
Who this is for
Is this the right course for you?
People who need Arabic on the page rather than in the street — students, researchers, journalists, and anyone preparing for formal study or professional work in the region.
What you cover
What the lessons cover
- The alphabet and connected letter forms, without transliteration
- The root-and-pattern system that makes vocabulary predictable
- Case endings, and when they are actually pronounced
- Reading unvocalised text at speed
- Formal writing: letters, summaries and structured argument
- Listening to broadcast Arabic from Al Jazeera and the BBC
Modern Standard Arabic, or fusha, is the descendant of Classical Arabic and the shared formal register of the Arab world. It is what you will meet in a newspaper in Rabat and a legal contract in Muscat, which is exactly why it exists — the spoken dialects have diverged far enough that a common written standard does real work.
Why the root system matters more than vocabulary lists
Arabic builds words from three-consonant roots slotted into fixed patterns. Once you know that k-t-b carries the sense of writing, you can recognise kataba (he wrote), kitab (book), maktab (office, a place of writing) and maktaba (library) without meeting them individually. Teaching this early is the difference between memorising several thousand unrelated words and learning a system that generates them.
What we do about case endings
Textbooks teach full case endings from lesson one, and then learners discover that most speakers drop them. We teach you to recognise them in writing, produce them when the register calls for it, and leave them off when it does not — which is what educated native speakers actually do.
Modern Standard Arabic questions, answered properly
Is Modern Standard Arabic spoken anywhere?
Not as anyone's first language. It is used for broadcast news, formal speeches, sermons, academic lectures and almost all writing. Speak it in a Cairo taxi and you will be understood, and you will also sound like a newsreader. That is fine if your goal is reading and formal work, and a problem if your goal is everyday conversation.
Should I start with MSA or a dialect?
Start with MSA if you want to read, study or work with text, because no dialect gives you that. Start with a dialect if you are moving somewhere specific and want to talk to people. Most of our students end up doing both, weighted towards whichever their actual goal needs. Your tutor plans that split in the trial lesson.
How long before I can read a newspaper?
With two lessons a week and steady homework, most learners are reading headlines and short articles with a dictionary at around the eighteen-month mark, and reading comfortably past two years. The root system speeds this up once it clicks, because a new word is usually a familiar pattern applied to a root you already know.
Related courses
Other Arabic courses
Egyptian Arabic
Learners who want a spoken dialect that will be understood from Morocco to the Gulf, and anyone living in, working in or connected to Egypt.
Levantine Arabic
Aid and development workers, journalists, researchers, and people with Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian or Palestinian family connections.
Gulf Arabic
Professionals relocating to or already living in the Gulf, and anyone whose work, in-laws or clients are on the Arabian Peninsula.
Moroccan Darija
People moving to or working in Morocco, those with Moroccan family, and learners who have tried a general Arabic course and found it did not match what they heard on the ground.
online arabic tutor — every level and every course we teach in Arabic.
Start with a free Arabic trial lesson
You meet the tutor, they work out where you actually are, and you both decide whether to carry on. If we are not the right fit, we will say so.