Which kind of Arabic should I learn?

 When starting, resuming, or rethinking your Arabic language learning journey, you might be confronted with questions like: which Arabic course is best for me? What course should I enroll in? What is the difference between the different types of Arabic? How could each course benefit me and my goals?

To help you answer these questions, we have listed here some brief descriptions of the three main types of Arabic and their learning benefits.

The Arabic language is a beautiful, ancient yet dynamic language that is spoken around the globe in several different forms or variants. Each of these variants is useful to learn depending on what your goals are and how you want to use your newly-learned language.

Classical Arabic

What is Classical Arabic?

Classical Arabic is the standardized literary form of the Arabic language which was in use from the 7th century through the Middle Ages (in the 1500s), reaching as far West as today's Portugal and as far East as India. It is the language of the Quran (although Quranic Arabic is really its own kind - more on that below) making it the original language of Islam, as well as many other religious and non-religious literary texts of that time period, including poetry and scientific works. Classical Arabic is now limited to mainly religious scripts and is no longer a spoken language.