Arabic
Arabic that keeps up with you.
Four courses take you from the alphabet to real conversation. Everything around them — flashcards, graded stories, audio, someone to talk to — is generated at your exact level and rewritten as you improve. Nothing to outgrow.
Generated for you, in real time
The question nobody answers
«Which Arabic?» is the first real question.
Most courses skip it, and that's why so many learners lose a year before finding out. Arabic is diglossic: there is one written, formal language shared by twenty-two countries, and there are the spoken dialects of each of them, which differ enough that Moroccan and Iraqi speakers often meet in the middle. Lemma teaches الفُصْحَى — Modern Standard Arabic — and says so on the first day.
Fusha is the one that's written
Every newspaper, every book, every news broadcast, every sign, every formal speech. It is the only variety that exists on the page, the only one shared across the whole Arabic-speaking world, and the only one with the material to support a serious learner. Start here and every dialect is a shorter step later; start with a dialect and you still can't read.
The dialects are real and they're mentioned
Nobody speaks fusha at home, and a course that hides that is lying by omission. The dialects appear throughout as cultural asides — what Egyptians say instead, where the Levantine version diverges — so you know the landscape you're in. They're context, not vocabulary to memorise.
You'll read Arabic from week one, in Arabic
There is no Latin transliteration anywhere in these courses, deliberately. Transliteration feels like a shortcut and becomes a crutch you then have to break. The alphabet comes first — twenty-eight letters that join up and change shape depending on where they sit — and after that you read the language itself.
How the language is built
Three letters carry a meaning. The rest is a mould.
This is the thing that makes Arabic feel like a system rather than a list. Most words are a three-consonant root threaded through a fixed pattern. The root ك-ت-ب carries the idea of writing; each mould does a predictable job to it. Learn the moulds and you stop memorising and start deducing.
Five words, one root, no memorisation between them. English has faint traces of this — sing, sang, sung, song — but Arabic runs the whole dictionary on it, which is why the language gets easier rather than harder as you go.
- كِتَابkitābbook — the thing written
- كَاتِبkātibwriter — the one who writes
- مَكْتَبmaktaboffice, desk — the place of writing
- مَكْتَبَةmaktabalibrary, bookshop
- مَكْتُوبmaktūbwritten; a letter — and, colloquially, «it is fated»
The full path
Four courses, from the alphabet to conversation
One continuous story with the same characters from the first lesson to the last, anchored to an English ear rather than translated into one.
- 01A1
Arabic from scratch
From the alphabet to your first conversations. Four foundation modules: what fusha is and why, the abjad in two halves, then the vowels and reading. Then ten lessons of greetings, family, food, the city and getting around.
- 02A2
Arabic on the move
Your daily life in Arabic. The root-and-pattern system becomes a tool you use rather than a fact you know, and the verb forms start doing their work: causing, doing to each other, doing to oneself.
- 03B1
Arabic in depth
Your first stories: narrating in the past, connecting events, and the case endings that formal Arabic uses and speech mostly drops — taught for what they actually do rather than as a table.
- 04B1
Arabic in flight
More natural conversation: register, the difference between how you'd write something and how you'd say it, and the ground where fusha and the dialects meet.
Already studied Arabic?
You learned the script. Then the shelf ran out.
Arabic has a very sharp drop-off. The alphabet is well taught everywhere; beginner material is plentiful. Intermediate material barely exists, and native content — a newspaper, a novel — sits an enormous distance above where a beginner course leaves you. That gap is where nearly everyone stops.
There is no last level
The material isn't drawn from a catalogue that runs out; it is generated for you. As your profile climbs, the content climbs with it, all the way to C2. Arabic is the language where that matters most, because the intermediate shelf is the emptiest of any language Lemma teaches.
It tells you where you're actually stuck
The placement test measures vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, listening and speaking separately instead of giving you one number. With Arabic the gaps are usually uneven and specific, and a single score hides exactly the thing you need to see.
Conversation without an appointment
You talk by voice with partners who have their own personalities, whenever you want, for as long as you want. Arranging Arabic speaking practice is hard in most of the world, and speaking is the skill that only responds to hours.
What's included
Everything else is in Arabic too
The courses are the backbone. Around them, Lemma generates new material at your exact level, every day, without running out.
Decks
The core of vocabulary. Flashcards by level and topic, with spaced repetition that shows you each word right before you'd forget it. Inside every card: an explanation in your language, examples, and answers — generated on the spot.
Spaced repetition + AIQuick Practice
Short readings and audio capsules, generated instantly, that mix the vocabulary you've already studied with new words to challenge you. Calibrated to your exact level.
Reading and listeningLibrary
Eight-chapter short novels, written by AI at your level, with cover art and an immersive reader. Pick the genre and the world. You'll never run out of something to read made just for you.
Immersive readingPartners
Create partners with different personalities and practice by text or voice. Real conversation that sharpens your expression — and gives Lemma a precise read on your progress.
Text and voice conversationWhy Lemma
This is not a streak app
The content is generated for you, not for everyone
A streak app hands you the same lesson it hands a million other people. Lemma measures where you actually are — six skills, separately — and starts there.
Spaced repetition, not a daily quota
Every card comes back right before you'd forget it. That timing is what makes it stick. You're building memory here, not a streak — miss a day and you've lost a day, nothing more.
Built for the shelf that's empty
Beginner Arabic is well covered and intermediate Arabic is a desert. Generated content doesn't have that problem: it stays just above you, at your measured level, for as long as you keep climbing.
Frequently asked
About learning Arabic with Lemma
Which Arabic does Lemma teach?
Modern Standard Arabic — الفُصْحَى, fusha. It is the written language of all twenty-two Arabic-speaking countries, the language of news, books and formal speech, and the only variety with the material to support a learner all the way up. The dialects appear as cultural context throughout the courses, never as material to memorise.
Shouldn't I learn a dialect instead?
It depends entirely on your goal, and it's worth deciding on purpose rather than by accident. If you want to read, study, follow the news or work professionally in the region, fusha is the answer and there isn't a second one. If your only aim is chatting in one specific country, a dialect is more direct — but you still won't be able to read, and moving from fusha to a dialect later is a much shorter journey than the reverse.
How hard is the alphabet?
Less hard than it looks, and it front-loads the difficulty. Twenty-eight letters, written right to left, joined up, with each letter taking a slightly different shape depending on whether it starts, sits inside or ends a word. That sounds like four alphabets and isn't — the shapes are variations on one skeleton. Two of the four foundation modules are devoted to it.
Why is there no transliteration?
Because it's a crutch with a cost. Latin letters let you fake reading for a few weeks and then have to be unlearned, and they can't represent several Arabic sounds honestly anyway. The courses teach the script first so that everything afterwards can be read in Arabic — which is the point.
How long does it take to learn Arabic?
The US Foreign Service Institute puts Arabic in its hardest category for English speakers — roughly 2,200 class hours to professional working proficiency, about four times what Spanish takes. That's full-time intensive study and it's a floor, not a forecast. The useful part is the ratio: plan for a long road, and pick your reason for walking it before you start.
How much does it cost?
Lemma Pro is 9.99 USD a month, or 109.89 USD a year, which works out to a month free. Lemma runs on a weekly usage allowance that resets each week; Pro removes those limits.
Can I study another language besides Arabic?
Yes. Lemma has ten languages, and with Pro you can carry several at once from the same account, each with its own profile and its own progress.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Lemma runs in the browser on your computer and your phone, and you can pin it to your home screen like an app. You sign in with your Google account.
Read your first word today
Sign in with Google. Lemma finds your real level of Arabic in a few minutes and starts there.
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