Gerald Drißner

Gerald Drißner (Drissner) has lived in Arab and Islamic countries for more than a decade. He is the founder of Arabic for Nerds.

Total Posts: 365

Author Link: arabic.today/geralddrissner

Illustration split into two halves: on the left, silhouettes of armed soldiers walking down an urban street with an orange sky, and on the right, a detailed depiction of an offshore oil rig on a pale blue sea under a light sky, with the word QUIZ in bold letters on a beige rectangle overlapping the left side.
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Quiz: Media Arabic Booster 10/25

Quiz about Media Arabic Booster 10/25: This month in the Media Arabic Bosster: We decode a puzzling Kuwaiti headline. Is the massive new gas field named "Gaza" or "Jizzah"? And we analyze a Asharq al-Awsat report detailing Hamas's emerging internal war against armed clans in post-ceasefire Gaza.
Two images of the same yellow and white building with multiple windows and a clear blue sky, each paired with Arabic text; the first highlights the phrase 'أم الغضب' in yellow, and the second highlights 'منطقة الغضب' in yellow.
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Rage Against the Machine

A full-blown machine translation meltdown on the official website of the German city of Erlangen officially rebranded the peaceful town as the new global headquarters for rage - at least, according to its own disastrous Arabic version.
Illustration of fighter jets flying through clouds with missiles firing and a large explosion in the background, overlaid with bold text reading 'QUIZ ENEMY' in black and red stylized fonts.
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Quiz: Media Arabic Booster 09/25

Quiz about Media Arabic Booster 09/25: We explore how an Israeli strike in Doha sparks a regional crisis and how a new Saudi-Pakistani 'nuclear deterrence' pact shifts the balance of power. We break down the key Arabic vocabulary and historical context.
Window glass with the word "karşılama" in Latin script and Arabic script below it, with reflections of pinkish flowers and greenery visible through the glass.
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A Roomy Error

“Reception!” isn’t how you greet guests - but that's what many Arabic signs end up saying. ترحیب isn't a friendly hello; it's the verbal noun for "a welcoming", naming the act itself.
Illustration of a man with dark hair holding a magnifying glass in front of one eye, with the word "MASDAR" displayed across the lens against a teal background.
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The ‘Hunted Infinitive’: The المَصْدَرُ الْمُتَصَيَّدُ and the Hidden Logic in Arabic Sentences

Why is the Qur'anic verse لَا تَنَازَعُوا فَتَفْشَلُوا both eloquent and a grammatical puzzle? The answer is the 'hunted infinitive' (المصدر المتصيد), a brilliant principle that finds hidden logic where none is written. This article breaks down how the concept resolves a classic paradox in Arabic.
Text discussing the concept of risk, deriving its linguistic roots from the Arabic word Rizq and Classical Greek, explaining that Rizq means sustenance attributable to God and suggesting that the term risk should be more inclusive and replaced with Rizq in the context of Muslim consumer behavior.
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Rizq or Qzir?

A simple Arabic error in a scientific journal highlights a delightful irony: It's a mistake an AI would never make.