Most Common English Errors for
Arabic Speaking People
The
Arabic writing system has little in common with English.
Arabic and English are two
very different languages, and this can cause a host of problems for native
Arabic speakers trying to learn English. There are few cognates or shared
vocabulary, and the writing systems not only use different alphabets, but are
written and read in opposite directions. Furthermore, Arabic is a
consonant-heavy language where vowels are often omitted in the written form,
and this makes Arabic students frequently exchange or reassign vowels in
English words.
1. Adjectives
o
Like Spanish, the Arabic language
places the adjective after the noun it describes. This leads to common oral and
written mistakes, such as "The cat white" or "The house
small."
Vowels
o
Including diphthongs, English has
22 vowel sounds compared to the eight found in Arabic. To the untrained ear,
many of these sound similar, and native Arabic speakers often misunderstand or
misuse vowels. Since Arabic speakers new to English cannot discern these subtle
differences, "bet" can become "bat" or "ball" may
be heard as "bell."
Stress
o
There is no stress on parts of
speech in Arabic. All words are spoken in a regular manner with no emphasis.
This rarely leads to misunderstandings when learning English but can cause many
pronunciation problems. Without the proper stress on individual syllables,
every word sounds monotone and contrived.
Writing
o
Arabic is written right to left
and frequently omits vowels, depending on consonant patterns and context, to
transfer meaning. Punctuation rules are fairly lax compared to English, and
there are no upper or lower cases in Arabic. Many Arabic students try to
transfer these language behaviors to their English writing. These factors can
lead to a great deal of difficulty for native Arabic speakers learning to read
and write English.
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