{"id":16751,"date":"2025-10-24T16:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T16:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ottawa-english.com\/?p=16751"},"modified":"2026-03-10T18:25:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:25:54","slug":"arabs-learning-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ottawa-english.com\/?p=16751","title":{"rendered":"Key problems for Arabs learning English"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Arabic is a beautiful language rich in the vocabulary, synonyms, and nuances that enable the expression of ideas and emotions with an awesome precision. It\u2019s spoken across the 22 countries that make up the Arab League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many ways, Arab speaking students are at a disadvantage when it comes to learning English. In your early school years, English language instruction is a bit like religious instruction was during mine – an extended recess. There is far more emphasis on learning your own language which, with its complex grammar, precision, and wealth of vocabulary, takes quite a bit of effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not until you face the reality of further education that the world comes crashing down because that\u2019s when English suddenly takes on a life of its own. With all university and professional courses, in everything from medicine and nursing to computer sciences and engineering, being taught in English, accessing a professional future without an advanced level of English is virtually impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that stage of your lives, getting that advanced level of English is excruciating. That difficulty doesn\u2019t just come from the familiar stuff like the direction of words and sentences or your different use of periods, commas, and capital letters. It comes from the fundamental differences between the two languages. Unlike people with a Germanic native language, you really can\u2019t rely on your native language for help when you get serious about learning English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a loo at some specific problem areas for Arabs learning English:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing a vocabulary<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In English, we have root words, and we can turn most of them into verbs, participles, nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. When you look up the word in a dictionary, you can find it and translate it because the translation isn\u2019t based on meaning. However, increasing your vocabulary takes countless hours of memorising words and applying them to different contexts until they become part of your normal repertoire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Arabic, things are different. The root is a three-letter pattern that takes on different meanings depending on which of the standard rules you apply to it. Good luck looking up those words in a dictionary! However, while it may be next to impossible to find the translation, growing your vocabulary simply requires learning a series of roots and a set of standard rules. Once you know the standard rules, it’s fast.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expanding into the present perfect tense<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since there\u2019s no present perfect tense in Arabic, understanding the relationship between finished actions in an unfinished time seems to be horrendously difficult. Where we would say, \u201cI have almost finished this article\u201d, you would say, \u201cI finished this article\u201d\u2026 even though you still have a couple of paragraphs left to read. While I hate to say it, the present perfect is so prevalent in English, that you need to understand it and make it your own if you\u2019re ever going to progress to an advanced level of English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adjusting to a new word order<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Arabic adjectives tend to come after nouns, whereas English adjectives come      before their nouns. In other words an \u2018interesting story\u2019 in English, becomes a \u201cstory interesting\u201d in Arabic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing is that you don\u2019t invert your statements to form questions. In other words, in Arabic, you can just add a question mark, whereas, in English, we need both a question mark and an inversion. Therefore, \u201cShe is nice? works as a question in Arabic, but in English, we expect to see \u201cIs she nice?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third big area that causes confusion for Arabs learning English is the location of the verb. Arabic verbs sit at the beginning of the sentence, whereas in English verbs sit at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pronouncing it right<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

English words with two or more consonants clustered together can be tough: therefore, you\u2019ll often add vowels to help you with pronunciation. Suddenly, \u201cdrink\u201d becomes \u201cdirink\u201d and \u201cstring\u201d becomes \u201cstiring\u201d. That\u2019s not a huge problem when you’re speaking, but since you’re used to a direct correlation between sounds and letters, it can create problems with spelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phrase and sentence rhythms<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, both Arabic and English rhythms for phrases and sentences are similar, so there\u2019s at least one thing you don\u2019t have to work on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All told, as an Arabic speaking student, you face a huge number of hurdles when learning English. Some of those hurdles are related to the differences between your mother tongue and English, but some of them are the product of a system that pays lip service to English studies until the students reach a point in their lives when they are so overwhelmed by so much competition and so many demands that pursuing such studies seems daunting. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arabic is a beautiful language rich in the vocabulary, synonyms, and nuances that enable the expression of ideas and emotions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nArabs learning English - 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