Ten Mistakes Arabic Speakers Make — and How to Fix Them

Our English mistakes follow a logic: the brain borrows the structure of the mother tongue. Linguists call this language transfer — it's normal, and awareness fixes it better than blind memorisation.

1. Dropping the verb "to be"

Arabic says "I happy" with no verb. English requires one.

• ❌ I happy.🔈 / He teacher.🔈
• ✅ I am happy.🔈 / He is a teacher.🔈

2. Forgetting articles

Arabic has no equivalent of a/an🔈, so it's easy to drop.

• ❌ She is doctor.🔈
• ✅ She is a doctor.🔈

Rule: every singular countable noun needs a determiner — a, an🔈, the🔈, my🔈, this🔈…

3. Confusing simple and continuous

Arabic uses one form for both.

• ❌ I am understanding now.🔈
• ✅ I understand now.🔈

State verbs (know🔈, understand🔈, like🔈, want🔈, believe🔈) don't take the continuous.

4. Adjective order

Arabic puts the noun first; English reverses it.

• ❌ a car red🔈
• ✅ a red car🔈

5. Pluralising uncountables

• ❌ many informations🔈 / three advices🔈
• ✅ a lot of information🔈 / three pieces of advice🔈

Common uncountables: information🔈, advice🔈, furniture🔈, equipment🔈, homework🔈, news🔈.

6. Literally translated prepositions

The single biggest source of error, because prepositions aren't translated — they're learned with the verb.

• ❌ depend of🔈 → ✅ depend on🔈
• ❌ married with🔈 → ✅ married to🔈
• ❌ arrive to🔈 → ✅ arrive at/in🔈
• ❌ discuss about🔈 → ✅ discuss🔈 (no preposition)

7. Double negatives

• ❌ I don't know nothing.🔈
• ✅ I don't know anything.🔈

8. Question word order

Arabic often asks with intonation alone; English inverts.

• ❌ You are coming tomorrow?🔈
• ✅ Are you coming tomorrow?🔈

9. Recurring pronunciation issues

• P vs B — Arabic has no p: park🔈 ≠ bark🔈
• V vs F — very🔈 ≠ ferry🔈
• Consonant clusters — street🔈 has three consonants with no vowel between them

These are fixed by repeated sound drills, not by rules.

10. Mental translation

The slowest habit and the hardest to drop: composing in Arabic, then translating. The result is slow, unnatural sentences.

The cure: memorise whole ready-made phrases instead of building every sentence from scratch. With repetition, the brain starts reaching for English directly.

How to improve

Pick two mistakes from this list — not ten — and watch for them for a full week. Record yourself speaking for two minutes and listen back. Awareness always precedes correction, and noticing an error as it happens means you're halfway to fixing it.