Student name: Abdullah Almokhtar

Student number: 3103016

Errors in English among Arabic speaker

In this papers, I will give five examples on the common errors in English
among Arabic speakers. Fallowed by explanation or the reason, that
coasted.

1- /f/ and /v/ as in /fa:st/ fast and /va:st/ vast

Some of the English consonant sounds are not found in
standard Arabic phonemes, while the manner of articulating
others, e.g. /t/,/d/,/n/,/r/ is different from their Arabic
counterparts. In example 1 are the main areas which,
constitute the main difficulties encountered by Arab learners
of English.
Many of those confusions result from the Arab learners not
recognizing the voiced-voiceless distinction for these sounds.
In Arabic /v/ occurs in borrowed words only, and /f/ is often
used for both sounds in English pronunciation.

2- /a'lao/ allow,/im'baeres/ embarrass.

Although English has much orthographic doubling of
consonants sounds, these tend to be pronounced as a single
constant sound, as we sow in the example.
Because doubling is a feature of Arabic pronunciation, so this
tends to make Arabic learners double the pronunciation of
English consonants, especially when they meet them in written

English. So /a'lau/ allow becomes /eal-lau/. Note also here the

strong pronunciation of the first vowel.

3- On his way to us becomes in his way to us. By the train

becomes with the train. Pleased with becomes pleased from.

Many English words collocate with special prepositions that are

unpredictable, and have to be learnt as phrases.
The basic and most common sense of each English preposition is
presented to Arab learners first, and then other uses are added
later on. The student at once equates this first meaning with
Arabic preposition, and develops a strong tendency to use that
equation all the time. Thus:
In his way to us, under the influence of Arabic ()
With the train, under the influence of Arabic ()
Pleased from, under the influence of Arabic () .

4- Pronouns mine, ours etc.

Often Arab student refer back to the plural noun with it's
under the impression it is the plural of it.

The reason is that mine, ours etc. are not very commonly used,
and often wrongly (i.e. followed by a noun): this is due to the
absence of this form of pronoun in Arabic.

5- Ahmed in the house. The boy active. Ahmed engineer.

This kind of mistake is frequently made by Arab learners of

English in the earlier stage of a curse. These errors doses not
persist in the more advanced stages of learning.
The reason of these errors is the absence in Arabic nominal
sentences in the present tense of an equivalent English verb to
be.
Ahmed in the house instead of Ahmed is in the house.
The boy active instead of the boy is an active.
Ahmed engineer instead of Ahmed is an engineer.