2.1.1. Tense, mood, aspect, person (for verbs)
2.1.2. Gender and number (determiners and adjectives)
2.1.3. Case (nouns and prepositions)
4.1. How to use punctuation marks
4.2. Punctuation in greetings and closings
5.1. Grammatical and Lexical Registers
Introduction
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This guide serves as a compass for your work. Our global community shares a dedication to continual learning, and a pivotal part of this journey involves comprehending and following our guidelines.
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Additionally, if a customer's instruction conflicts with the language guidelines, the customer's directive always supersedes the language guidelines.
1. Grammar
1.1. Agreement
1.1.1. Tense, mood, aspect, person (for verbs)
If a verb precedes a plural subject, the verb will always be singular. The verb will agree with the subject only in gender.
If a plural subject comes before a verb, the verb will agree with the subject in gender and in number.
Examples
Source text: The Jordanian students (f.) understood their lessons.
✘ فهمن الطالبات الأردنيات دروسهم
✓ فهمت الطالبات الأردنيات دروسهن
Source text: The Jordanian students understood their lessons.
✘ فهموا الطلاب الأردنيون دروسهم
✓ فهم الطلابُ الأردنيون دروسهم
Source text: The student studied his Arabic book.
✘ درس الطالبُ كتاب عربيّ
✓ درس الطالبُ كتابَهُ العربيّ
1.1.2. Gender and number (nouns and adjectives)
Verbs agree with their subjects in number and gender.
Adjectives agree with nouns in definiteness, gender, number, and case.
Examples
Source text: The new student went to the new library.
✘ ذهب الطالب جديد إلى المكتبةِ الجديدةُ
✓ ذهب الطالب الجديد إلى المكتبة الجديدة
Source text: The Jordanian students (f.) understood their lessons.
✘ فهموا الطالبات الأردنيات دروسهم
✓ فهمت الطالبات الأردنيات دروسهن
Sometimes plural nouns that do not refer to human beings are considered to be grammatically feminine singular in modern standard Arabic.
Example
Source text: I read many articles in this newspaper.
✘ قرأت عديد من مقالات في هذه الجريدة.
✓ قرأت مقالاتٍ كثيرةً في هذه الجريدة
Sometimes masculine words in singular take the feminine plural suffix in plural (e.g. مَطَار /matār/ for "airport" is /matarāt/ for "airports" مَطَارات).
1.1.3. Case (nouns and prepositions)
A noun in Arabic grammar has three cases, which are called nominative, accusative and genitive.
- Nominative case (al-marfū‘ ٱلْمَرْفُوعُ) is indicated by one dhamma if a word is definite, and by two dhammas if the word is indefinite. So, it will end with a /đammah/ or /đammatain/, and is used in several situations:
- for the subject of a verbal sentence;
- for the subject and predicate of a non-verbal (equational) sentence, with some notable exceptions;
- for certain adverbs;
- For the citation form of words.
Examples
Source text: a house
✓ بَيْتٌ
Source text: the house
✓ ٱلْبَيْتُ
Source text: The book is new.
✓ الكتاب جديدٌ
Source text: I am the teacher.
✓ أنا المُدرسُ
- Accusative case (al-manṣūb ٱلْمَنْصُوب) will end with a /fatħah/ or /fatħatain/, and is used in several situations:
- the object of a transitive verb;
- most adverbs;
- Semi-prepositions;
- internal object/cognate accusative structure;
- the accusative of specification (al-tamyīz, ٱلتَّمْيِيزُ);
- the accusative of purpose (al-maf‘ūl li-ajlihi, ٱلْمَفْعُولُ لِأَجْلِهِ);
- the circumstantial accusative (al-ḥāl, ٱلْحَال);
- objects of (kam, كَمْ 'how much/how many');
- cardinal and ordinal numbers from 11, and 13-19;
- exclamation of astonishment (mā ajmalahā!, !مَا أَجْمَلَهَا 'Oh, how beautiful she is!');
- vocative first term of construct (yā ‘abd-a-llah! يَا عبدَ اللهِ ‘Oh, Abdallah!’);
- nouns following exceptive particles in non-negative sentences;
- the noun following the absolute, or categorical negation (lā, لَا ‘No’).
Examples
Source text: a house
✓ بَيْتًا
Source text: the house
✓ ٱلْبَيْتَ
Source text: the house of the man
✓ بَيْتَ ٱلرَّجُلِ
Source text: I studied the book.
✘ درست كتاب
✓ درست الكتابَ
Source text: I studied a book.
✘ درست الكتاب
✓ درست كتاباً
- Genitive case (al-majrūr, ٱلْمَجْرُورُ) will end with a /kasrah/ or /kasratain/ and is used in several situations:
- objects of prepositions;
- the second, third, fourth, etc. term of an iḍāfah (إِضَافَةٌ genitive construction);
- the object of a locative adverb;
- Elative (comparative/superlative) adjectives behave similarly (aṭwalu waladin, أَطْوَلُ وَلَدٍ 'tallest boy').
Examples
Source text: a house
✓ بَيْتٍ
Source text: the house
✓ ٱلبَيْتِ
Source text: the house of the man
✓ بَيْتِ ٱلرَّجُلِ
Source text: The student is in an office.
✘ الطالب في مكتباً
✓ الطالبُ في مكتبٍ
Source text: The director is in the office.
✘ المديرُ في المكتبُ
✓ المديرُ في المكتبِ
Source text: The library is far from the university.
✘ المكتبةُ بعيدةٌ عن الجامعةُ
✓ المكتبةُ بعيدةٌ عن الجامعةِ
The Annexing /̛āl-mudaf/ المُضاف – The annexed /̛āl-mudaf/ /̛ilayhi/ المُضاف إِليه
Rules of the Annexing or /̛āl-mudaf/:
- The Annexing grammatical sign never takes the Nunation (Modulation) of any of the three kinds; in dual masculine case the letter nun - final - is always dropped.
Example
Source text: These are Arabic books.
✘ هَذان كِتابان العَرَبية
✓ هذه كتب عربية
- Always indefinite i.e. has no ālif and lām letters in two cases:
- If the 2nd noun i.e. Annexing is definite, the Annexed drops the definite letters, and Nunation (modulation) is dropped too. However, if there is an adjective it is parallel with the Annexed i.e. both are definite or both are indefinite.
- If the Annexed is dual or masculine plural, the letter nun - final - is dropped.
Grammatical Rules and Analysis:
Simply enough the Annexed takes the /dam-ma/ sign of regularity whereas the Annexing takes the /kasra/ sign of reduction.
1.2. Determiners
The definite article (Al-): the article (Al-) makes the noun definite. Consequently, the definite article in Arabic is a noun determiner.
Examples
Source text: I bought the house.
✘ اشتريت منزل
✓ اشتريت المنزل
Source text: I went to the market.
✘ ذهبت إلى سوق
✓ ذهبت إلى السوق
Used in Attribution (Isnad) الإســنــاد: the Arabic word Isnad means to allocate or to attribute something or someone to another. It is a grammatical term. So, the predicate is an attribute of the subject in the nominative sentence, and the subject is an attribute of the verb in the verbal sentence. Isnad is a noun that gives more information or defines another word (noun or verb).
Examples
Source text: Knowledge is light.
✘ عِلم هو نور
✓ العلم نور
Source text: Science has developed.
✘ تطورعِلم
✓ تطور العلم
A note on definiteness and indefiniteness in Arabic (determiners): Arabic is unique by its definite and indefinite cases.
|
Definite Arabic Word
|
Indefinite Arabic Word
|
|
Letters ālif and lām attached to any word.
|
Letters ālif and lām are dropped.
|
|
Like the article ‘the’ in English
|
Like the article ‘a’ and ‘an’ in English
|
|
For example:
The car: السَيَارة /̛as-sayāra/
|
For example:
A car: سَيَارة /sayāra/
An apple: تُفَاحة /tufāha/
|
1.3. Prepositions
The table below shows some of the most common prepositions in Arabic, and their equivalence in English:
|
Arabic prepositions
|
English prepositions
|
|
في
|
in
|
|
على
|
on
|
|
من
|
from
|
|
إلى
|
to
|
- A preposition (حَرْفُ الْجَرِّ- called /harf ul ĵarr/ in Arabic) is a single letter or a word which connects two nouns, or a verb and a noun, to form a sentence.
- It always precedes a word and never follows the word.
- It always comes before a noun and it does not come before a verb.
- The noun following a preposition is changed from nominative case to genitive case. This means that the last letter of the word will be changed from a /đammah/ or /đammatain/ to a /kasrah/ or /kasratain/.
- The noun followed by a preposition is called /Maĵrūr/ مَجْرُورٌ, which means that the preposition has caused a change in its case (from nominative to genitive case) as mentioned in the previous rule.
- When a preposition precedes an indefinite noun (e.g. ‘in a school’), the noun is affected in the same way.
|
the house
|
البيتُ
|
|
in the house
|
في البيتِ
|
|
a school
|
مدرسةٌ
|
|
in a school
|
في مدرسةٍ
|
The table below sums up some of the most important prepositions in Arabic, and their equivalent in English.
|
Arabic Preposition
|
Arabic Preposition English Transliteration
|
English Equivalent
|
|
مَن
|
/min/
|
from
|
|
أَمَام
|
/̛āmam/
|
in front of
|
|
فِي
|
/fi/
|
in / inside
|
|
خَلف
|
/khalf/
|
behind
|
|
حَول
|
/hawl/
|
around
|
|
بَعد
|
/baعd/
|
after
|
|
قَبل
|
/qabl/
|
before
|
|
بِجَانِب
|
/bigānib/
|
beside
|
|
بَين
|
/bayna/
|
between
|
|
عَلى
|
/عala/
|
on
|
|
تَحت
|
/tahat/
|
below
|
|
فَوق
|
/fawq/
|
above
|
|
إِلى
|
/'ila/
|
to
|
1.4. Pronouns
- Subject pronouns -ضمائر الفاعل (Damaa'ir al-faa3il) - i.e. I, you, we, he, she, we, they - take the place of a noun and function as the subject of a sentence. In Arabic, the subject pronoun is frequently dropped. You can tell from a verb conjugation who the subject is, so it's not always necessary to use the subject pronoun in such cases, except for emphasis. However, in equational (verbless) sentences, like the two examples below, you do need the subject pronoun.
Examples
Source text: I am from the USA.
✘ إنني من أمريكا
✓ أنا من أمريكا
Source text: He is an engineer.
✘ إنه من أمريكا
✓ هو مهندس
|
|
English
|
Arabic
|
|
Singular
|
I
you (masc)
you (fem)
he
she
|
أنا (Ana)
انتَ (anta)
انتِ (anti)
هو (howwa)
هي (heyya)
|
|
Dual
|
We
You
They
|
نحن (naHnu)
أنتما (antuma)
هما (humaa)
|
|
Plural
|
We
You (masc)
You (fem)
They (masc)
They (fem)
|
نحن (naHnu)
أنتم (antum)
أنتن (antunna)
هثمَ (homa)
هُنَ (hunna)
|
Note: In English, there is only one second-person pronoun, ‘you’, which can be used when you're talking to one or more persons. But in Arabic, as you see above, there are masculine and feminine versions of ‘you’, as well as singular, dual (standard Arabic only), and plural versions:
- أنتَ/أنتِ if you're addressing one person;
- أنتما if you're addressing two (in standard Arabic);
- أنتم/أنتن if you're addressing three or more people.
Note that the dual ‘you’ (أنتما) is the same regardless of gender. In standard Arabic, there is also a dual version of ‘they’ (هما - which is gender-indiscriminate as well), as well as masculine and feminine versions of the plural ‘they’ (هم and هن).
- Object pronouns - ضمائر المفعول به (Damaa'ir al-maf3uul bihi) - i.e. me, you, us, him, her, them - are used when you do something directly to someone or something else. In Arabic, these pronouns are suffixes that are attached to the verb:
|
|
English
|
Arabic
|
Examples
|
|
Singular
|
me
you (masc.)
you (fem.)
him
her
|
ـني (-ni)
ـكَ (-ka)
ـكِ (-ki)
ـه (-hu)
ـها (-ha)
|
He asked me سألني (sa'alni)
He asked you (masc.) سألكَ (sa'alaka)
He asked you (fem.) سألكِ (sa'alaki)
He asked him سألهُ (sa'alahu)
He asked her سألها (sa'alaha)
|
|
Dual
|
us
you
them
|
ـنا (-na)
ـكما (-kuma)
ـهما (-huma)
|
He asked us سألنا (sa'alna)
He asked you سألكما (sa'alkuma)
He asked them سألهما (sa'alhuma)
|
|
Plural
|
us
you (masc.)
you (fem.)
them (masc.)
them (fem.)
|
ـنا (-na)
ـكم (-kum)
ـكن (-kunna)
ـهم (-hum)
ـهن (-hunna)
|
He asked us سألنا (sa'alna)
He asked you (masc.) سألكم (sa'alkum)
He asked you (fem.) سألكن (sa'alkunna)
He asked them (masc.) سألهم (sa'alhum)
He asked them (fem.) سألهن (sa'alhunna)
|
Connected pronouns can be connected to nouns and verbs and also to prepositions.
- Connected personal /̛ād-dama̛ir/ /̛āl-mutasilah/ الضَمائِر المُتَصِلة / Description: preposition + connected personal (suffix) = one word
- Example of the Preposition /men/ من / NB: all prepositions can be attached to connected personal pronouns (Objective Case)
Consider the table below as an example:
|
Masculine 3rd person - absent
|
Addressed 2nd person
Masculine and Feminine respectively
|
Absent – 3rd persons Masculine
|
Absent 3rd person Feminine
|
Feminine/ Masculine Dual
|
1st person speaker personal pronoun
|
3rd person Plural Feminine Personal Pronoun
|
1st person plural/ masculine/ feminine Personal Pronoun
|
|
مِنه
|
مِنكَ - مِنكِ
|
مِنهم
|
مِنها
|
مِنهُما
|
مِنيِّ
|
مِنهُن
|
مِنا
|
|
/minhu/
|
/minka/ - /minki/
|
/minhum/
|
/minha/
|
/minhuma/
|
/mini/
|
/minhun/
|
/mina/
|
|
From him
|
From you
|
From them
|
From her
|
From both of them
|
From me
|
From them (feminine)
|
From us
|
1.5. Verbs
A verb generally refers to three verb time: past, present or future. In Arabic, the verb is the most important part of the language and therefore it is very important to know the verbs and the verbal sentences to understand Arabic properly.
Verbal sentence الجملة الفعلية (i.e., sentences starting with a verb) should be the norm, except when the verb is separated by a long chain of words from the noun indicating the doer of the action or subject. In those cases, nominal sentences (i.e., starting with a noun) are justified as a way to avoid ambiguity and lack of clarity.
|
A sentence starting with a verb
|
يقوم الخبير المختص بتحليل الوضع واستنتاج الحلول اللازمة.
|
|
A sentence starting with a noun
|
الخبير المختص، الذي درس في جامعة جورج واشنطن ونال شهادة الماجستير من جامعة جورجتاون في موضوع هذه الدراسة، يقوم بتحليل الوضع واستنتاج الحلول اللازمة
|
The verbal sentence consists of the verb الفعل, the subject الفاعل, which is the person or thing doing the action described, and the object المفعول به, which is the thing on which the action has been done. Otherwise, sentences would have a weak structure, and the translation will not sound natural.
Examples
Source text: Yasser went out of the school.
✘ ياسر خرج من المدرسة
✓ خرج ياسر من المدرسة
Source text: The man went home.
✘ الرجل ذهب إلى البيت
✓ ذهب الرجل إلى البيت
Source text: The boy ate an apple.
✘ الولد أكل تفاحة
✓ أكل الولد تفاحة
2. Orthography
2.1. Abbreviations
As a rule, Arabic does not use acronyms and abbreviations. Some abbreviations and acronyms of well-known international organizations and institutions are used in Arabic as Arabicized names.
Examples
Source text: UNESCO
✓ اليونيسكو
Source text: FAO
✓ الفاو
Source text: ICARDA
✓ الايكاردا
Source text: GATT
✓ الغات
In most other cases, the Arabic full name of the respective English acronym or abbreviation should be used.
Examples
Source text: IBRD
✓ البنك الدولي للإنشاء والتعمير
Source text: IFC
✓ مؤسسة التمويل الدولية
Source text: UN
✓ الأمم المتحدة
2.2. Apostrophes
The Arabic language does not use apostrophes (فاصلة علوية).
2.3. Capitalization
There are no capital letters in Arabic Language, it uses only lower case letters. Since capitalization does not apply to Arabic, one way to indicate names and headings is through bolding.
Examples
Source text: World Bank
✓ البنك الدولي
Source text: Vienna Protocol
✓ بروتوكول فيينا
2.4. Compounds
Some of the Arabic compound names are:
- The annex compound - مركب إضافي, which is composed of an indefinite noun followed by a definite noun, or an indefinite noun or an invariant noun followed by an indefinite noun.
Examples
Source text: earth worm
✓ دودة الأرضِ
Source text: doomsday
✓ یوم الحسابِ
Source text: day-break
✓ طلوع النھارِ
- The attributive compound - مركب إسناد,ي, which is derived from a verbal sentence جملة فعلية or a nominal sentence جملة إسمية
Examples
Source text: The student is late.
✓ تأخر الطالب
Source text: Science is useful.
✓ العلم نافع
- The numerals compound - مركب عددي, which is composed from the eleventh to nineteenth (11-19).
Examples
Source text: Eleven professors arrived.
✓ وصل إحدى عشر أستاذًا
Source text: Eleven professors (f.) arrived.
✓ وصلت إحدى عشرةَ أستاذةً
Source text: I saw twelve engineers.
✓ رأيت اثني عشر مهندسًا
Source text: I saw twelve engineers (f.).
✓ رأيت اثنتي عشرةَ مهندسةً
2.5. Diacritics علامات التشكيل
- Tashkil (marks used as phonetic guides)
The literal meaning of tashkīl is 'forming'. As the normal Arabic text does not provide enough information about the correct pronunciation, the main purpose of tashkīl (and ḥarakāt) is to provide a phonetic guide or a phonetic aid (i.e. show the correct pronunciation). The bulk of Arabic script is written without ḥarakāt (or short vowels). However, they are commonly used in texts that demand strict adherence to exact wording. This is true, primarily, of the Qur´an ⟨الْقُرْآن⟩ (al-Qur’ān) and poetry.
Example
Source text: In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
✓ بِسْمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحْمٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
Some Arabic textbooks for foreigners now use ḥarakāt as a phonetic guide to make learning reading Arabic easier.
- Harakat (short vowel marks)
The ḥarakāt, which literally means 'motions', are the short vowel marks. There is some ambiguity as to which tashkīl are also ḥarakāt; the tanwīn, for example, are markers for both vowels and consonants.
- Fatḥah: the fatḥah ⟨فَتْحَة⟩ is a small diagonal line placed above a letter. The word fatḥah itself (فَتْحَة) means ‘opening’ and refers to the opening of the mouth when producing an /a/.
Example
Source text: Movement
✓ حَرَكة
- Kasrah: a similar diagonal line below a letter is called a kasrah ⟨كَسْرَة⟩, and designates a short /i/.
Examples
Source text: He is at home.
✓ هو في البيتِ
Source text: He went to school.
✓ ذهب الى المدرسةِ
- Ḍammah: the ḍammah ⟨ضَمَّة⟩ is a small curl-like diacritic placed above a letter to represent a short /u/.
Examples
Source text: The love
✓ الحبُ
Source text: The girl went to school.
✓ ذهبي البنتُ الى المدرسة
- Sukun: the sukūn ⟨سُكُون⟩ is a circle-shaped diacritic placed above a letter. It indicates that the consonant to which it is attached is not followed by a vowel.
Example
Source text: The boy writes the lesson.
✓ يَكْتُبُ الوَلَدُ الدَّرْسَ
Consider the following chart to fully grasp the Arabic Signs of Movement /̛āl-harakāt/ الحَرَكَات for simplification:
Short Vowels
|
Short vowel sign
|
ُ
|
َ
|
ِ
|
|
Short vowel Arabic name transliterated
|
/ḍam-ma/
|
/fatha/
|
/kasra/
|
|
Short vowel Arabic name
|
ضَمة
|
فَتحة
|
كَسرة
|
|
Short vowel sign English equivalent (vowel transliteration)
|
/u/
|
/a/
|
/i/
|
|
Usage
|
Regularity /̛ār-rafع/ الرَفع
|
Openness /̛ān-nasb/ النَصب
|
Reduction /̛āk-kasr/ الكَسر
|
|
Description
|
- A little lopped symbol like a small wāw always placed over the Arabic letter.
- Any word in Arabic in isolation shall end in the /u/ vowel as this ending is the regular one.
- Used to indicate regularity when placed over the last letter of a word.
|
- A short diagonal strike over the Arabic letter.
- It is an open vowel that is used in the situation of openness when placed over the last letter of a word.
|
- A short diagonal strike under the Arabic letter.
- It is a closed vowel that is similar to the reduction of lips witnessed in other foreign languages.
- Used in the situation of reduction when placed over the last letter of a word.
|
|
Bilingual pronunciation example
|
Consider, for example, if we put a /ḍam-ma/ over the letter dāl دُ it will be pronounced /du/.
|
Consider, for example, if we put a /fatha / over the letter dāl دَ it will be pronounced /da/.
|
Consider, for example, if we put a /kasra/ over the letter dāl دِ it will be pronounced /di/.
|
NB: when a short vowel is added over or below an Arabic letter, this letter shall be called a Moving Letter /harf mutaharik/ حَرف مُتَحَرِك:
Arabic letter + short vowel (over or under it) = Movement /haraka/
Anti-vowels (Real and Unreal Quiescence)
|
Anti-vowel sign
|
ْ
|
|
Anti-vowel English name
|
Real Quiescence
|
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Anti-vowel Arabic name transliterated
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/Sukun/
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Short vowel Arabic name
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سُكُون
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Usage
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Elision and/or cutting /̛āg-gazm/ الجزم
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Description
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- It is the action of cutting or elision.
- Very silent at the end of the verb.
- Always written above the letter.
- Arabic word never begins with a Quiescence
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Bilingual pronunciation example
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i.e. no vowel like, for example, the sound of the English letter /N/
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NB: when a Quiescence is added over an Arabic letter, it shall be called a Still Letter /harf sākin/ حَرف سَاكِن because:
Arabic letter + Quiescence = Stillness /sākin/
Please note that all Arabic alphabets are consonants yet three of them are exceptionally referred to as long vowels; yet Dahdah termed them ‘defective letters’, as they are letters and not vowels as they are called in Arabic /huruf/ /̛āl-عilah/ حُرُوف العِلة: ālif, wāw and yā.
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The extension sign
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~ or آ
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Extension sign English name
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Unreal Quiescence - Extension Sign
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Doubling sign Arabic name transliterated
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/̛āl-mad/ or /̛ālif/ /̛āl-mad/
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Doubling Sign English Transliteration Sign
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ã
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Extension Sign Arabic Name
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المَد
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Usage
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Used in extending the sound of an Arabic letter
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Description
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- Used in extending the sound of the Arabic letter.
- Mostly related to the letter ālif as it is written over the letter it.
- It is a kind of extending the ālif sound.
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Example
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- Consider the Arabic feminine name Amal آمال /ãmāl/ as an example.
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Doubling Arabic Letter Sign
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The doubling sign
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ّ
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Doubling sign English name
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Arabic letter doubling sign
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Doubling sign Arabic name transliterated
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/shad-da/
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Doubling sign Arabic name
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شَدّة
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Usage
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Used in doubling the sound of an Arabic letter
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Description
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- Doubling just written in Arabic transliteration by doubling the pronounced Arabic letter in writing for easiness and simplicity; but in Arabic, it is written by putting the /shad-da/ sign over the Arabic doubled letter, i.e. doubling is just pronounced and is just written via /shad-da/ sign in Arabic.
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Doubling of short vowel sign: Nunation (Modulation) /̛al-tanwin/
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Type of Nunation (Modulation) - تنوين /tanwin/
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Nunation (Modulation) of regularity – تَنوين الضَم /tanwin/ /̛ad-dam/
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Nunation (Modulation) of openness – تَنوين الفَتح /tanwin/ /̛̛al-fath/
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Nunation (Modulation) of reduction – تَنوين الكَسر /tanwin/ /̛ak-kasr/
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Nunation (Modulation) – تَنوين /tanwin/ sign in Arabic
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ٌ
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ً
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ٍ
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Nunation (Modulation) – تَنوين /tanwin/ transliterated sign in English
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/un/
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/an/
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/in/
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Description
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- A special ending in pronunciation.
- Over the top of the last final Arabic letter of a word.
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- A special ending in pronunciation.
- Over the top of last final Arabic letter of a word.
NB 1: after this kind of Nunation (Modulation) we ONLY have to put the letter ālif, except when there is a hamza after the letter ālif. In that case, we will not add the ālif letter.
NB 2: special note that is not known by many on the Nunation (Modulation) of openness: ONLY in case we write it after it the letter ālif; Nunation (Modulation) should be written before the last final letter not on the ālif letter. But in the case of the hamza mentioned above, it is written on the hamzai, and not on the preceding letter.
NB 3: if the Nunation (Modulation) is on the feminine indicator ending ‘tā̛ Marbutah’, (ـة) we can't add the letter ālif and we write the Nunation (Modulation) over the ‘tā̛ Marbutah’ (ـة).
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- A special ending in pronunciation.
- Below the last final Arabic Letter of a word.
NB 1: it will be regarded by some as an error to write the Nunation (Modulation) of reduction below the letter ālif or below the letter hamza; i.e. in this case it is just pronounced but not written. However, this is seen as acceptable in the Holy Quran. Then, it depends on your choice. For us, we are with the Language of the Quran, and we do not regard it as an error, as it is just meant for simplification means.
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Example
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The word /hub/ for ‘love’ and is pronounced /hubun/ حُبٌ.
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The word /hub/ for ‘love’ is pronounced /huban/ حبًا and we write the Nunation (Modulation) of opening before the ālif and not on the ālif:
- the word /samā̛n/ for ‘sky’ سَماءً: note that there is no ālif, as in /huban/ حُبًا;
- the word /fursatan/ for ‘chance’ like فُرصَةً, and note that we write it over the ‘tā̛ Marbutah’ (ـة) , and not before it.
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The word /hub/ for ‘love’ is pronounced /hubin/ حُبِ.
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2.6. Foreign words
When come across foreign words in an English text to be translated to Arabic, the word should be kept in its original language and written with quotation marks or between brackets.
Examples
Source text: I have no desire to read another poshloe book by a novyĭ russkiĭ.
✓ “novyĭ russkiĭ” آخر من قبل “poshloe” ليس لدي أي رغبة في قراءة كتاب
Source text: I asked a khosheve rabbi this question.
✓ هذا السؤال (khosheve) سألت حاخام
2.7. Language variety
Arabic belongs to the Semitic Group of Languages that is spoken in 25 countries. Now, Arabic can be classified into two Classes of four groups:
- 1st Class written-wise
- 1st Group - Classical Written Arabic
- Classical written Arabic refers to the Arabic language since the 6th AD or before then.
- Originated in Saudi Arabia in pre-Islamic times.
- Classical Arabic changed over centuries.
- The most accurate example that illustrates it is clearly seen in the language of the Quran and the language of writers like Al-Mutanabbi and others.
- 2nd Group - Modern Literary Written Arabic
- It differs from classical written Arabic.
- Changes in this group are similar to the changes experienced with the European Languages (the difference between Chaucer's English and Kipling's), like, for example, the Language of literary works of Taha Husain[1].
- 3rd Group - Modern Standard Written Arabic
- It differs from both the classical Arabic, yet it is similar to some extent with the Modern Literary.
- It is the language used in media (newspapers and radio).
- It is the standard language we are currently learning, and it is known universally.
- Please note that there are no native speakers who use this group in spoken language, except in official situations; however, it is used in official/formal writing context.
- It is abbreviated as MSA.
- MSA is the group that can be compared to the Standard Universal English. This is the variety addresses the widest sector of Language oriented population.
- 2nd Class spoken-wise
- 4th Group - Modern Spoken Arabic Dialects (i.e. non-standard Spoken Arabic)
- It differs from the last three groups.
- Arabic dialects are frequently used in all spoken genres (phone calls, talk shows, interviews, new media, i.e. blogs and newsgroups in a formal context).
- Arabic people communicate easily in Arabic Dialects not in MSA.
- Arabic dialects are the varieties spoken in the Arabic countries, like
Egypt, Maghreb, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Western Sahara, and Mauritania.
- 5th Group - Arabic Slang (i.e. colloquial spoken Arabic / informal words and expressions)
- It is similar to the MSA dialects, yet with a slight difference, as this group is more informal.
- Arabic people communicate spontaneously in the Arabic Spoken Slang using highly informal Arabic words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's spoken dialect or written language.
- It is used in conversations, most letters, chats, e-mails, advertising, films and TV entertainment shows in an informal context.
- It also differs from one country to another.
2.8. Numerals
Regarding numerals format (written in numbers or words), you must always respect the source text: if they are written as digits in the source text, this should be maintained in the translation; on the other hand, if they are written as words, they should be translated to the target language.
Note that Arabic recommends the use of a comma (,) to indicate groups of thousands. However, using a full stop (.) is also correct. Please note that you should be consistent within a task and use just one of the options.
Examples
Source text: 569,87
✘ 569 87
✓ 569,87
✓ 569.87
Source text: 1.000,000,000
✓ 1,000,000,000
✓ 1.000.000.000
Please note that whilst general Arabic text runs from right to left, numbers in Arabic text read in the opposite direction - from left to right. So, a phone number, for example, will be read in the same order we would read it in English.
Numbers in Arabic can be written using the same numerals we use in English, or in “Arabic” numerals, as can be seen in the table below.
Confusingly, our English numbers are technically called Arabic numerals.
In English to Arabic translation, the translator must decide whether to use Hindi or Arabic numerals for any text. Which one is chosen will depend on the purpose of the document and the target audience. Generally, a document shouldn’t mix the two.
Another important thing about numbers in Arabic is the use of “the distinction or specification”, i.e. al-tamyīz. When we talk about a number of things (e.g. five carrots, seven cars), we need to make sure that agreement in gender and form is present. The noun that follows the numbers in Arabic is called specification al-tamyīz (التمييز).
Singular form:
Example
Source text: I have a male friend and a female friend.
✓ لي صديق واحد وصديقة واحدة
Duality (اثنان/اثنتان), either accusative or genitive:
Examples
Source text: I talked to two male friends and two female friends.
✓ تكلمت مع صديقين اثنين وصديقتين اثنتين
Source text: I read two books and two stories.
✓ قرأت كتابين وقصتين
Other forms:
When we talk about three to ten things, we use the plural form of the noun in its genitive case.
Another gender and form agreement tip for this specific type (from three to ten): the gender of the noun is the opposite of the gender of the noun that follows.
Example
Source text: I have three male friends and four female friends.
✓ لي ثلاث أصدقاء وأربع صديقات
Numbers from 11 to 99 are confusing, but you can follow this easy note while paying special attention to gender agreement and related form: when we talk about 11 to 99 things, we use the singular form of the noun after the verb, and it must be accusative. Since the specification is indefinite, it takes tanween.
Examples
Source text: I have twenty books.
✓ عندي عشرون كتابًا
Source text: I read fifteen stories.
✓ قرأت خمسة عشر قصةً
RULE 1 for gender agreement for this type of numbering:
- 11 and 12: both parts of the number should agree in gender with the specified element.
Example
Source text: There are eleven boys and eleven girls.
✓ هناك أحد عشر ولداً وإحدى عشرة بنتاً
- 13 to 19: the first part of the number should be of the opposite gender of the specified element, while the second part (عشر) should have the same gender.
Example
Source text: There are fifteen boys and fifteen girls.
✓ هناك خمسة عشر ولداً وخمس عشرة بنتاً
RULE 2 for the counting by tens in Arabic: they do not have gender, so it is the same form all the time. However, they take different endings according to the cases, i.e. (ون) for nominative and (ين) for accusative and genitive.
Examples
Source text: In the classroom, there are twenty girls.
✓ في الصف عشرون بنتاً
Source text: I saw twenty boys.
✓ رأيت عشرين ولداً
Rule 3 for numbers with tens and units in Arabic (like twenty-one, etc.): these numbers have 2 parts: the units part will have the opposite gender of the specified element, and the tens part do not change according to the gender of the specified element.
Example
Source text: There are twenty-five boys and twenty-five girls.
✓ هناك خمسة وعشرون ولداً وخمس وعشرون بنتاً
2.9. Symbols
Symbols in Arabic are written the same way as the text, i.e. from right to left. When coocurring with numbers, the symbols always occur on the left, and there should not be a whitespace between the symbol and the number.
Examples
Source text: 100%
✘ % 100
✓ %100
Source text: What a beautiful painting!
✓ ! ما أجمل اللوحة
Source text: How far is the school from home?
✓ كم تبعد المدرسة عن المنزل؟
3. Punctuation
Punctuation marks (علامات الترقيم) are not always used correctly in Arabic. There are, however, some rules related to the use of punctuation marks. First of all, it should be noted that some punctuation marks in Arabic look different from the English counterparts, e.g. the English comma is (,) while the Arabic comma (الفاصلة) points the opposite way (،) and it is written on top of the line. The English question mark is (?) while the Arabic question mark (علامة الاستفهام) looks like this (؟).
3.1. How to use punctuation marks
- All punctuation marks that come immediately after a word are written adjacent to it without any whitespace between the punctuation mark and the word preceding it.
- When writing inside brackets, the text is written immediately after the opening bracket, without whitespaces, and the closing bracket occurs immediately after the last word.
- Full stop (نقطة نهائية) is used at the end of declarative sentences.
Example
Source text: He is in the office.
✓ المدير في المكتب.
- Question mark (؟) علامة استفهام) is used at the end of questions.
Example
Source text: Where is the manager?
✓ أين المدير؟
- Comma (،) is used between different clauses in compound sentences.
Example
Source text: I like to travel every summer but this year I will not travel for being busy with my study.
✓ أحب السفر كل صيف، ولكن هذا العام لن أسافر بسبب انشغالي بالدراسة
It should be noted that we should not use a comma between basic parts of the sentence, like the subject and the predicate, or the subject and the verb.
It should also be noted that with a series of nouns in English, the comma is used to separate the nouns, except for the last, where it would be preceded by ‘and’ or ‘or’ (e.g. ‘students, graduates or researchers’; ‘reporters, translators and interpreters’). In Arabic, however, it is incorrect to use the comma in those contexts, as the language requires the repetition of the conjunction.
Example
Source text: Bloggers, translators and interpreters
✘ المدونون، المترجمون والمترجمون الشفويون
✓ المدونون والمترجمون والمترجمون الشفويون
- Colon (:) نقطتان رأسيتان is used before lists, explanations, and direct quotations.
- Quotation marks (“ ”) علامتا التنصيص are used before and after a quotation.
Example
Source text: The manager said: “we have a meeting after a short while.”
✓ "قال المدير: "لدينا اجتماع بعد قليل.
- Semicolon (؛) الفاصلة المنقوطة) is used between two sentences, one of which denotes the reason for the other.
Example
Source text: Ali studied hard; he succeeded in the exam.
✓ . اجتهد علي في درسه؛ فنجح في الاختبار
- Exclamation point (!) علامة الاستعجاب is placed at the end of sentences expressing internal emotions, such as joy, sadness, prayer, and surprise.
Example
Source text: What a beautiful sky!
✓ ! ما أجمل السماء
- Em dash (—) الشَرْطة: denotes a break in a sentence or to set off parenthetical statements.
- Slash (/) خط مائل is used to separate or compare different elements or multiple choices, and when writing the date.
Example
Source text: October 10, 2018
✓ 10/10/2018
- Brackets ( ) الأقواس. are used to insert explanations to a previous word or statement, or numbers located in the middle of speech.
Examples
Source text: Black gold (oil) is the source of Gulf wealth.
✓ الذهب الأسود (البترول) هو مصدر ثروة دول
Source text: We trained in Module (1) on grammatical skills.
✓ تدربنا في الوحدة رقم (1) على مهارات نحوية
3.2. Punctuation in greetings and closings
The comma is used when opening a letter, or in greetings as in the following examples:
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Formal
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السيد المحترم،
سعادة السفير،
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
|
|
Informal
|
عزيزي،
عزيزتي،
مرحبا،
|
The comma is also used when closing a greeting, and no punctuation follows the name.
Below, you can find examples of signing formal letters and emails in Arabic, which will be followed by the name.
Examples
Source text: Grateful for your good co-operation
✓ شاكرين لكم على حسن تعاونكم،
Source text: Accept an abundance of respect and appreciation
✓ تقبلوا فائق الاحترام والتقدير،
Source text: With sincere appreciation and respect
✓ مع خالص التقدير والاحترام،
Below you can find examples of signing informal emails, letters and messages, followed by the name.
Examples
Source text: Salutations to you
✓ تحياتي لك،
Source text: Yours faithfully
✓ بإخلاص،
4. Register
4.1. Grammatical and Lexical Registers
Register refers to the level of formality used in the text. It shows how our clients address their customers and contributes to the voice of the brand itself. Register may vary depending on the company, the brand, the service they offer, the customers, and the target language.
We make a first main distinction between grammatical and lexical register: the first one regards the use of pronouns and verb person (for the languages to which this morphological feature is applied), while the latter is related to lexical choices, since some words and expressions also have a degree of formality or colloquialism.
Both these registers are also divided into formal and informal, as shown below.
Try to maintain the same style and register as the source. For example, if the source is polite, the translation should maintain the same level of politeness. If the source is rude, excited or angry, the translation should convey the same register. Messages and chat data are largely informal, and this register should also be maintained in the translation.
4.2. Formal Register
The formal register is more appropriate for professional writing and letters to a boss or a person that we don’t know. Formal writings include:
- business letters;
- letters of complaint;
- some essays;
- reports;
- official speeches;
- announcements;
- professional emails.
In formal writing, we avoid the use of slang language, contractions, abbreviations, and always write complete sentences. The same rules apply when translating a formal English text to Arabic.
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Category
|
Examples
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Source Text
|
Type of Register
|
|
Personal pronouns
|
صبركم
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Your patience
|
Grammatical
|
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Verbs (2nd person plural)
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تعاونكم معنا
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Your cooperation with us
|
Grammatical
|
|
Verbs (2nd person plural)
|
لا تترددوا
|
Do not hesitate
|
Grammatical
|
|
Possessive pronouns
|
حسابكم
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Your account
|
Grammatical
|
|
Greetings
|
مرحبا سيد احمد مرحبًا بكم، |
Hello Mr. Ahmad,
Hello,
|
Lexical
|
|
Closings
|
مع أفضل التحيات/ مع أطيب التحيات تحياتي |
Best Regards
Regards
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Lexical
|
4.3. Informal Register
We use informal writing when we are writing to someone we know very well. Informal writing includes:
- personal e-mails;
- short notes;
- friendly letters;
- most blogs;
- diaries and journals.
There are no major rules to informal writing. With informal writing, you can include things such as:
- symbols and abbreviations;
- acronyms;
- short sentences;
- first person, second person, and third person;
- passive and active voice.
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Category
|
Examples
|
Source Text
|
Type of Register
|
|
Personal pronouns
|
صبرك
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Your patience
|
Grammatical
|
|
Verbs
(2nd person singular)
|
تعاونك معنا
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Your cooperation with us
|
Grammatical
|
|
Verbs
(2nd person singular)
|
لا تترد
|
Do not hesitate
|
Grammatical
|
|
Possessive pronouns
|
حسابك
|
Your account
|
Grammatical
|
|
Greetings
|
مرحبا أحمد
|
Hello Ahmad,
|
Lexical
|
|
Closings
|
تحياتي
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Best Regards
|
Lexical
|
5. Localization challenges
5.1. Proper nouns
Proper nouns refer to unique entities, such as persons, places, organizations, brands, events, etc. As foreign proper nouns are concerned, languages may adopt different rules regarding whether they should be translated or kept in the original language. When editing a text, you should follow your languages rules for all different types of proper nouns listed below. However, please note that if there is a glossary provided by the client that includes these types of units, you should always apply the glossary items.
5.1.1. Persons
There is no difficulty in translating most of proper names into Arabic. All we do is to turn the English letters into Arabic according to their pronunciation in their home country. This is different from translation because it converts the pronunciation of the source word, not its meaning.
Examples
Source text: Mark
✓ مارك
Source text: Maria
✓ ماريا
If the name has no equivalent, or if you are not sure of how it is pronounced, then it might be better to keep it in its original language.
However, if the translation is from Arabic to other languages recommended transliteration, systems can be found here:
5.1.2. Places
Dealing with names of places such as cities, countries and monuments varies from one context to another depending on the details which may require keeping them as they are, and sometimes being Arabized. See the note above about romanization or transliterations.
More common words and place names will be written in Arabic script as they are pronounced; less common names are written in both scripts.
Examples
Source text: London
✓ لندن
Source text: Portugal
✓ البرتغال
Source text: Coliseum
✓ الكولوسيوم
5.1.3. Organizations
Special attention and search tips should be done before writing and/or translating names of places and organization, as they differ from one place to another (e.g. names of ministries, associations, etc.).
Examples
Source text: Manchester University
✓ جامعة مانشستر
Source text: American Society of Civil Engineers
✓ الجمعية الأمريكية للمهندسين المدنيين
Source text: International Federation of Translators
✓ الاتحاد الدولي للمترجمين
5.1.4. Brands and products
It is possible to write the name and/or the brand of the product in Arabic letters and then write it in English between brackets for clarification, or written in English only. However, if there are specific requests by the clients (glossaries)to keep the original brands, you should not translate them.
Examples
Source text: Sony
✓ شركة سوني
Example
Source text: Playstation
✓ شركة سوني
Example
Source text: Samsung Gear VR
✓ سامسونج Gear VR or Samsung Gear VR
5.1.5. Other entities
Translation of names of entities such as art (paintings), names of boats (e.g. Titanic), and events (festivals, theatre plays, etc.) varies from one context to another depending on the details which may require keeping them as they are, and sometimes being Arabized.
The more common and well-known names will be written in Arabic script as they are pronounced; less common names are written in both scripts, with the English name between brackets.
Examples
Source text: Titanic
✓ تايتانيك
Source text: Mona Lisa
✓ الموناليزا
Source text: Broadway Theatre
✓ مسرح برودواي
Special search tips and tricks should be done before choosing either to translate or transliterate those brands and/or products.
5.2. Acronyms and initials
Acronyms and initials in English generally consists on taking the first letter of each word in a phrase.
Examples
Source text: USA (United States of America)
✓ الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية
Source text: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
✓ منظمة حلف شمال الأطلنطي
Example
Source text: WHO (World Health Organization)
✓ منظمة الصحة العالمية
From the above, we find that in Arabic this phenomenon does not occur, or is very rare. However, if there is a glossary stating that you should keep the original acronyms in the translation, you should follow that glossary instead of the Arabic language rules.
5.3. Date format
Unlike English, which uses the format mm/dd/yyyy, Arabic countries generally follow the format yyyy/mm/dd. Thus, in Arabic, the date is written from right to left as follows: يوم/ شهر/ سنة (year/month/day).
Example
Source text: 10/30/2018
✘10/30/2018
✘30/10/2018
✓ 2018/10/30
5.4. Time format
Time can be expressed as follows:
Examples
Source text: 4 p.m.
✓ الساعة الرابعة بعد الظهر
✓ الساعة 4 بعد الظهر
Source text: 9 a.m.
✓ الساعة التاسعة صباحا
✓ الساعة 9 صباحا
5.5. Measures
Measures should always keep the format of the source text and should never be converted. You should only translate them when they have an equivalent term in your language. Note that there is no whitespace between the number and the measure.
Examples
Source text: 1 km
✓ 1كم
✓ 1 كيلومتر
Source text: 100 m
✓ م100
✓ ميتر100
Source text: 1 cm
✓ 1سم
✓ سنتيميتر1
When translating English system units to Arabic you should not convert in any case.
Examples
Source text: 10 inches
✘ 25.4 سم
✘ (10 إنش (25.4 سم
✓ 10 إنش
Source text: 2 miles
✘ 3.22 كم
✘2 ميل (3.22 كم)
✓ 2 ميل
Source text: 10 ft
✘ م 3.048
✘ م)3.048 10 قدم (
✓ 10 قدم
5.6. Currency
Translation of the currency in Arabic is as follows, and symbols should not be used.
Examples
Source text: 80$
✓ 80 دولار أمريكي
Source text: 100€
✓ 100 يورو
NB: pay special attention to numbers and their rules as said above in the numbers section.
6. Most frequent errors
The most common errors can fall into the accuracy and fluency categories.
Accuracy errors
These errors are related to the translation of meaning:
- Overly literal translations and adherence to the source language, i.e. to translate the source expressions word by word and with the same syntax, which leads to confused text style.
- Mistranslation of the meaning of the text, which implies that the translation conveys the wrong message.
Example
Source text: No, benefits will be provided anyway.
✘ لن يتم توفير الفوائد في أي حال
✓ لا، سيتم توفير الفوائد على أي حال
- Incorrectly identification of abbreviations or specific terminology.
Example
Source text: CIS (Customer Information Services)
✘ خدمات الهجرة والمواطنة
✓ موقع معلومات العملاء
- inconsistent use of key words or phrases throughout the document or across different documents that are part of the same body of work. Inconsistency can be confusing to readers, especially when the information is new to them.
Fluency errors
These are problems that affect reading and good understanding of the text:
- Dictation: compound words, movements, orthographic errors.
- Punctuation errors related to the misuse of punctuation. It’s important to be aware that punctuation usage and rules vary in different languages, even when the punctuation marks look the same. Languages that are written from right to left (such as Arabic and Farsi) have adopted some punctuation marks from Western languages, but they are flipped laterally to suit the direction in which the language is written.
- Prepositions errors related to the difference between the English and Arabic languages and styles.
- Verb time related to the difference between the English and Arabic languages.
7. Useful online resources
Arabic grammar
Blogs
Bilingual dictionaries
English verb conjugator
English grammar guide
English dictionaries
Thesauruses
Others
[1] Taha Hussein (November 14, 1889 — October 28, 1973) (Arabic: طه حسين ) (nicknamed "the dean of Arabic literature") was one of the most influential Egyptian writers and intellectuals. He was a figurehead for the modernist movement in Egypt (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Taha+Husain").