English pronunciation for Arabic speakers: the common problems, in order

What Sada can and cannot tell you

Sada checks which of your words came across and how your timing compares with the speaker. It does not grade individual sounds, stress or pitch. When a mistake changes the word (pair → bear, van → fan, asked → ask), that word may show as missed, and that is the most useful signal Sada gives on this page. But the recogniser often guesses the right word from context, so a matched word does not prove every sound in it was right.

Judge the sounds by ear: play your take next to the speaker. To hear one word on its own, use a dictionary with audio such as Cambridge’s pronunciation dictionary; for sound-by-sound grading you need a teacher or a tool that scores individual sounds.

Why Arabic speakers find the same things hard

The problems below are not random. Almost all of them come from four differences between Standard Arabic and English:

• Sounds Arabic does not have: Standard Arabic has no P and no V, so the nearest Arabic sounds, ب and ف, take their place.
• Syllable shape: an Arabic syllable never starts with two consonants. English words start with up to three (“street”, “spring”), and an Arabic speaker tends to add a vowel to break them up.
• Spelling: Arabic is mostly said as it is written. English is not: the -ed of “worked” is not a syllable, the K of “know” is not said, and stress is not written at all.
• Vowels: Standard Arabic has three vowel qualities, each short or long. English has many more, so pairs such as “ship” and “sheep” can sound the same.

The common problems, in order of impact

The order is a judgement, not a measured ranking. It puts first the mistakes that turn one word into another, because a listener cannot get the word back from context; then the ones that change the length or shape of words; then rhythm and melody, which change how you come across more than which words are heard; and last the ones listeners usually work out without effort. It broadly agrees with the Lingua Franca Core, Jennifer Jenkins’s proposal for what matters most when speakers of different first languages talk in English: it counts consonant contrasts and contrastive stress as essential, and TH and pitch as not. It differs on word stress, which the Core leaves out; this page keeps it high because a long word stressed in the wrong place can be hard to recognise, especially for native listeners.

1. P and B

Arabic has only ب, so P comes out as B: “pencil” as “bencil”, “pair” as “bear”. P is the same lip sound with no voice and, at the start of a stressed syllable, a small puff of air. Because the mistake makes another word, listen for it first: “pair” said as “bear” can show as a missed word in Sada’s result.

“Anybody go shopping and put on a pair of pants this week?”

Ivan Joseph · 4:37 · P in “shopping, put, pair, pants”; B in “anybody” · Practise this line →

The full guide, with the paper test and minimal pairs: P and B pronunciation.

2. V and F

Arabic has ف but no V, so “van” comes out as “fan” and “very” as “ferry”. V is F with the voice on: the same teeth on the lower lip, plus a buzz in the throat. Watch “of”, which is written with F and said with V.

“No one was over five foot five.”

William McRaven · 2:03 · V and F side by side: “over, five, foot, five” · Practise this line →

The full guide, with the throat test and pairs like safe and save: V and F pronunciation.

3. The -ed ending

Reading the spelling adds “id” to every verb, so “worked” gets two syllables; speaking fast drops the ending, so “asked” becomes “ask”. The ending is /t/, /d/ or /ɪd/, depending on the verb’s last sound, and a dropped ending is a missed word Sada may show.

“I was stressed, and I was frustrated.”

Oprah Winfrey · 6:01 · /t/ in “stressed” against /ɪd/ in “frustrated” · Practise this line →

The full guide, with the three sounds and why the rule follows the sound, not the letter: -ed endings pronunciation.

4. Word stress

Stress in Standard Arabic follows rules of syllable length; in English each long word has to be learned with its stressed syllable, and the stress moves inside word families (PHOtograph, phoTOgraphy). A word with every syllable equal, or with the stress in the wrong place, is harder to recognise.

“So one of the first things we teach people in economics, statistics, business and psychology courses”

Shawn Achor · 3:57 · four long words, four stress patterns: ecoNOMics, staTIStics, BUSiness, psyCHOLogy · Practise this line →

The full guide, with three rules that hold and noun and verb pairs: word stress practice.

5. Sentence stress and rhythm

English makes the words that carry the meaning strong and hurries through the small ones. Reading every word with the same weight makes a line slow and flat, and in Sada it shows up as falling behind the speaker, the one part of rhythm Sada does measure.

“Not missiles, but microbes.”

Bill Gates · 0:59 · a contrast in four words: “missiles” against “microbes”; listen for how little time “but” takes · Practise this line →

The full guide, with content and function words and lines built on a contrast: sentence stress.

6. Consonant clusters: no extra vowel

Because an Arabic syllable cannot start with two consonants, a vowel slips in before or between them: “street” becomes “istreet” or “sitreet”, and “spring” becomes “ispring”. Listeners usually still understand, but every extra vowel is an extra syllable, so the line takes longer and the rhythm breaks. There is no separate guide for this; practise it here. Say the S and the next consonant together, as one sound, starting from the S itself: sss-top, sss-tuck.

“But that hasn't stopped me from getting stuck in slow-boiling pots, so I started studying why.”

Adam Grant · 1:29 · five words that start with S and another consonant: “stopped, stuck, slow, started, studying”, with no vowel before or between · Practise this line →

7. TH

Standard Arabic already has both TH sounds, ث in “think” and ذ in “this”; the problem is everyday habits that turn them into T, S, D or Z. Listeners usually understand anyway, which is why this is lower on the list than people expect, but “three” said as “tree” is a different word.

“The other thing that they had in common was this:”

Brené Brown · 9:43 · five voiced TH words (“the, other, that, they, this”) and one voiceless (“thing”) · Practise this line →

The full guide, with which words take which sound: TH sound practice.

8. Question intonation

Many learners raise the voice at the end of every question, but questions that start with “what”, “where” or “how” usually fall. The melody rarely stops you being understood; it changes whether you sound like you are asking, checking or unsure. Sada does not measure pitch, so this one is checked by ear. Julian Treasure says the same question twice with two melodies; the second is at 6:50.

“Where did you leave my keys?”

Julian Treasure · 6:48 · the same question said twice with two melodies, to show what pitch does; in this first one, listen to where his voice rises and falls · Practise this line →

The full guide, with the usual patterns and their exceptions: question intonation.

9. Silent letters

Arabic spelling is close to speech, so Arabic speakers tend to say every letter they see: the K of “know”, the L of “could”, the GH of “night”. Listeners almost always understand, and Sada’s recogniser usually hears the right word, so this is last. It still makes speech sound read rather than spoken.

“The honest answer is, I don't know.”

Angela Lee Duckworth · 4:27 · three silent letters in one short line: H in “honest”, W in “answer”, K in “know” · Practise this line →

The full guide, written in Arabic, with six groups that show which letter is silent: الحروف الصامتة في الإنجليزية.

Short and long vowels

English tells words apart by vowels that Arabic does not separate: ship and sheep, full and fool. The long vowel is longer, and its quality is different too. Keeping that difference matters for being understood, but Sada cannot help much here: the recogniser usually picks the right word from the sentence, and neither of the pairs below may show as missed. Use a dictionary with audio, such as Cambridge’s, to hear each word, and a teacher for feedback.

A ten-minute self-check

Open each line above, record it once, and play your take next to the speaker. Note which words Sada showed as missed and where you fell behind, then use this table to find the guide to start with. A missed word may also be noise, a quiet microphone or a caption error, so listen before you decide.

How to practise

1. Open an exercise from this guide. Start with the short starter line to learn how Sada works: listen, record, compare.
2. Open the nine problem lines in order and record each one once, without practising first.
3. For each line, note the words Sada showed as missed and where you fell behind the speaker, then check the self-check table.
4. Record a take, then open Compare and play your recording and the original. Review words and timing; Sada does not grade individual sounds.
5. Open the guide for the first problem the table points to, practise its five lines for a week, then record the self-check again and compare the two takes.

Keep going

To see what Sada checks in every take, read the pronunciation checker. For a wider plan, with listening, recording and a weekly routine: how to improve your English pronunciation. For more real sentences from short to long: listen-and-repeat practice. For weak forms and linking: connected speech practice. The same kind of page for speakers of Indian languages: English pronunciation for Indian speakers. For more lines to practise, from famous talks: Brené Brown: The Power of Vulnerability; Ivan Joseph: The Skill of Self Confidence; Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation; Celeste Headlee: 10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation; Steve Jobs: Stanford Commencement Address (2005); Cameron Russell: Looks Aren’t Everything. Believe Me, I’m a Model..

Sources: word pronunciations from the Cambridge Dictionary; Standard Arabic sounds, syllable shape, vowels and stress from Arabic phonology; which features matter most between speakers of different first languages from Lingua Franca Core; the rest from the sources of each guide.