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Chapter 3:  ARABIC

                    Feature        Arabic               English              Examples of Errors
                    Prepositions   Exist but there is not   Exist but there is not   Preposition substitution
                                   a one‐to‐one         a one‐to‐one         or redundancy:
                                   correspondence with  correspondence with  Go in inside the house. *
                                   English prepositions.   Arabic prepositions   /Go inside the house.
                                   *Some prepositions                        I picked up your umbrella
                                   in English do not                         for mistake. * /I picked up
                                   exist in colloquial                       your umbrella by mistake.
                                   Arabic
                    Auxillary      Do not exist         Exist                Deletion of has/have in
                    verbs                                                    present perfect tense and
                                                                             auxiliary redundancy:

                                                                             They are will be resting. *
                                                                             /They were resting.
                    Present        Does not exist       Exists               I working  tomorrow. */I
                    tense verb                                               am working tomorrow.
                    ‘to be’
                   (Ager, 2013; Anbray, 2011; Lewis, Simons, & Fennig, 2013; Noor, 1996; Shoebottom, 2012;
                   Thompson, 2013)




                   SPECIAL NOTE: VOCABULARY ERRORS


                          A common mistake made by Arabic speakers acquiring English is the use of “he” for

                   “she” because “he” sounds similar to the Arabic word meaning “she.”  Also, Arabic speakers


                   may use “who” for “he” because  “who” sounds very similar to the Arabic word for “he.”





                   HOME CORNER


                          I grew up in Lebanon, a country where English, Arabic, and French are pretty much

                   interchangeable.  At home, I predominantly spoke Arabic.  At school, I predominantly spoke

                   French, but in college I mostly spoke English.


                          Language was never anything I thought about and I definitely took it for granted.  I

                   was even disappointed in myself because I thought I didn't know how to speak “another”
                                                                                                                 16
                   language. It wasn't until I moved to the United States that I started realizing how lucky I was


                   to speak three languages so fluently and effortlessly.  I did, however, notice a major change

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