Why Learning Arabic Is Easy (Despite What You've Heard)

Arabic is one language that native English speakers are often intimidated by.

It looks difficult. It sounds difficult. It must be difficult.

The FSI (Foreign Service Institute) even places Arabic in one of its most challenging categories.

Everyone just seems to assume that it's incredibly challenging and only gifted language learners are able to succeed at becoming fluent in it.

Well I'm here to tell you that they're all wrong.

Arabic has the 'appearance' of difficulty because of its squiggly lines, harsh-sounding pronunciation and foreign cultures but when you really get started, you quickly discover many reasons why it is - in fact - easier than most major languages to learn.

So let's get started.

What are you learning Arabic for exactly?

Obviously, the title of this article really depends first and foremost on your own motivation for learning.

We receive emails every single day here from people all around the world who want to learn Arabic.

Some of the more specific reasons we hear are:

Then there are vague responses like these:

Believe it or not but you can accurately gauge whether or not a person is likely to succeed at learning Arabic based on their answer to the question: Why?

Things are naturally easier when you're passionate about the outcome.

And even when it's not easy, you'll find a way to push through.

Let's clear up the confusion on Arabic dialects

Adding to the previous point, your purpose will determine which Arabic you learn.

We also get a lot of questions about dialects here on this site:

The answer is simple but only you can answer that as it depends on the people you intend to communicate with, the part of the world you intend to travel to and the functional use that you need Arabic for.

In the military and being deployed to Iraq?

Learn Iraqi.

Have Jordanian extended relatives?

Learn Jordanian (Levantine).

Want to be able to read newspapers but have no need to speak with people?

Learn MSA.

Planning to move to Morocco?

Learn Moroccan.

It's all common sense really.

But you'd be surprised how many people contact us asking things like, "I love Lebanon and Lebanese culture but I heard that Egyptian is a better dialect for me to learn."

The only time we'd suggest learning a different dialect to the one you're actually passionate about learning is if there are no resources for that specific dialect but there are for a similar dialect.

An example might be learning Egyptian or Tunisian if you can't find Libyan resources.

Other than that, stick with what you care about.

Just one important note: Don't learn MSA as a spoken dialect. As we say often here - nobody anywhere speaks it as a native language.

Only learn Modern Standard Arabic if literacy is your primary goal.

The Arabic alphabet / script is very straightforward

One of the most common concerns for people wanting to learn Arabic is that the script or alphabet looks insanely difficult.

Squiggles and dots! 🙂

It's intimidating for the uninitiated, no doubt about it.

But let us assure you that the Arabic alphabet is surprisingly easy and straightforward.

It really just takes a day or two to get your head around the fact that it's written right-to-left and the letters are connected (like cursive writing in English).

Remember too: Arabic letters share the same ancient origin as our own alphabet - Phoenician.

That's why letters like lam (ل) and sin (س) bear close resemblance to their English counterparts. Others are simply a matter of remembering dot placement.

The only somewhat challenging aspect that can't be argued is the absence of vowels:

Arabic is what's known as an abjad (a - b - j - d are the first letters of the Arabic alphabet).

An abjad is a writing system where each letter is a consonant but the vowel markings are left out, leaving you the reader, to assume where they belong.

This means that a word like kalb (dog) is written: k - l - b.

It's up to you to know where the vowel belongs.

Although there is no shortcut here, over time you start to recognize patterns in writing and can make accurate guesses on most words.

It's also worth noting that even in English, many words such as through and receipt are not pronounced as they're written either.

You only know their pronunciation through exposure and practice.

Same goes with Arabic.

Roots make learning Arabic vocabulary much easier

One of the defining aspects of languages like Arabic (and other Semitic languages) is that most of its vocab can be derived from 3-letter roots/stems.

There are some 2 and 4 letter stems too but most have 3.

This makes learning Arabic vocabulary a cinch! 🙂

So let's give you an example.

Take the stem K(ك)-T(ت)-B(ب).

This 3-letter stem makes up Arabic words related somehow to writing and from it, you can derive all sorts of related vocab.

Here:

All those words are semantically related and contain the same stem.

Just in a different configuration.

By comparison, if you look at the English words of the same meaning, they don't use the same root letters and bear no resemblance.

This means that over time as you get better at Arabic, you'll be able to take accurate guesses at meaning of various words if you know its stem.

Another good example is the stem: F-T-H (فتح) means “to open”.

By putting the letter mim (M) at the beginning of the word and including a long vowel on its last syllable, it becomes instrumental.

And we know that a key is instrumental for opening things.

This is why Arabic roots make learning vocabulary so fun and much simpler than other languages.

Arabic grammar is simple compared to other languages

Arabic grammar is incredibly simple.

Especially when you compare it to languages like Russian and German.

Admittedly, your learning style and choice of dialect make a big difference here (e.g. learning MSA with a traditional grammar-translation approach vs. learning a spoken dialect through a communicative method) but either way, the grammar is remarkably simple.

Here's a brief list of some of the most important examples (in no particular order):

As you can see, compared to many other languages, Arabic is grammatically simple and straightforward.

You already have a head start learning Arabic!

Finally, you'll find that colloquial Arabic dialects borrow a LOT of foreign vocabulary and expressions.

Especially English and French.

French is particularly influential in the Maghrib (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia).

In other dialects like Egyptian and Levantine, you'll find that native speakers frequently codeswitch and use English expressions (this is becoming more and more prevalent due to social media).

Some terms are borrowed and still considered "foreign" while others have now become part of the local language.

You can find a list of loanwords here.

Arabic is without doubt one of the easiest languages to find conversation partners

Arabic is one of the easiest languages on earth in our opinion to find opportunities to practice.

Arabs aren't shy! 🙂

You'll never have trouble finding willing conversation partners with Arabic as Arabic-speaking people are - generally speaking - very warm and welcoming.

Compare this to many other cultures around the world where shyness and/or reservedness tend to make it harder to approach strangers to practice.

Can't travel just yet?

We recommend italki for Arabic practice (many of our own teachers and contributors also offer conversation lessons there).

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