THE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

FOR ARABIC SPEAKERS

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In this guide, you will learn about the most common pronunciation challenges
Arabic speakers face, how to overcome them, and how to PRACTICE
effectively in order to improve your pronunciation and clarity in English. Daily
practice and repetition of sounds will help you create awareness, and help
you develop the muscle memory needed to pronounce the sounds and words
correctly with little effort!

Here are the 10 most common challenges Arabic speakers face when
speaking English: (Don’t forget to listen to the audio and practice along)
-CHALLENGE #1-

Replacing P with B
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) lacks the P sound so there is no distinction between P
and B. Therefore, many Arabic speakers might pronounce a word like ‘pay’ as ‘bay’.

Pronounce the following words, and make sure you pronounce the P with
no vibration of the vocal cords:

pizza stop

price tap

please leap

happy types

Pronounce the following pairs and make sure they don’t sound the same:

buy-pie bro-pro

bill-Pill cob-cop

bride-pride lab-lap

bees-peas robe-rope

bet-pet mob-mop

For more about these sounds watch P vs. B

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-CHALLENGE #2-

Breaking consonant clusters

Consonant clusters are sequences of consonants without a vowel between them. In

MSA, clusters are less common than in English, especially at the beginning of words.
Therefore, many Arabic speakers tend to eliminate such clusters, usually by adding a
vowel before the cluster or in between its consonants. For example, a word like ‘spring’
(with the cluster ‘spr’) might be pronounced as ‘sipring’, with two vowels instead of one.
Such insertions are common in words in the past form that carry the -ed suffix
(pronounced as D or T). Although the ‘e’ in the spelling is silent, some speakers may
perceive it as “permission” to add a vowel and break the cluster: wi-shed, bar-ked,
ma-na-ged, etc.

Pronounce the following words, and make sure you don’t add or delete
sounds:

spin card robbed

pray belt checked

glow texts missed

sphere mark escaped

strange field developed

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-CHALLENGE #3-

Replacing CH with SH

In MSA there is no distinction between SH and CH as there is in English. The CH sound

might appear at the end of words when a T sound appears before a SH sound. Since the
CH is not a distinct sound in MSA, speakers tend to change it to SH. So a word like ‘chip’
might sound like ‘ship’.

Pronounce the following pairs, making sure they don’t sound the same:

Shane-chain chic-cheek

shop-chop sheer-cheer

shock-chalk sheet-cheat

share-chair shore-chore

sherry-cherry shows-chose

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-CHALLENGE #4-

Merging different vowels

In MSA, neither /ɛ/ nor /ɪ/ exists as a distinct sound. Therefore, MSA speakers might
confuse them with /i/ that exists in MSA and say ‘beat’ instead of ‘bit’ or ‘bet.

Pronounce the following words, and make sure they don’t sound the same:

seat-set seat-sit

neat-net feet-fit

wheat-wet wheat-wit

seed-said lead-lid

lease-less deep-dip

For more on vowels watch:

Bed vs. Bad
Sheep vs. Ship
Minimal Pairs
Vowel Masterclass

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-CHALLENGE #5-

Mispronouncing the vowel /ɜ˞/ as in STIR

There is no STIR vowel sound in MSA and speakers of MSA tend to replace this sound
with a neutral vowel sound according to the vowel letter in the spelling. For example, a
word like ‘bird’ might sound like ‘beard’.

Pronounce the following words, and make sure you raise the tongue arch
slightly and push the lips forward a bit.

birth heard burn word

first nerd hurt world

shirt jerk purchase worse

girl certain furniture worm

Pronounce the following words, and make sure they don’t sound the same:

hair-her

fare-fur

pair-purr

wear-were

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-CHALLENGE #6-

Mispronouncing the R
In MSA, the R is a trill sound, where the tip of your tongue touches the roof of the mouth.
In English, however, there is no contact between the tongue and the roof of the mouth,
and the sides of the tongue touch the sides of the teeth. When speakers of MSA speak
English, they tend to use their native R.

Pronounce the following words, and make sure there is no contact with the
roof of your mouth:

rich arrive car

run carry store

rose marriage fear

ride Paris war

break story smear

For more about the R watch:

The R sound
The R sound [podcast]
R Practice
R Bootcamp

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-CHALLENGE #7-

Mispronouncing the TH
The voiced and voiceless TH sounds exist in MSA but MSA speakers usually don’t use
them in their dialect and tend to replace them with S/Z (or T/D). When they speak
English, they tend to make this switch as well, so words like ‘path’ and ‘breathe’ might
sound like ‘pass’ and ‘breeze’.

Pronounce the following words and make sure to stick the tongue out and
release air for the TH:

sing-thing zen-then

seem-theme closing-clothing

face-faith breeze-breathe

miss-myth sues-soothe

worse-worth lows-loathe

For more about the TH watch The TH Sound

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-CHALLENGE #8-

Mispronouncing the L
The L in MSA is almost always a light L. So when MSA speakers switch to English, they
might use the light L even at the end of words, where it should be a dark L.

Pronounce the following words, and make sure you differentiate between a
light and a dark L:

leg feel

lips tool

light coal

league style

late help

For more about the L watch The L in English

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-CHALLENGE #9-

Simplifying diphthongs
There are fewer diphthongs in MSA than there are in English. When MSA speakers come
across words with the OW as in ‘go’, or the EY as in ‘day’, they tend to pronounce the first
part of the diphthong as a longer vowel. In such cases, a word like ‘coat’ might sound
like ‘caught’, and a word like ‘mate’ might sound like ‘met’.

Pronounce the following words, and make sure you pronounce the
diphthongs fully:

vote wage

don’t patience

toaster maintenance

lonely playful

Pronounce the following words, and make sure they don’t sound the same:

bought-boat bet-bait

caught-coat get-gate

law-low tech-take

Paul-pole tell-tail

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-CHALLENGE #10-

Replacing NG with N
The NG sound, as in the word ‘king’, doesn’t exist in MSA. Therefore, MSA speakers tend
to change it into an N sound. In such cases, a word like ‘king’ might sound like ‘kin’.

Pronounce the following words, and make sure they don’t sound the same:

sin-sing

win-wing

sun-sung

run-rung

ban-bang

For more about the NG watch The NG Sound

And remember…

Speak Up!
(making mistakes is the only way to learn)

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