The missing verb
Arabic forms a perfectly good present-tense sentence with no verb at all — the nominal sentence (الجملة الاسمية). هو معلم is complete: He teacher.
English never allows this. Every English sentence needs a verb, and when there is no action, the verb is be.
- He teacher. → He is a teacher.
- The weather nice today. → The weather is nice today.
- I from Egypt. → I am from Egypt.
- This important. → This is important.
Note that the correction adds two things — the verb is and the article a. Which brings us to the articles.
Both article errors, at the same time
This is the distinctive one, and it is worth understanding rather than memorising, because Arabic speakers make two opposite article errors simultaneously.
| Arabic | Consequence in English |
|---|---|
| No indefinite article. Arabic has no a / an. | You omit it. He is teacher. I have car. |
| A definite article (ال) used far more widely than English the — including on abstract and general nouns. | You overuse it. The life is hard. I study the English. |
So the fixes point in opposite directions:
- Add a / an before a singular countable noun you have not mentioned before: He is a teacher. I have a car. She is an engineer.
- Remove the from general statements and abstract nouns: ~~The~~ Life is hard. I study ~~the~~ English. ~~The~~ Children need exercise. ~~The~~ Education is important.
The 'and' problem — this costs two criteria
In Arabic prose, و (wa-) legitimately chains clause after clause. It is a normal, correct, even elegant feature of Arabic writing, and long coordinated sentences are good style.
Transferred into English, it produces sentences like this:
Pollution is a big problem in my city and it affects everyone and the government should do something about it and many people are getting sick and this is because of the factories and the cars.
The fix is not shorter sentences. It is subordination — naming the relationship you meant:
- Pollution is a serious problem in my city, largely because of the factories and the traffic. Although the government has promised action, many residents are already falling ill, which suggests the response has come too late.
Same ideas. Two sentences instead of one. And now the reader knows how they connect — because, although, which — which is precisely what both criteria are measuring.
The extra pronoun in relative clauses
Arabic requires a resumptive pronoun inside a relative clause: الرجل الذي رأيته = the man who I saw him. The pronoun is obligatory, not optional.
In English, the relative pronoun is the object, so the extra pronoun is a duplicate and must be deleted.
- The man who I saw him yesterday is my teacher. → The man who I saw yesterday is my teacher.
- The book that I read it was interesting. → The book that I read was interesting.
- The city which I live in it is beautiful. → The city which I live in is beautiful. / …in which I live…
Worth drilling, because relative clauses are cheap complex grammar — a reliable way to demonstrate range in almost any sentence, once the extra pronoun is gone.
Capital letters
The Arabic script has no capital letters. So capitalisation is not a rule you are forgetting — it is an entire system your first language does not have, and it must be learned deliberately.
It is scored: punctuation and mechanics sit inside the grammar criterion, and inconsistent capitals across a whole essay is a systematic error.
- The first word of every sentence.
- Names of people, countries, cities: Ahmed, Egypt, Cairo.
- Languages and nationalities: Arabic, English, Egyptian.
- Days and months: Monday, January. (But not seasons: summer.)
- The pronoun I, always — even in the middle of a sentence.
Smaller errors worth fixing
| Instead of | Write |
|---|---|
| I am agree. | I agree. |
| Discuss about the problem. | Discuss the problem. (no preposition) |
| informations, advices, equipments | information, advice, equipment — uncountable |
| He is not have a car. | He does not have a car. |
| Yesterday I have gone to the market. | Yesterday I went to the market. (finished time → past simple) |
| People is friendly. | People are friendly. |
| I live here since five years. | I have lived here for five years. (for = duration) |
| She has a long black beautiful hair. | She has beautiful long black hair. (opinion → size → colour; hair is uncountable) |
Frequently asked questions
Why do Arabic speakers leave out 'is' and 'are'?
Because Arabic forms a perfectly correct present-tense sentence with no verb at all — the nominal sentence. 'هو معلم' means 'he teacher', and it is complete. English never permits this: every sentence needs a verb, and when there is no action the verb is 'be'. Note that fixing it usually adds two things, the verb and an article: 'he is a teacher'.
Why do Arabic speakers get 'a' and 'the' wrong in opposite directions?
Because Arabic has no indefinite article at all, so 'a' gets omitted — 'he is teacher' — while its definite article is used far more widely than English 'the', including on abstract and general nouns, so 'the' gets overused: 'the life is hard', 'I study the English'. Both errors happen at once. The rule that covers most of it: a general statement about a whole category takes no article.
Why are my English sentences too long?
Because Arabic prose legitimately chains clauses with 'wa-', and long coordinated sentences are good Arabic style. In English this produces a chain of clauses joined by 'and', which costs you twice: 'and' states no relationship between the ideas, damaging coherence, and a chain of coordinated clauses contains no subordination, so it demonstrates no grammatical range. The fix is not shorter sentences — it is naming the relationship with 'because', 'although' or 'which'.
Why is 'the man who I saw him' wrong?
Because Arabic requires a resumptive pronoun inside a relative clause and English forbids it. In English the relative pronoun is already the object, so the extra 'him' is a duplicate: 'the man who I saw yesterday'. Worth drilling, because relative clauses are cheap complex grammar once the extra pronoun is gone.
Why do I make capitalisation mistakes in English?
Because the Arabic script has no capital letters at all, so this is not a rule you are forgetting — it is a whole system your first language does not have, and it must be learned deliberately. It is scored, since mechanics sit inside the grammar criterion, and inconsistent capitals across an essay count as a systematic error.