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Video lesson

Cursos de español para árabes

Duration: 6:39 Published: 18 Sep 2017

Abdalá is from Dubai and his mother tongue is Arabic. He came to Madrid to do a master's degree and now studies at Tilde to improve his grammar. With Pilar, he compares Spanish and Arabic.

In Tilde Madrid Spanish school in Madrid, we have Spanish lessons specially designed for Arab speakers

Key points

  • The sound p does not exist in Arabic, so Arabic speakers often pronounce it like b; the ñ, on the other hand, is easy for them.
  • Arabic has a definite article but no indefinite article, so un, una, unos, unas need extra practice.
  • Spanish object pronouns go before the verb (te escribo), while in Arabic they come after it.
  • Arabic has no equivalent of ser and estar, and from 21 onwards numbers are said in a different order.

Frequent doubts

Why is the letter p difficult for Arabic speakers?

Because Arabic does not have that sound, so learners tend to replace it with b: bilar instead of Pilar. Practising pairs such as peso and beso helps.

Is grammatical gender a problem for Arabic speakers?

Not really: Arabic also has masculine and feminine nouns. The difficulty is in the articles, especially the indefinite ones.

Are Spanish and Arabic similar?

In vocabulary, yes: thousands of Spanish words come from Arabic, such as aceite, azúcar, almohada or ojalá.

Part of Spanish Sessions, the YouTube channel of the teachers at Tilde Madrid — more than 3 million views.

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