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🇬🇧 → 🇸🇦

How easy is Arabic (MSA) for English speakers?

Going from English to Arabic (MSA) (العربية) has a composite linguistic distance of 87% (curated lexical data). Below is the dimension-by-dimension breakdown.

87% distance FSI Cat IV (Hardest) — ~2,200 hours
Lexical similarity
5%

Shared vocabulary, cognates, and loanwords.

Grammatical distance
46%

Morphology, syntax, word order, cases.

Phonological similarity
0%

Shared sounds and phoneme inventory.

Writing-system match
0%

Latin → Arabic

Genealogical kinship
0%

Indo-European ↔ Afro-Asiatic

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Sample sentences side-by-side

How everyday sentences look in both languages:

🇬🇧 English
The chemistry and algebra courses are fascinating at the university.
🇸🇦 Arabic (MSA)
مواد الكيمياء والجبر رائعة في الجامعة.
🇬🇧 English
Coffee and sugar are enjoyed in cafes all over the world.
🇸🇦 Arabic (MSA)
يُستمتع بالقهوة والسكر في المقاهي في جميع أنحاء العالم.

Other easy languages for English speakers

The 5 languages with the lowest linguistic distance from English:

Think you can tell them apart?

A quick 3-question check between English and Arabic (MSA). No signup.