Some interesting facts about the Arabic language
1. Arabic is an official language in 26 countries, including Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, to name but a few.
2. Arabic has influenced a lot of languages. Even English has many Arabic loanwords such as alcohol, algebra, cotton, giraffe, magazine and sugar.
3. Arabic has no capital letters, and uses quotation marks for emphasis instead of capital letters.
4. Arabic has sounds that don’t exist in other languages making pronunciation difficult for some non-native speakers.
5. Arabic words are written from right to left but Arabic numbers are written from left to right.
Native translators and high-quality translations you can trust
Surrey Translation Bureau is an award-winning and ISO-certified translation agency that employs experienced English to Arabic translators specialising in an extensive range of translation areas and subjects.
We have a vast amount of experience with Arabic translation; during the 2021/22 financial year, we translated — words from English to Arabic.
We assess each project on an individual basis, so that we can provide a translator who is an expert within this language combination and specialises in your text type and subject area.
A few difficulties when translating into Arabic
1. The Arabic language has many more words than English. Whilst English has approximately 1 million words, Arabic has 12 million distinct words. When translating from English to Arabic, translators must be familiar with this disparity and have knowledge of such a wide vocabulary. They also need to be aware of additional letters in the Arabic alphabet which consists of 28 letters.
2. The Arabic language is one of the oldest in the world and is spoken by more than 400 million people worldwide, from North Africa to the Arabian Peninsula. No surprise, then, that there are many variants and dialects of Arabic. Modern Standard Arabic is the standardised written language used by most for written texts. Whilst this may seem simple, the Arabic language is complex, including its long sentences and words with several meanings.
3. Arabic uses right-to-left formatting whilst English uses left-to-right. Therefore, translators must be aware of how this will affect page formatting.
4. Identifying these differences requires an expert approach when translating from one language to another. Ensuring your project or proposal can be understood down to the very last detail allows any communication barriers to be broken down, building up your organisation’s presence, prospects and potential on both a local and global scale, in the short and long term.
Why use Surrey Translation Bureau for English to Arabic translation?
Here at Surrey Translation Bureau (STB), we think beyond simply translating the text. We also offer a variety of language services to increase the functionality and outreach of your text, including desktop publishing, localisation, proofreading, editing, notarisation and legalisation. Our desktop publishing service is highly recommended for languages such as Arabic that use non-Latin alphabets. We insert the text manually into our client’s required format, ensuring that important considerations such as font and type size have been carefully and appropriately reproduced; alternatively, we can check the final document if the client has done the formatting themselves.
No matter your individual or business requirements, the format or purpose of your text, STB’s dedicated and highly skilled team of English to Arabic translators can deliver the perfect text to fit your brief, enabling you to address your target audience effectively and successfully.
Contact a member of our knowledgeable team at STB to find out more about our English to Arabic translation service.
