Prepositions in Levantine Arabic: Common Mistakes Learners Make

This is the second episode in our series, “Common Mistakes Levantine Arabic Learners Make.” In the first episode, we only had time to discuss two common mistakes:

1. The overuse of delexicalized verbs, like saying “هو أثر كبير” instead of the correct form.

2. Assuming verbs in Arabic have the same functions as in your first language, such as saying “the boy asked his mother to go on an outing” as “الولد بسأل أمه” instead of “الولد بطلب من أمه يطلع مشوار” or “الولد طلب من أمه يطلع مشوار”.

Avoid These Common Levantine Arabic Mistakes: Why Translation Can Hold You Back

If you haven’t listened to that episode, check it out now. Both of these mistakes come down to problems either in learning through translation or thinking through translation. When we heavily depend on our first language to inform subsequent language acquisition, we tend to transfer a lot of incorrect perceptions of how language works. This is especially true when it comes to prepositions. You know, with, for, by, of, on, off, about—these function words are prepositions. Most of these do not have a complete meaning on their own, but when we connect them with verbs, we create lots of prepositional phrases.

Now, you probably already know that prepositions in any language can be quite problematic for language learners, but it’s possible that you don’t know why. So today, I’m going to share with you some of the reasons why prepositions are so confusing for us. I actually think this podcast could change your life. OK, maybe I’m being overly dramatic, but honestly, if you are serious about learning Arabic well and speaking accurately, you need to know how prepositions function in Arabic, and this podcast episode is going to give you some insights that took me years to learn. So it may change the way you see prepositions from here on out.

So sit back for the next bit and get ready to have your mind blown. And if it’s not, if you know everything I’m going to tell you already, congratulations! You likely already have reached a very high level of Arabic fluency.

However, the thing about prepositions is that even learners with a high level of Arabic proficiency occasionally experience confusion in knowing how to apply their knowledge of how prepositions work to everyday contexts. As I pointed out in the first episode about common errors, one of the greatest misconceptions language learners can have is assuming that verbs function similarly across languages, when in reality, Arabic verbs often convey nuanced meanings that differ from their perceived English counterparts. Well, guess what? Prepositions are also incredibly nuanced. In fact, I think it might be safe to say that prepositions are one of the elements of colloquial Levantine Arabic that are most likely to cause persistent errors, even for advanced language learners.

Why Are Levantine Arabic Prepositions So Confusing?

If you are a newer Arabic learner, you’re probably thinking, “No way. Verb conjugation struggles are where most of my errors come from.” But trust me when I say that verb patterns eventually work themselves out. You don’t observe many Arabic learners who have put in 1,500 or 2,000 hours still struggling to use the right verb tenses, but we do see a lot of errors with prepositions. These tend to become ingrained or stabilized over time, especially the more we use them. Often, this causes very fluent speakers to still lack a polished accuracy in their speech.

Part of the reason for this, I’ve come to learn, is due to a lack of prepositional knowledge or some underlying misconceptions about how prepositions operate in spoken Arabic, and that’s what we’re here to help you with today. So this is my attempt at highlighting one of the most common mistakes to avoid when learning Arabic. Prepositions are a big one, so we are likely to do several episodes to cover all of the complexities, but today we’re going to cover some of the “why,” and in future episodes, I’ll provide more practical insights on specific tricky prepositions to actually help you destabilize some of the common ingrained errors that you may already be making and simply not be aware of.

So let’s talk about why that is. Why are prepositions troublesome, causing persistent errors even for advanced learners? I want to share with you what my research has revealed about prepositional errors in Arabic. Recently, I conducted an investigation to discover what prepositional patterns give learners the most trouble. I analyzed learner responses to identify the frequency and types of errors and focused on how often certain mistakes occur. I also examined what semantic associations learners brought to Arabic learning, at least from an English background. For example, most learners thought that “عن” always means “about,” which led to frequent misuse in contexts where Arabic requires different prepositions for that same meaning.

By categorizing these errors, I discovered two underlying causes that I suspect contribute to our tendency to have the most trouble with prepositions:

1. False assumption of meaning or transfer of ideas from how prepositions work in your language into Arabic.

2. The wide range of unexpected meanings that a single Arabic preposition can express.

How English Influences Your Levantine Arabic: Breaking False Prepositional Habits

Let’s unpack these, because often knowing why we produce errors in our speech can help us avoid them. Learners often have the false assumption or belief that a preposition works in the same way it functioned in their first language. They may not even think about this, and transferring some ideas of how things work in your first language can actually be an asset—that is, when you’re correct. However, the belief that each preposition is attached to one equivalent in your first language can end up being your greatest enemy in language acquisition. Let me say that again: the belief that each preposition is attached to one equivalent in your first language can end up being your greatest enemy in language acquisition.

That’s because Arabic prepositions rarely have exact equivalents in another language, so your assumptions about how things work with prepositions in Arabic, if they’re based on another language’s system, only work as a positive when the meaning is congruent. In other words, when it’s the same.

Arabic Prepositions: Why One Word Can Mean Many Things

For example, most people know that “في” can mean “in” or “inside,” and so can “بـ” .”على” can mean “on,” and “مع” can mean “with,” at least with people. Consider these examples:

Is there milk in the refrigerator?: في حليب في التلاجة؟
Put the paper on the table: حط الورقة على الطاولة
My friend went with me to the wedding: صاحبي راح معي على العرس

These sentences give English speakers very little difficulty. These prepositions work, at least in these sentences, in a way that is congruent to our understanding of “on,” “in,” and “with” in our language.

However, Arabic prepositions are context-dependent, meaning the situation determines which preposition is used. Now, this surprises learners when they suddenly realize, for instance, that the concept we associate with the preposition “with” in English can be conveyed by multiple prepositions in Arabic. For example, “Are you finished with the charger?”: خلصت من الشاحن؟

Whenever we use “خلص” in this way, it is followed by “من.” It’s a prepositional collocation or a combination that works as one unit. In other words, in this context, “خلص” and “من” are partners. Now, this is really important to watch out for in Arabic. Whenever a verb comes up, think to yourself: what is its partner? Is there a preposition that follows this verb?

On the other hand, whenever we use something or do something with an object, like “I’m cutting the onion with a knife”: بقطع البصل بالسكين

Or “He made it by hand”: عملها بيده

We use “بـ.” It’s still “with,” but it can be expressed as more than one preposition. It can be “في,” it can be “بـ,” it can be “من,” it can be “مع.” Here’s another situation entirely: If there’s a problem with the electricity at my house: في مشكلة بالكهرباء ببيتي

Or “There is a mix-up with the electricity bill”: في مشكلة بفاتورة الكهرباء

It also requires “بـ,” not “مع” or “من.” So you see, these four prepositions can express “with” in colloquial Levantine Arabic, depending on the context.

The inverse of this is that each Arabic preposition can also carry a plethora of different meanings depending on the context. In other words, one preposition can be used in several ways and can express different ideas or relationships between words. After all, prepositions are function words. This makes sense when you consider that in Arabic there are only 20 prepositions, but in English or Dutch, for example, there can be as many as 120+. What this means is that some prepositions like “من” or “في” can actually carry the meanings, depending on the context, of up to a dozen different prepositions in English. Isn’t it incredible? They’re doing a lot of work.

For example, the preposition “عن” is the most misunderstood of all prepositions, and can mean “about,” “from,” “off of,” “than,” “for,” as in “in place of” something or as a substitution when something or someone normally does something, like “wash the dishes for your sister; she has to study,” or “cook dinner for your mother because she is sick.” Depending on how it’s used in a sentence, you can see its meaning drastically changes. So watch out—the assumption that learners make that will get them in the most trouble is that “عن” always means “about,” or any of the other meanings that we might assign it. This is the most frequent false semantic equivalent I’ve seen so far in my research.

Take the following examples:

• بفكر عن
• بسأل عن
• بتكلم عن
• بتحدث عن
• بحكي عن
• بكتب عن
• بقرأ عن
• بسمع عن
• بخبر عن
• بقول عن
• قالوا عن
• خطب عن
• بعبر عن

See, all of these sentences could be translated into English as “about,” but in many contexts that feel like “about” is needed, actually, they require another preposition, because the verbs they are attached to perform with that preposition as one unit.

This example right here of how “عن” can mean “about,” but so many other prepositions can also mean “about,” is such an important oversight that I see for Arabic learners that I plan to make an episode entirely about this issue very soon. For now, try to train your ears to keep an eye out for these. Anytime in a language session that you are corrected and it involves a preposition, keep yourself a running list. Have your language coach make a recording of the correct uses, and listen every day until you can fill in the preposition along with the voice on the recording. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of asking yourself, “What else do I assume? Are there other ways that I am generalizing?”

Let’s test this. Do you know which preposition in Arabic means “from”? Is it “من” or “عن”? The answer may surprise you. It’s both, depending on the context. Do you see where we’re going here? This is the theme.

“The man separated from his wife”: الزلمة انفصل عن مرته

“My son graduated from university”: ابني تخرج من الجامعة

In English, we use “from” for both of these contexts, but in Arabic, both of these prepositions (من and عن) can carry the same meaning of spatial separation. And to further complicate this, they have many other meanings in addition to this one.

How to Practice Levantine Arabic Prepositions: Tips from Expert Learners

Arabic prepositions are powerful. They have a great range of meaning, and this makes learning and using Arabic prepositions rather confusing. I won’t deny it, because you have to understand which meaning fits best in each situation and the Arabic preposition that corresponds with that meaning in that specific context. But it shouldn’t discourage you. These things are not endless or insurmountable; they just need careful attention. Don’t be sloppy about your learning. Take it seriously. Consider yourself a prepositional detective. Don’t leave it up to your language coach to teach you those things—make it instead your personal priority to master them. The first step is just beginning to pay attention. A high level of alertness to prepositional use can make all the difference.

Now, there’s a difference between a mistake and an error, and one thing to keep in mind is that sometimes our knowledge of Arabic prepositions and how they work is just underdeveloped. It’s not yet an error; it’s just a mistake that we make. That’s part of the normal process of things. We might just not know that information yet. This takes time. So if you are six months or even a year into learning, don’t beat yourself up. There are always developmental errors in any language that you will outgrow with more exposure as you begin to allow yourself to view Arabic through the lens of Arabic. Do this rather than through the scaffolding from a previous language that you’ve brought with you.

I interviewed several learners that exhibited very few prepositional errors—these outliers in the recent study I conducted—and I asked them to explain what they attributed their success to. There were some common themes that I want to share with you. The first was extensive and repeated input or exposure to large quantities of speech. This is foundational, crucial to strong linguistic development, not just for comprehension, but for your mind to sift through all the patterns available. As it does this, even when missing passively, your brain is storing high-frequency sequences and language combinations, so make sure you get to the place where extensive exposure to language is possible for you—language you understand almost entirely. Again, this takes time.

And the second thing they shared, just as important as this first, was that almost all of these high-proficiency learners mentioned that they give attention to learning prepositions. They notice when they are corrected, and they ask themselves, “What did I expect, and what did I use instead?” There’s not always a reason for why that preposition was required. It often just operates as a unit with that verb, like “depend on” or “care for” or “jealous of.”

Why do we use “on” for “and of” in these contexts? We just do, and it’s in our gut. Instinctually, we know which one to use because we have been exposed to lots and lots of input in our first language.

Be Aware of Levantine Arabic Dialects: How Preposition Usage Varies Across Regions

Now, I should point out one important caveat. Often, sub-dialects—and there are many here in Jordan—mean that there can often be several prepositions that can be applied to a single context. For example, in As-Salt, they prefer “بـ” in places where others would use an alternate.

And sometimes there are just lots of ways to say something. For example, how do you say “the boy has a fever”? Here are three ways I’ve heard local people say this sentence using three different prepositions:

الولد عليه حرارة
الولد مريض وصار عنده حرارة
الولد مريض ومعه حرارة

See, there was “معه” and “عنده” and “على.” Now, if you want to use the one that’s most frequently used by the majority of people, use: الولد عليه حرارة

But the others aren’t exactly wrong either. Depending on your sub-dialect, you might say it one of three ways. It’s no wonder that so many students are confused in this context for which is the right preposition to choose. So keep that in mind—that is one of the factors that make learning prepositions difficult.

But wait a second. This happens in American English as well. American versus British English, for example. We say “by accident” or “on accident” in English. “By accident” is considered the standard and more widely accepted form, especially in writing and in speech. For example, “I broke the vase by accident,” but “on accident” is a newer variant primarily used in American English and more common among younger speakers. It’s considered informal and sometimes non-standard, but not wrong. “I broke the vase on accident.” There are other differences between American and British dialects of English. For example, Americans might say “on the weekend,” whereas Brits might say “at the weekend.” We might say “on the team,” but a British person might say “in the team.” There’s also “different from,” “different to,” or just “different.” Then, we talk about whether you “talk to someone” or “talk with someone.” You can be “angry at someone” or “angry with someone.” So, this is not exclusive to Arabic. But these examples are all technically correct. Depending on where you’re from, there may be more than one way to express something—or there may be a way that people in your area consider wrong or nonstandard.