The World of Languages · Afro-Asiatic
Arabic · العربية
The language of 20-plus countries and of the Qur'an. One formal standard sits alongside many very different spoken dialects.
- 411 million native speakers
- 481 million speakers in total
- Arabic script
- FSI Category IV · 88 weeks
- Official in 26 countries
Where Arabic is spoken
Tap or hover over a country. Colours show the language's status, based on Unicode CLDR territory data (population estimates mix sources and years).
Top countries by speakers
- Egypt · مصرOfficial language · 105M (94%)
- Saudi Arabia · المملكة العربية السعوديةOfficial language · 37M (100%)
- Algeria · الجزائرOfficial language · 35M (74%)
- Sudan · السودانOfficial language · 31M (61%)
- Iraq · العراقOfficial language · 29M (68%)
- Yemen · اليمنOfficial language · 24M (74%)
- Morocco · المغربOfficial language · 23M (62%)
- Syria · سورياOfficial language · 19M (80%)
- Jordan · الأردنOfficial language · 11M (100%)
- Tunisia · تونسOfficial language · 11M (90%)
- United Arab Emirates · الإمارات العربية المتحدةOfficial language · 7.8M (78%)
- Libya · ليبياOfficial language · 5.4M (74%)
Key numbers
- Native (L1) speakers
- 411 million
- Second-language (L2) speakers
- 70 million
- Total speakers
- 481 million
- Source
- Ethnologue (28th ed.), all varieties of Arabic, via Wikipedia · 2020–2025
Modern Standard Arabic is learned at school: Ethnologue counts 0 native and about 335 million L2 users.
Arabic at a glance
Arabic is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic, including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic, which is derived from Classical Arabic. This distinction is primarily made by Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā (اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā (اَلْفُصْحَىٰ).
From the Wikipedia article Arabic (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Name in Arabic
- العربية
- Family
- Afro-AsiaticSemiticWest SemiticCentral SemiticArabianArabic
- Writing system
- Arabic script (28 letters; an abjad in which short vowels are usually not written)
- Direction
- Right to left
- Official in
- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan, Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, Syria, Jordan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Libya, Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Somalia, Mauritania, Chad, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Israel, Bahrain, Western Sahara, Comoros, Eritrea, Djibouti
- Codes
- ISO 639-3
ara· Glottologstan1318· Q13955 - Writing sample
يولد جميع الناس أحرارًا متساوين في الكرامة والحقوق. وقد وهبوا عقلاً وضميرًا وعليهم أن يعامل بعضهم بعضًا بروح الإخاء.
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights…”
Linguistic profile
How hard is Arabic for English speakers?
The US Foreign Service Institute puts Arabic in Category IV: about 88 weeks (2200 class hours) of full-time study to reach professional working proficiency.
Source: FSI language learning timelines. See all languages ranked: hardest · easiest.
Feature values from the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS Online, CC BY 4.0), which describes Egyptian Arabic as its representative variety.
The Arabic script
Arabic script (28 letters; an abjad in which short vowels are usually not written). Tap a character to hear it (your device reads the letter name or sound).
Standard letters from Unicode CLDR exemplar characters.
Useful Arabic phrases with pronunciation
Numbers 1–10
- وَاحِد wāḥid
- اِثْنَانِ iṯnāni
- ثَلَاثَة ṯalāṯa
- أَرْبَعَة ʔarbaʕa
- خَمْسَة ḵamsa
- سِتَّة sitta
- سَبْعَة sabʕa
- ثَمَانِيَة ṯamāniya
- تِسْعَة tisʕa
- عَشَرَة ʕašara
Days of the week
- Mon الاثنين
- Tue الثلاثاء
- Wed الأربعاء
- Thu الخميس
- Fri الجمعة
- Sat السبت
- Sun الأحد
Everyday words
- water مَاء māʔ
- cat قِطّ qiṭṭ
- dog كَلْب kalb
- coffee قَهْوَة qahwa
- beer بِيرَة bīra
- bread خُبْز ḵubz
- book كِتَاب kitāb
Phrases and words checked against Wiktionary; days and months from Unicode CLDR. Audio uses your browser's built-in Arabic voice when available.
Dialects and varieties
Modern Standard Arabic (al-Fuṣḥā)
Pan-Arab: news, books, formal speech
Learned at school, not spoken as a mother tongue. “How are you?” to a man: kayfa ḥāluka?
Egyptian Arabic
Egypt
Widely understood thanks to Egyptian cinema and TV. “How are you?”: izzayyak? The letter jīm is pronounced as a hard g.
Levantine Arabic
Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine
“How are you?”: kīfak? (to a man) / kīfik? (to a woman).
Gulf Arabic
Saudi Arabia (east), UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain
“What?” is shinu or ēsh; the qāf often becomes a g sound.
Maghrebi Arabic (Darija)
Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia
Heavy French and Berber influence; often hard for Middle Eastern speakers to follow.
Hear the dialects
Fun words, untranslatables
إن شاء الله
in shāʾ allāh
“If God wills”, used by people of every faith for anything in the future, from “hopefully” to a polite “maybe”.
طرب
ṭarab
The ecstatic emotion produced by music.
Curious facts
- Arabic is written right to left, but numbers are written left to right.
- Most words are built from three-consonant roots: k-t-b gives kataba (he wrote), kitāb (book), maktab (office) and maktaba (library).
- Short vowels are usually left out in writing; they are shown with small marks (ḥarakāt) mainly in the Qur'an, poetry and children's books.
- English words from Arabic include algebra, alcohol, coffee, sugar, cotton and zero.
- Arabic is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
Famous Arabic-speaking voices
Singers & musicians
Writers & poets
Film & TV
Other famous figures
Descriptions from Wikidata; photos from Wikimedia Commons under the licences shown.
Arabic culture now
Umm Kulthum
Egyptian singer-songwriter and actress (1904–1975)
Mahraganat
Genre of Egyptian electronic dance music
Capernaum (film)
2018 film directed by Nadine Labaki
Paranormal (TV series)
Egyptian television series
Arab Idol
Television series
One Thousand and One Nights
Collection of Middle Eastern folk tales
Learn Arabic on YouTube
Free lessons from teachers and channels with Arabic courses. Videos load only when you press play.
The story of the language
Quick quiz: how well do you know Arabic?
Where to learn Arabic
Arabic Content Portal
Arabic videos, with smooth progress from teachers' channels to native content.
LangMagicThe Endless Book
Read text you can understand, in the style of your favourite author and genre. About 30 languages.
LangMagicLangMagic Speak
Speaking lessons built around your topics, from materials you choose.
LangMagicLangMagic Meet
A virtual meeting platform built for language lessons, with follow-up exercises.
FreeWikivoyage Arabic phrasebook
Free travel phrasebook with pronunciation guide
FreeWikibooks: Arabic
Free, open textbook
FreeOmniglot: Arabic
Script, pronunciation and useful phrases
FreeWiktionary: Arabic dictionary
Free multilingual dictionary
Sources
- Speaker numbers: Ethnologue (28th ed.), all varieties of Arabic, via Wikipedia, 2020–2025.
- Countries, populations, alphabets, days and months: Unicode CLDR 46.
- Classification: Glottolog 5.3. Grammar features: WALS Online.
- Introduction: Wikipedia, Arabic (CC BY-SA 4.0). People and culture: Wikipedia and Wikidata. Images: Wikimedia Commons.
- Writing sample: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1, from the Unicode UDHR collection. Phrases and words: Wiktionary. Difficulty: US Foreign Service Institute.
- Map: Natural Earth via world-atlas (public domain).