A Comparative Study of English and Arabic Use of Prepositions Amongst Arab Native Speakers

Abstract

Prepositions pose major problems when translated from Arabic into English or vice versa. The accurate mapping between English-Arabic and Arabic-English prepositions are some times very difficult to determine by Arab learners. This study is designed to identify the difficulties concerning preposition, which Arab students may face when translating into English or vice-versa. This paper reports on a study undertaken the form of questions and the form of texts to be translated from Arabic to English and these questions were answered by twenty Arab students at university Putra Malaysia. As a result of this examination, mistakes have been detected, analyzed and studied, then recommendation where offered as to how these mistakes may be corrected or eradicated.