English Translational Errors Encountered by Arab Natives

Abstract

This study aims to highlight errors in translating Arabic phrases and expressions into English. It is part of a research that attempts to establish some cultural connections between those translational mistakes and the embedded Arabic and Saudi religious and cultural factors that influence making such errors. To achieve the set goal, the researcher observed many written English signs around the city of Tabuk in a period of two years and then archived and analyzed the various translation mistakes collected from universities’ announcements, religious flyers, hospital signs, bill board signs, shops and malls signs, personal signs...etc. The errors were classified into four categories: Singular/Plural, Sentence Structure and Syntax, Word Choice, and Spelling errors. Then a quiz was given to selected female English major students at the University of Tabuk; the quiz contained the same observed mistakes collected earlier. Therefore, the sample of the study was very diverse in its nature of Saudi Arabs and Arabs from other Arab countries that came to live and work in the city of Tabuk; while the students who took the quiz were all of Saudi nationality. It was concluded that the reasons Arab people who publish English translations fail to transfer the Arabic equivalence of English phrases and expressions are mainly due to literal translation and influencing cultural factors that make those people unfamiliar with the use of the right English words in their proper context.