Arabic Language Quiz

Arabic is one of the world's major languages, spoken by approximately 420 million people as a native language across the Middle East and North Africa, and understood by hundreds of millions more as the liturgical language of Islam. Arabic is the official language in 22 countries and is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. It is a Semitic language, making it distantly related to Hebrew and Amharic (Ethiopian). Arabic script - Written from right to left - Is one of the most widely used writing systems in the world and is used not just for Arabic but for many other languages including Urdu, Pashto, and Persian.

Classical, Modern Standard, and Colloquial Arabic

Arabic exists in several distinct forms. Classical Arabic is the language of the Quran and classical literature, preserved largely unchanged for over 1,400 years. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA or Al-fusha) is the standardized form used in formal contexts - News media, official documents, literature, and education - Across all Arabic-speaking countries. Colloquial Arabic, however, varies enormously from country to country - An Egyptian Arabic speaker and a Moroccan Arabic speaker may have difficulty understanding each other's dialect, though both share MSA as a common formal language. Check out our French quiz for more language content!

Arabic has contributed enormously to other languages through its role as the language of Islamic learning and trade during the medieval period. English words derived from Arabic include: algebra (from al-jabr), algorithm (from al-Khwarizmi), coffee (from qahwa), cotton (from qutn), magazine (from makhazin), and many more. The Arabic numeral system (0-9) that the entire world uses today was transmitted to Europe through Arabic mathematicians who adopted it from India and passed it westward. Whether you're learning Arabic, studying Islam, or just fascinated by languages, this quiz tests your Arabic knowledge. Try our English quiz for comparison!