Archives: errabics
8 posts
Gender matters
When the internet went down on an airplane, a message appeared that raised grammatical questions.
Mind the Hamza
A sign in the Saudi desert warns drivers about camels, but doesn't stop at mistakes itself.
Scan & Correct
A sign for a halal restaurant in Poland. Some of the Arabic text is a bit harder to digest.
License to Spell
In intelligence, precision is paramount - even in spelling. A misplaced همزة can distort meaning and expose linguistic incompetence, as the CIA learned in an Arabic recruitment flyer.
Flying Fathas
You might assume that the Arabic on the signs on an Emirates plane is correct. At least the diacritics (تشكيل) aren't.
Cutting the Qiblah
The direction of prayer should not be interrupted - at least not in the written form of the Arabic word.
Hamza on Speed
Even on Saudi Arabia's modern high-speed train, spelling mistakes haunt you.
Holy Smokes!
If you get off the train at the main station in the holy city of al-Madinah in Saudi Arabia, you will be greeted with a serious grammatical error.