Investigating Gender and Number Agreement between standard English and Arabic

Abstract

The study is atrial to shed light on agreement between standard Arabic and standard English in terms of gender and number. The Problem which the study attempts to investigate is that when any linguistic contacts accurs among People it creates a problem. The Present study used questionnaire as a main tool for data collection. The questionnaire was designed for university students to see to what extent the two languages agree in terms of gender and number. The result of the study are: The results of this study indicate the following findings: - Both standard English and Arabic have number and gender agreement in terms of noun. English nouns agree with gender and number. Also Arabic nouns agree with their gender and number. - Articles system in English are different from that of Arabic in terms of indefinite. It is found that indefinite article in English marked “a” or “an” where as in Arabic it is unmarked. - In Arabic the adjectives follow the nouns where as in English they may follow or proceed their nouns. - In English the number system is either singular or plural where as in Arabic there is singular, dual and plural. - Both standard Arabic and English have the same grammatical case (nominative, genitive and accusative).