Why Does Arabic Have So Many English Spellings? A Traveler’s Guide to Arabic Transliteration

After living in Kuwait for several years now, one thing has consistently baffled me: why do some Arabic words seem to have a dozen different English spellings? I’ve seen “Muhammad” spelled as Mohammed, Mohammad, Mohamed, Muhammed, you get the point. The word for the Islamic holy book appears as Quran, Qur’an, Koran, and Al-Quran. Even simple place names can show up with wildly different spellings depending on which map, sign, or website you’re looking at.

At first, I thought maybe some spellings were wrong and others were right, that there was a “correct” way to write Arabic words in English and people were just being careless. But the more I encountered these variations, the more I realized something deeper was going on. The pronunciation always seemed to be the same, but the English spellings were all over the place, and it almost always involved vowels.

So I decided to dig into why this happens, because if it’s been confusing me for years, I know it’s confusing other travelers too. And more importantly, understanding this can help you feel confident when traveling in Arabic-speaking countries, knowing that you’re not going to accidentally offend someone by spelling something “wrong.”

The Root of the Problem: Two Very Different Writing Systems

Here’s the fundamental issue: Arabic is normally written without most vowels actually being marked on the page. Let that sink in for a moment. When you see Arabic text, you’re mostly seeing consonants, and readers who know the language fill in the vowels based on their knowledge of the word and context.

To understand how wild this is for English speakers, imagine reading a sentence like this: “Wlcm t Kwt Cty.” You can probably figure out it says “Welcome to Kuwait City,” but you’d need to know English pretty well to fill in those vowels correctly. Now imagine trying to tell someone who doesn’t speak English how to write that phrase using a completely different alphabet. Would they write “welcome” or “walcome” or “wilcome”? They’re all phonetically similar, and without the vowels written out, it’s anybody’s guess.

This is essentially what happens when we try to write Arabic words using the Latin alphabet (the one English uses). The process is called transliteration. Not translation, but converting the sounds of one language into the writing system of another. And because Arabic vowels are often implied rather than written, and because Arabic has sounds that don’t exist in English, transliteration becomes more art than science.

The Vowel Problem

The vowel situation is at the heart of why you’re seeing all these spelling variations. Short vowels in Arabic create variations in English transliteration, such as ‘i’ versus ‘e’ or ‘u’ versus ‘o’, which explains why we see both Muslim and Moslem, or Mohammed, Muhammad and Mohamed.

Arabic has three short vowels (technically called “vowel diacritics”) that aren’t normally written out in everyday text. They’re only included in the Quran, children’s books, and language learning materials to help readers pronounce words correctly. These vowels fall somewhere between English vowels, which creates ambiguity when we try to represent them with our alphabet.

The Arabic “u” sound (called “damma”) can sound like the English “u” in “put” or sometimes more like “o” in “so,” depending on dialect and context. The Arabic “i” sound (called “kasra”) can sound like “i” in “sit” or sometimes closer to “e” in “set.” The Arabic “a” sound (called “fatha”) is usually pretty consistent, but even that can vary slightly.

So when someone named محمد (the Arabic letters for Muhammad) tells you their name, you’re hearing something like “Moo-HAM-mad” or “Mo-HAM-med” depending on their dialect. Is that first sound an English “u” or an “o”? Both are kind of right. Hence: Muhammad, Mohammed, Mohammad, and all the other variations.

The Consonant Confusion

Vowels aren’t the only problem. Arabic contains letters that have no direct equivalents in the English alphabet, creating multiple acceptable spellings. Some Arabic consonants simply don’t exist in English, and we have to approximate them with the letters we have available.

Take the Arabic letter “ق” (qaf). It’s pronounced further back in the throat than an English “k,” sort of like a hard “q” sound. That’s why you see “Qatar” spelled with a “Q” – we’re trying to represent a sound that doesn’t really exist in English. Some transliteration systems use “Q,” others use “K,” and both are attempts to get close to a sound that English speakers don’t naturally make.

The letter “خ” (kha) is that guttural sound that English doesn’t have. In English transliteration, you might see it written as “kh,” “ch,” or even just “h,” depending on the system being used. That’s why you’ll see Sheikh spelled as Shaikh, Sheik, or Shaykh – all attempts to capture that “kh” sound.

Then there’s the infamous Arabic letter “ع” (ain), which is basically a sound made deep in the throat that has no equivalent in any European language. Linguists describe it as a “voiced pharyngeal fricative,” which sounds complicated because it is. In English transliteration, it sometimes gets represented with an apostrophe (‘), sometimes with a backwards apostrophe (`), sometimes with a number (3) in informal text, and sometimes it’s just ignored entirely because it’s nearly impossible for English speakers to pronounce anyway.

There’s No One “Right” System

Here’s something that frustrated me when I first started trying to understand this: there isn’t one universally accepted system for transliterating Arabic into English. Different academic institutions, governments, and organizations all use slightly different systems. Even within a single country in the GCC, you might see government documents use different transliteration conventions than street signs or business names.

This lack of standardization means that when you’re traveling in the GCC and see English signs, menus, or documents, you’re essentially seeing the translator’s best guess at how to represent Arabic sounds in English. Sometimes they follow formal transliteration rules, sometimes they try to spell things the way they think English speakers would pronounce them, and sometimes they just pick whatever looks right to them.

The Dialect Factor

Just to make things even more complicated, Arabic isn’t a single unified language. The Arabic spoken in Kuwait sounds different from the Arabic spoken in Saudi Arabia, which sounds different from the Arabic spoken in Oman, which sounds different from the Arabic spoken in Egypt or Lebanon or Morocco.

Modern Standard Arabic is the formal version used in news broadcasts, official documents, and the Quran, but nobody actually speaks it in daily conversation. Everyone speaks their local dialect, and these dialects can vary significantly in pronunciation, vocabulary, and even grammar.

This means that even if we had a perfect transliteration system, a word might legitimately be spelled differently depending on which dialect is being represented. The Gulf dialects (spoken in the GCC countries) often pronounce certain sounds differently than Egyptian or Levantine dialects, so transliterations from those dialects will naturally look different.

What This Means for Travelers

Now that you understand why these spelling variations exist, let me give you some practical advice for navigating this as a traveler in Arabic-speaking countries.

First: Don’t stress about spelling things “correctly.” There often isn’t a single correct spelling. If you’re trying to write an Arabic name or word in English, pick a spelling that seems reasonable and stick with it. Nobody is going to correct you or think you’re being disrespectful because you wrote “Mohammed” instead of “Muhammad.”

I learned this lesson early on when I was constantly second-guessing myself about how to write place names or restaurant names in my travel notes. Finally, a local friend told me, “We don’t care how you spell it in English because we don’t read it in English anyway. Just write it however makes sense to you.” That was incredibly freeing.

Second: Be flexible when searching for locations or reading signs. If you’re looking for a restaurant called “Al-Khobar Grill” and can’t find it on Google Maps, try searching for “Al-Khubar Grill” or “Alkhobar Grill” or even “Alkobar Grill.” The variation in spelling means you might need to try multiple versions to find what you’re looking for.

Third: When giving your address or booking reservations, be very clear. If your hotel is on “Al-Cornish Street” or “Corniche Street” or “Al-Kornich Street” (all common transliterations I’ve seen for the waterfront promenade in Gulf cities), make sure the person you’re talking to knows which specific location you mean. When in doubt, show them the Arabic text if you have it, or pull up the location on a map.

Fourth: Learn a few words in Arabic. This is hands down the best solution to the transliteration confusion. You don’t need to learn the whole language, but knowing how to recognize and say a few key words in actual Arabic makes navigation so much easier. Words like “souq” (market), “masjid” (mosque), “sharia” (street), “funduq” (hotel), and basic directions will serve you well.

Fifth: Don’t be embarrassed about asking for clarification. If you’re trying to pronounce a word and aren’t sure which transliteration to follow, just ask. People in the GCC are generally very patient with non-Arabic speakers trying to learn basic words, and they’ll appreciate the effort you’re making.

I’ve had countless interactions where I’ve said something like, “I’m trying to get to this restaurant, but I’m not sure how to pronounce the name, can you help me?” People are almost always happy to help, and often it leads to friendly conversations about language and culture.

Common Words You’ll Encounter

Let me give you some examples of common Arabic words you’ll see when traveling in the GCC, along with their various English spellings, so you’ll recognize them even when they’re spelled differently:

Souq/Souk/Suq – Traditional marketplace. The “o” versus “ou” versus “u” variation is classic Arabic transliteration confusion.

Sheikh/Shaikh/Shaykh/Sheik – Tribal leader or respected elder. That “kh” sound is the culprit here.

Masjid/Masgid/Mesjid – Mosque. Sometimes you’ll also see it as just “Jami” or “Jame,” which is another word for mosque.

Sharia/Shariah/Shari’a – Street (also means Islamic law, but on street signs it just means street). The apostrophe represents that deep throat sound (ain) that’s impossible for English speakers.

Corniche/Corneesh/Kornish – Waterfront promenade. This one’s interesting because it actually comes from French originally, but it’s been adopted into Arabic and then transliterated back into English.

Shawarma/Shawerma/Shaurma – That delicious meat wrap you’ll eat constantly. The vowel in the middle varies depending on who’s doing the transliteration.

Hummus/Houmous/Hommus/Humus – Chickpea dip. Yes, even this simple word has multiple spellings.

Falafel/Felafel – Fried chickpea balls. The “a” versus “e” in the second syllable is typical vowel variation.

The Bottom Line

The reason Arabic words have so many different English spellings isn’t because people are being careless or because there’s one “right” way that everyone else is getting wrong. It’s because we’re trying to squeeze a language with different sounds and a different writing system into an alphabet that wasn’t designed for it. Arabic is normally written without vowels marked, making accurate transliteration difficult for those unfamiliar with the language.

Think of transliteration like trying to describe a color to someone who’s colorblind to that specific shade. You’re doing your best to convey something using tools that aren’t quite adequate for the job. Sometimes you’ll say it’s more blue, sometimes more green, and both descriptions are attempting to capture the same thing, they’re just emphasizing different aspects.

For travelers, understanding this takes the anxiety out of trying to spell things “correctly.” There is no single correct spelling for most Arabic words in English. There are just various attempts at representation, all of which are valid. The Arabic spelling is what matters to native speakers; the English version is just a convenient tool for non-Arabic speakers to approximate pronunciation.

So the next time you see “shawarma” spelled five different ways on five different restaurant signs, or you can’t find your hotel because the GPS spells it differently than the sign, just remember: it’s not you, it’s the fundamental challenge of bridging two very different language systems. And honestly, once you understand why it happens, the confusion becomes kind of charming. It’s just another quirky aspect of traveling in this fascinating part of the world.

My advice? Be flexible when searching for places, learn a few words in actual Arabic, and don’t worry about getting it “right.” The locals will understand what you mean regardless of how you spell it, and your effort to engage with the language and culture is what really matters.