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Thaer Hasan
Worked examples

Arabic translation, adaptation and rewriting: practical examples

The same English sentence can need a different Arabic treatment depending on its purpose, its audience, the context it appears in and the format it has to fit. The examples below show that judgement being applied rather than argue that any single Arabic line is the one correct answer.

These are illustrative examples created for this guide. They are not client work. No client, project, brand or outcome is described anywhere on this page, and every organisation mentioned is generic or fictional.

How to read these examples

Each example gives the brief, the source text, a weaker Arabic version where one is instructive, a better Arabic version, the treatment that was applied and the reasoning behind it. The point is the reasoning. Several Arabic renderings can be defensible for the same English line, and the useful question is which one serves the purpose, the audience and the format in front of you.

The Arabic is Modern Standard Arabic written for professional use in the UAE and the Gulf. Where a literal version is shown, it is labelled as a deliberate illustration of a fault rather than an attempt at a serious translation.

A. Website CTA and microcopy
01

A contact button on a corporate website

Context and brief

A button repeated in the header, the footer and at the end of every service page on a corporate website. It has to be short, unambiguous and identical everywhere it appears.

English source

Get in touch

Deliberately literal Arabic, shown to illustrate the fault

احصل على اتصال

Better Arabic

تواصل معنا

TreatmentAdaptation

Why this works

The literal version renders the English verb and preposition separately, which produces a phrase Arabic readers do not use for this action. It is grammatical and still wrong for the job.

The better version is the ordinary Arabic call to action for contacting an organisation, so a visitor recognises it without reading it twice.

Because the same button appears across the site, the wording is decided once and repeated exactly. A second variant such as اتصل بنا is defensible on its own, but mixing the two on one site is not.

Alternative where a phone call is genuinely the intended action: اتصل بنا.

B. Website hero headline
02

A hero line on a technology company homepage

Context and brief

The first line a visitor reads on the homepage of a fictional infrastructure technology company. It has to fit one line in the design and carry a forward-looking idea rather than a specific claim.

English source

Built for what comes next.

Close Arabic rendering

مبني لما هو قادم.

Better Arabic

بنية جاهزة لما يأتي بعد.

TreatmentAdaptation

Why this works

The close rendering is accurate but vague in Arabic. English tolerates an unattached participle as a headline; Arabic readers expect to know what is built.

Naming the subject, here the infrastructure itself, restores the meaning the English carried implicitly and keeps the line short enough for the design.

The forward-looking idea is preserved without inventing a claim the company has not made.

C. Corporate announcement
03

A factual operational announcement from an energy company

Context and brief

A short notice published on a corporate website and sent to stakeholders. The content is factual, the facts are fixed and the register is formal.

English source

The company has completed the first phase of its solar project in the emirate, with the remaining phases scheduled for completion next year.

Arabic

أنجزت الشركة المرحلة الأولى من مشروعها للطاقة الشمسية في الإمارة، على أن تكتمل المراحل المتبقية خلال العام المقبل.

TreatmentTranslation

Why this works

Nothing here needs rebuilding. The facts, the sequence and the register carry into Arabic intact, so close translation is the right and sufficient answer.

The only real decisions are ordinary ones: verb-initial word order, which is normal in formal Arabic news writing, and consistent handling of the project and entity names.

Treating this kind of content as a rewriting exercise would add risk without adding value. Most corporate content sits in this category.

D. Press release headline and lead
04

A funding announcement sent to Arabic media

Context and brief

A headline and opening paragraph for a fintech platform, written for Arabic business desks that will either publish the release largely as received or rewrite it quickly.

English source

Backed by new investment, the platform is set to expand across the Gulf. The fintech company today announced that it has raised funding to support its regional growth.

Close Arabic rendering

مدعومة باستثمار جديد، تستعد المنصة للتوسع في الخليج. أعلنت الشركة اليوم أنها جمعت تمويلاً لدعم نموها الإقليمي.

Restructured Arabic

منصة تقنية مالية تجمع تمويلاً جديداً لدعم توسعها في أسواق الخليج. وأعلنت الشركة اليوم جمع تمويل جديد لدعم نموها وتوسعها الإقليمي.

TreatmentRewriting

Why this works

The English headline leads with a subordinate clause. Arabic news headlines usually lead with the actor and the action, so the structure is rebuilt rather than carried across.

The lead is reordered so the newsworthy fact appears first and the supporting detail follows, which is how an Arabic desk expects to receive it.

No fact is added or removed. The restructuring is a change of order and emphasis, not of content, and any figure or date would be checked against the English before publication.

E. Executive thought-leadership opening
05

The opening of a chief executive byline

Context and brief

The first two sentences of an opinion piece signed by a chief executive of a fictional logistics group, intended for an Arabic business publication.

English source

We talk a lot about disruption. But in my experience, the companies that last are the ones that get the boring things right.

Close Arabic rendering

نتحدث كثيراً عن الاضطراب. لكن في تجربتي، الشركات التي تدوم هي التي تُتقن الأمور المملة.

Rewritten Arabic

يُقال الكثير عن التحول الذي يعيشه القطاع. غير أن ما لاحظته على مدى سنوات هو أن الشركات التي تصمد ليست الأكثر ضجيجاً، بل الأكثر انضباطاً في التفاصيل التي لا يلتفت إليها أحد.

TreatmentRewriting

Why this works

The English opening depends on a conversational rhythm and a mild joke. Rendered closely, both survive as words and disappear as effect, and المملة reads flippant in a signed Arabic byline.

The Arabic is written to sound authored rather than translated, using the register an Arabic reader expects from a senior executive while keeping the argument the executive actually made.

The point of view is unchanged: durability comes from discipline in unglamorous detail. Only the delivery is rebuilt.

F. Marketing and campaign line
06

A campaign line with a fixed space and an intended response

Context and brief

A single line used across outdoor, social and a landing page for a consumer banking product. It has to fit a tight space, carry a rhythm and prompt one specific action.

English source

Move money, not mountains.

Close Arabic rendering

حرّك أموالك، لا الجبال.

Adapted Arabic

تحويلك في لحظة، لا في رحلة.

TreatmentAdaptation

Why this works

The English works through a fixed idiom. Arabic has no equivalent idiom here, so the close rendering reads as an odd instruction rather than a promise.

The adaptation keeps the intended response, that moving money should feel effortless, and rebuilds the contrast and the rhythm with Arabic material.

Campaign lines are the clearest case for adaptation, because the brief is an effect within a constraint rather than a sentence to be carried across.

A campaign line is normally drafted in several Arabic options and chosen against the media placement, not settled in one attempt.

G. AI-generated corporate Arabic review
07

Editing a grammatically correct but translated-sounding paragraph

Context and brief

An about-us paragraph generated in Arabic by a language model from an English brief. It is grammatical, which is why it often passes an internal check, and it still reads as translated.

Flawed Arabic source

نحن ملتزمون بتقديم حلول مبتكرة تمكّن عملاءنا من تحقيق أهدافهم. من خلال الاستفادة من خبرتنا العميقة، نحن نعمل على بناء شراكات طويلة الأمد التي تخلق قيمة لجميع أصحاب المصلحة.

Edited Arabic

نقدّم حلولاً تساعد عملاءنا على بلوغ أهدافهم، ونبني معهم شراكات طويلة الأمد تعود بالفائدة على جميع الأطراف المعنية.

TreatmentEditing

Why this works

The faults are structural rather than grammatical: an English sentence shape carried into Arabic, a redundant pronoun before the verb in نحن نعمل, and من خلال الاستفادة من as a direct calque of an English participle opening.

Terminology drifts too. أصحاب المصلحة is a defensible rendering of stakeholders but often sits unexamined next to الأطراف المعنية elsewhere in the same document, and one of the two has to be chosen and applied throughout.

The edit removes the padding, restores verb-led Arabic sentences and keeps the claim modest. This is editing rather than rewriting because the substance was usable; where a generated paragraph asserts something the organisation has not said, the answer is to rewrite it instead.

H. Terminology consistency across a company
08

One concept rendered three ways in the same organisation

Context and brief

A fictional company uses the term customer experience in a website page, an internal policy and a press release. Three different people produced the Arabic at three different times.

English source, one concept

customer experience

Three inconsistent Arabic renderings in circulation

تجربة العميل · تجربة الزبون · تجربة المتعامل

Standardised Arabic

تجربة المتعامل

TreatmentOriginal Arabic

Why this works

All three renderings are acceptable Arabic. The problem is that they appear in the same organisation, which makes the company look as though three separate entities are speaking.

The choice is contextual rather than absolute. If an organisation has already adopted المتعامل in its UAE-facing terminology, that is the term to preserve; a private commercial brand may prefer العميل, while الزبون can suit some retail contexts. The key decision is to choose deliberately and apply it consistently.

The decision is recorded once in a terminology list and applied across the website, internal documents and media material. Consistency is worth more than the marginal difference between the options.

The same discipline applies to job titles, entity names and product names, which drift faster than ordinary vocabulary.

Choosing the treatment

A working summary rather than a standard. The guiding principle is the least intervention that makes the communication work in Arabic.

Translation
The English carries into Arabic with its meaning, structure and register intact.
Factual, informational or contractual content: announcements, product detail, policies.
Adaptation
The meaning survives but the effect does not, usually because of idiom, rhythm or a fixed space.
Headlines, taglines, calls to action, campaign lines and hero copy.
Rewriting
The Arabic needs a different structure or emphasis to do the same job for its reader.
Press releases, executive bylines and any text built on an English rhetorical shape.
Editing
Arabic already exists and is broadly usable, but reads as translated or drifts in terminology.
AI-generated Arabic, inherited site copy and drafts written by non-specialists.
Original Arabic writing
There is no English source worth following, or the Arabic audience needs a different argument.
Arabic-first press releases, local campaigns and terminology decisions.

Common questions

English to Arabic translation

Arabic translation in the UAE

Arabic website translation and localisation

Arabic corporate communications

Should Arabic content be translated, adapted, rewritten or edited?

Why does Arabic content sound translated even when it is accurate?

Can AI-generated Arabic be used for professional content?

Bring your own lines

The examples above are illustrative and were written for this guide rather than drawn from client work. Send the English you are working with, or the Arabic you already have, and the treatment each part needs can be identified before anything is drafted.

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