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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Comparative Study of English and Arabic Use of Prepositions Amongst Arab Native Speakers Comparison between English and Arabic prepositions (fii..in), (ala..on) ========================================================================== English language researchers are well aware that English prepositional usage is one of the Arab learners are also expected to find similar difficulties in the use of English prepositions because although Arabic and English prepositions have some characteristics in common, they differ in both number and usage.

There are only twenty Arabic prepositions the most important and commonly used are six prepositions, (min, ila, ala, ba, la, fi), (Abbas hasan, 1961:pp320) while in English there are one hundred fifty prepositions (Josef essberger, 2000). A preposition by definition expresses a relationship between two entities: it indicates a relationship in space (between one object and another), andor a relationship in time (between events), andor a more abstract relationship (government).

So, the first characteristic is that neither Arabic nor English prepositions can stand by themselves: they get their meanings through their usage in contexts. The other characteristics is that the number of prepositions in English is more than Arabic in Arabic is limited, as mentioned above; but, at the same time, each preposition may have to serve variety of purposes.

The same preposition may express time or space and be followed be anoun, a verb, an adverb or an adjective; also it may be used idiomatically. The main problem for these learners lies firstly in the fact that not every Arabic preposition has definite equivalent in English and vice versa, and secondly, in that not every English or Arabic preposition has a definite usage and meaning, indicating only time or space or following preceding a certain word.

The most problematic of all prepositions for both space and time**“fii** and on”. The first example the Arabic preposition ” fii” is used as an equivalent instead of**“in, into, at, on, during’, within, inside and also zero equivalent”.** This particular preposition has therefore great semantic power in both standard and colloquial Arabic: it’s the filter through which all these English equivalents must pass.

It is used to denote time and place and occurs with many different Arabic words in abstract and metaphorical usages.