Arabic
Arabic for the people in your pews
Arabic-speaking Christians from Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Palestine often join English-speaking churches, and many families arrive before their English is ready for a sermon. With live translation they read and hear each sentence in Arabic on their own phone while sitting with everyone else.
PewTranslate shows Arabic right to left, aligned and punctuated the way it is read, and the phone can read it aloud with its own Arabic voice.
Which Arabic listeners should choose
The list offers Arabic, Arabic (Egypt) and Arabic (UAE). All three give written Modern Standard Arabic, the form used in the Arabic Bible and understood by readers from every Arab country, rather than a spoken dialect. Pointing everyone to plain Arabic keeps billing to one language.
| Preacher speaks | Operator selects in the console | Listeners pick on their phone |
|---|---|---|
| English | English | Arabic (العربية) |
| Arabic | Arabic | English, or any other language |
When an Arabic-speaking pastor preaches in a dialect such as Egyptian or Levantine Arabic, recognition is less reliable than with a careful formal style. Run a test with the pastor's normal preaching voice before relying on it.
Christian names and words to check
Arab Christians call Jesus يسوع (Yasū'). Machine translation sometimes writes عيسى (ʿĪsā), the name used in the Qur'an, which reads as a different tradition to a Christian listener. Check how Jesus, Christ (المسيح) and the Holy Spirit (الروح القدس) come out in a test run.
Most Protestant churches, and the Coptic Orthodox Church, read the Van Dyck Bible of 1865, where John 3:16 begins لأنه هكذا أحب الله العالم. Catholic churches often use other translations, so verse wording can differ from what a listener knows. Bible quotes reach listeners as a new translation of what was said, so show the reference on screen when a verse matters.
Arab Christians also say الله for God, so seeing it in the translation is normal and correct.
Before the first Sunday
- Ask an Arabic-speaking member to follow a short test stream on their own phone and note names or church words that look wrong; the transcript stays in History.
- Check the Word download of the report if you print sermons: Arabic paragraphs are marked right to left.
- Show the QR code with a line in Arabic, for example "امسح الرمز لمتابعة العظة باللغة العربية".
- Older phones may lack an Arabic voice; the text still appears, and a voice can usually be added in the phone's speech settings.
Frequently asked questions
Does the text really read right to left?
Yes. Each Arabic sentence is aligned to the right with its punctuation where an Arabic reader expects it, on the listener's phone, in the service report and in the Word download.
Can listeners see the English too?
Yes. "Show original" puts the preacher's English sentence under each Arabic one, which helps people who are learning English.
Keep reading
- Sermon Translation in 106 LanguagesEvery language PewTranslate offers: 106 listener languages and regional variants, and 82 languages the preacher can speak.
- French Sermon Translation for ChurchesLive French sermon translation for francophone members from Africa, Haiti, Canada and Europe: choosing the right option and testing with PewTranslate.
- Welcoming Visitors Who Speak Other LanguagesHow churches can welcome people who speak other languages: announcing translation, greeters, signage, follow-up with transcripts, and learning who is in the room.
- Pricing: $5 per Hour per LanguagePewTranslate costs $5 per hour for each language someone is listening to, billed by the minute of speech. New accounts get $20 of credit, about 4 hours of one language.