American English speakers will typically say “kuh-TAR,” with the stress on the second syllable, which sounds like the word “tar.” British English speakers add an “a” sound more equivalent to “cat,” ...

When I walked into Arabic class last week, Karam, my teacher, cheerily asked me how I was doing. I said, “Tamaam, hamdulillah,” which means, “Fine, thanks be to God.” But I was lying. I’d just spent a ...

“The Arabic word for ‘Qatar’ actually only has three letters: qāf, ṭā and rā,” she explains. These are Romanized to q,t and r respectively. And, unfortunately, none of them have a close English ...