Writing surveys that work in both Arabic and English

Run a survey across the Gulf in English only and you lose a large part of the population. Run it in Arabic only and you lose many residents who are more comfortable in English. Most serious studies in the region need both.

The trap is assuming that a translated survey is the same survey. It often is not. A question that is neutral in English can sound formal, gendered or leading in Arabic, and the reverse. If the two versions measure slightly different things, you cannot combine or compare the results.

This guide covers how to write bilingual questionnaires that hold up.

Translate meaning, not words

Literal translation produces Arabic that is grammatically correct and reads like a government form. Participants notice, and formal wording nudges people towards formal, socially acceptable answers.

Aim for what translators call transcreation: the same meaning and the same tone, written the way a native speaker would ask it. That usually means:

• Shorter sentences than the English.
• Everyday Modern Standard Arabic rather than literary phrasing.
• Rewriting idioms entirely. "On the fence", "a no-brainer" and "value for money" all need rethinking, not translating.

Choose the register deliberately

Modern Standard Arabic is understood across the region and is the safe default for a multi-country survey. Dialect can feel warmer, but it splits your sample. Gulf, Levantine and Egyptian Arabic differ enough that a question written in one can feel off in another.

A practical rule: use clear, simple MSA for the questions, and allow any dialect in open-text answers. If the study is in a single country and the audience is informal, a light touch of local wording can help, but test it first.

Handle gendered language

Arabic verbs and adjectives change with the gender of the person being addressed. An English question like "How satisfied are you?" has no gender. Its Arabic equivalent does.

Options, from simplest to most inclusive:

1. Address the reader in the plural. Often reads naturally and avoids the issue.
2. Use both forms, for example with a slash, where the sentence allows it.
3. Show a different version by gender, if your tool supports routing on a gender question earlier in the survey.

Avoid defaulting to masculine forms throughout. Women notice, and in a study where half your sample is women, that is half your sample feeling addressed as an afterthought.

Keep scales equivalent

Scales are where bilingual surveys most often break.

• Translate the labels as a set. "Somewhat satisfied" and "Very satisfied" need Arabic labels with the same distance between them, not the closest dictionary match for each word.
• Label every point on short scales. Unlabelled midpoints are interpreted differently across languages.
• Watch direction in right-to-left layouts. In Arabic, many tools reverse the scale so it reads right to left. That is correct, but check that "Very satisfied" still sits where people expect and that the scores are stored the same way in both languages.
• Be consistent with numerals. Decide between Western digits (1, 2, 3) and Eastern Arabic digits (١، ٢، ٣) and use them consistently. Western digits are widely understood across the Gulf and are often the safer choice in data-heavy surveys.

Plan for courtesy bias

Across much of the region there is a strong norm of politeness towards whoever is asking. In research that shows up as inflated satisfaction scores and reluctance to criticise.

You cannot remove it, but you can reduce it:

• Make it clear the participant is not talking to the company that built the product.
• Ask about behaviour ("When did you last…") before attitudes ("How much do you like…").
• Normalise criticism in the wording: "Many people find this confusing. How about you?"
• Compare options rather than rating one in isolation.

Let people choose their language

Do not assign language by nationality or country. Many Arabic speakers in the Gulf work in English and prefer it for anything work-related; many non-Arab residents read Arabic fluently. Offer both and let the participant choose at the start.

Then record which language each person used. If results differ by language, you want to know whether that is a real difference between groups or a wording problem.

Test both versions before launch

1. Back-translate. Have someone who has not seen the English translate the Arabic back. Every difference is worth a look.
2. Run cognitive interviews. Ask three to five native speakers of each language to answer aloud and explain what they think each question means. Ten minutes each will catch most problems.
3. Soft launch. Collect the first 20 to 30 responses in each language and check that the answer patterns look plausible before opening the full sample.

Open-text answers

Expect a mix of Arabic, English, and Arabic written in Latin letters with numbers standing in for some sounds (often called Arabizi). That is normal, not a data quality problem. When you analyse open answers, make sure whoever codes them, or whatever tool you use, can read all three.

Running bilingual research with UsersArabia

UsersArabia recruits participants across the Middle East and North Africa in both Arabic and English, and screeners can check language comfort before anyone sees your survey. If you would rather not handle translation and fieldwork yourself, our team can run the study for you.

Start recruiting, or read about moderating interviews in Arabic and English.