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Accent guide — Semitic

English pronunciation for Arabic speakers

Arabic has no p sound at all (b substitutes for it), a smaller set of short vowels than English (which flattens contrasts like pin vs pen), and word-initial consonant clusters are usually broken up with an inserted vowel, since Standard Arabic doesn't start syllables with two consonants together.
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What actually transfers

The specific sounds to check

No native p

Standard Arabic has no p; it's replaced with b, so "pin" and "bin", or "cap" and "cab", can be hard to keep apart.

/p/b

A smaller short-vowel inventory

Arabic has three short vowel qualities (roughly i, a, u), where English distinguishes several more — pin vs pen and cot vs caught both rely on contrasts Arabic's own vowel system doesn't mark.

/short-i/short-epin vs pen

Vowel inserted before initial consonant clusters

Arabic doesn't start a syllable with two consonants together, so English words like "student" or "speak" can gain a short vowel at the front.

/s

No native v

Standard Arabic has no v; it's typically replaced with f, so van can drift toward fan.

/v/ffan vs van

Emphatic consonants colour nearby vowels

Arabic's emphatic (pharyngealized) consonants shift the quality of vowels next to them, a habit that can carry into English and shift a neighbouring vowel further than English expects.

/ah/awcot vs caught

g varies by dialect

Modern Standard Arabic doesn't have a plain g in most reading traditions, though many spoken dialects (Egyptian, Gulf) do — so how close a speaker's g already is to English depends heavily on their spoken dialect background.

/g/k
A realistic plan

What a week looks like

Day 1-2

Drill p vs b pairs, aiming for zero voicing (no throat buzz) on p.

Day 3-4

Practise pin/pen and cot/caught until both vowel contrasts are automatic.

Day 5-6

Read s-cluster words with zero vowel before the s — hiss first, then the rest of the word.

Day 7

Re-read the diagnostic line and compare it against your Day 1 take.

Not every point above will be yours

These are common, well-documented transfer patterns for Arabic speakers as a group — not a rule about any one person. Region, schooling and how long someone has spoken English all change which of these actually apply. The diagnostic line is there to tell you which ones are really yours, not the list above on its own.
Questions

Straight answers

Does every Arabic dialect share these same gaps?

The core ones (no p, no v, the smaller short-vowel set) hold across Modern Standard Arabic and most spoken dialects, but g and some emphatic-consonant effects vary by region. The diagnostic line will show your own pattern.

Why is pin vs pen specifically hard?

Arabic's short-vowel system doesn't mark the same fine distinctions English does between short-i and short-e, so the two can sound like acceptable variants of the same vowel rather than two different words.