Before you move
Do Saudis speak English? What to expect as a new expat
Yes - most younger Saudis in the cities speak some English, and offices, malls and apps run on it. But English thins out with age, outside the cities, and in every conversation that is not a transaction.
21 October 2026 - 5 min read
Yes - up to a point. Most younger Saudis in Riyadh, Jeddah and Khobar speak some English, often good English, and the places a newcomer spends the first weeks - offices, hospitals, malls, hotels, delivery apps - run on it comfortably. You can arrive with no Arabic and be fine. But English thins out fast with age, outside the big cities, and in every conversation that has no transaction at the end of it.
That is the honest picture. Here is where English will carry you, where it runs out, and what that means if you are deciding whether to bother with Arabic.
Where you will be fine in English
For the practical business of arriving and settling, English is enough:
- Corporate work. A great deal of white-collar work - banking, consulting, aviation, tech, the giga-projects - is conducted in English, and many teams are deliberately international.
- Healthcare. Hospitals and clinics employ large international staff; you can see a doctor in English in any city.
- Daily transactions. Malls, supermarkets, hotels, airports, ride-hailing and delivery apps, and most road signs are in English or bilingual.
- Younger city Saudis. English is taught in school and used constantly online, so Saudis under about 40 in the main cities usually have some, and often a lot.
If "getting by" means shopping, banking, working a corporate job and navigating the city, you can do all of it without Arabic.
Where English runs out
The map changes the moment you step outside those lanes:
| Situation | What you will find |
|---|---|
| Taxi and delivery drivers, trades, domestic staff | A few words, sometimes none |
| Older Saudis - parents, grandparents, neighbours | Often little to no English |
| Small towns, villages, the Eastern Province outside the cities | English thins quickly |
| A patient describing pain, an elderly relative | Arabic - and the stakes are high |
| The social half of work: the corridor, the lunch, the group chat | Arabic - the meeting may be in English, the rest is not |
The rule of thumb: English handles the transaction, Arabic handles the relationship. You can buy anything in English. You cannot be included in English - the joke, the aside, the second half of the meeting, the neighbour at the door all happen in Saudi, and no one switches into formal Arabic to make space for you.
Why Saudis switch to English the moment you try
Here is the twist every learner hits: you say your careful Arabic sentence, and the Saudi answers in English. It feels like a verdict on your Arabic. It usually is not - it is a conversation trying to get its job done quickly, plus genuine hospitality (they are making it easy for you). It is such a common wall that it has its own guide, with the six things that keep a conversation in Arabic.
So should you learn Arabic?
If you only ever want to transact - no. If you want the other 90% of living somewhere - the friendships, the patients, the neighbours, the feeling of belonging rather than visiting - then a little Arabic is the best-value thing you can carry, precisely because English covers the easy half and leaves the human half uncovered.
And "a little" really is little to start. You do not need fluency to change how you are treated. You need the opening line and the willingness to use it.
The twenty words that change your week
A handful of spoken-Saudi phrases will do more for you than a year of polite English:
| Arabic | Say it | Literally | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peace be upon you (hello) | السلام عليكم | as-salaam ʿalaykum | peace be upon you |
| How are you? | وش لونك؟ | wesh lonak | what is your colour? |
| Thank you (warm) | مشكور | mashkoor | much obliged |
| God willing | إن شاء الله | inshallah | if God wills |
| How much? | بكم؟ | bikam | for how much? |
Say wesh lonak to a driver or a colleague and watch the temperature change. There is a ready-made set of these - ten sentences for your first week - and a bigger free phrasebook with the audio for each.
Questions people ask
Is English widely spoken in Saudi Arabia? In the cities and in corporate and medical settings, yes - widely enough to live and work. It is far less common among older people, drivers and tradespeople, and in smaller towns.
Can I work in Saudi Arabia without speaking Arabic? For many white-collar and medical jobs, yes - the work itself is often in English. What you miss is the informal, relationship side of the job, which is where a lot of trust and opportunity actually lives.
Do I need Arabic for daily life in Saudi Arabia? Not to get by. Apps, malls, signs and most city services work in English. You need Arabic for the parts that are not services - neighbours, friends, family, and anyone over about fifty.
Do taxi and delivery drivers speak English? Sometimes a little, often not. A few Arabic words - yemeen (right), yesaar (left), waggif (stop), bikam (how much) - go a very long way.
Is English enough in Riyadh and Jeddah? For transactions, yes. Both are big, international cities. But even there, English runs out the moment the conversation stops being a transaction - and that happens many times a day.
Where to start
You do not need a course to begin - you need the first sentences and the nerve to use them. Grab the free starter pack: the Saudi phrases you will use in your first weeks, with audio from a teacher so you say them right. When you want more than survival, a free trial hour with a Saudi teacher is the quickest way to get from understood to included, and the free level test will tell you where you are starting from.