English or Spanish speaker probably do not even imagine that they speak more Arabic than they think they do. It's not "real" Arabic they are speaking, but rather words that come from Arabic. After Latin and English, Arabic is probably the biggest contributor of words to the Spanish language, and a large portion of English-Spanish cognates (words that the two language share) that don't come from Latin, but from Arabic.

The Spanish words of Arabic origin are those that start with "al-," such as álgebra, Alá, álkali and alkimia (algebra, Allah, alkali, and alchemy in English). But they are far from the only ones. A variety of other types of common words such as café, cero, and azucár (coffee, zero, and sugar in English) also come from Arabic.

The etymology of Spanish words goes beyond these lines, but the introduction of Arabic words into Spanish began in earnest in the eighth century, although even before then some words of Latin and Greek origin had roots in Arabic. People living in, what is now Spain, spoke Latin at one time, of course, but over the centuries Spanish and other Romance languages such as French and Italian gradually differentiated themselves.

The Latin dialect that eventually became Spanish was highly influenced by the invasion of the Arabic-speaking Moors (Moros) in 711. For many centuries, Latin/Spanish and Arabic existed side by side, and even today many Spanish place names retain Arabic roots. It wasn't until late in the 15th century that the Moors were expelled, and by then literally thousands of Arabic words had become part of Spanish.

Following are only some of the most common Arabic-origin Spanish words that can come across. Many of the words are a part of English as well, but most Arabic words in English probably entered English by other routes.