AraLingBench A Human-Annotated Benchmark for Evaluating Arabic Linguistic Capabilities of Large Language Models

🤗 Upvotes: 58 | cs.CL, cs.AI, cs.LG

Authors:
Mohammad Zbib, Hasan Abed Al Kader Hammoud, Sina Mukalled, Nadine Rizk, Fatima Karnib, Issam Lakkis, Ammar Mohanna, Bernard Ghanem

Title:
AraLingBench A Human-Annotated Benchmark for Evaluating Arabic Linguistic Capabilities of Large Language Models

Arxiv:
http://arxiv.org/abs/2511.14295v1

Abstract:
We present AraLingBench: a fully human annotated benchmark for evaluating the Arabic linguistic competence of large language models (LLMs). The benchmark spans five core categories: grammar, morphology, spelling, reading comprehension, and syntax, through 150 expert-designed multiple choice questions that directly assess structural language understanding. Evaluating 35 Arabic and bilingual LLMs reveals that current models demonstrate strong surface level proficiency but struggle with deeper grammatical and syntactic reasoning. AraLingBench highlights a persistent gap between high scores on knowledge-based benchmarks and true linguistic mastery, showing that many models succeed through memorization or pattern recognition rather than authentic comprehension. By isolating and measuring fundamental linguistic skills, AraLingBench provides a diagnostic framework for developing Arabic LLMs. The full evaluation code is publicly available on GitHub.

What is Daily Paper Cast?

We update every weekday to discuss highest-voted papers from Huggingface Daily Paper (https://huggingface.co/papers). Both the podcast scripts and audio are generated by AI. Feedback and suggestions are welcome! Email us: [e-mail]

Creator:
Jingwen Liang, 3D ML, https://www.linkedin.com/in/jingwen-liang/
Gengyu Wang, LLM ML, http://wanggengyu.com

Listen on:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/21nrhmdaA8qoBiH8q03NXL
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-paper-cast/id1777620236

Cover Image by Kawen Kuang https://kawen.art