Texts in Arabic
Short texts in Arabic with a translation alongside and comprehension questions, levels A1–B1. The first ones need two or three hundred everyday words; the B1 texts need about three thousand. The translation stands next to it whole, not word by word: stopping at every other word tears the sentence apart.
All texts
- 📖An ordinary dayA1 · Hello. My name is Maya, and I live in Cairo. In the morning I drink coffee and eat bread.…
- 📖At the marketA2 · Tomorrow we are going to the market. The market is close to the house, ten minutes. There…
- 📖The Saturday marketA2 · On Saturday morning we go to the market. The market is close to the house. At the market…
- 📖The new apartmentA2 · Next month we are moving to a new apartment. The apartment is on the third floor. It has…
- 📖At the doctor'sA2 · Since yesterday my throat hurts, there is a cough and a temperature. We are going to the…
- 📖The weather through the yearA2 · In the summer the weather is very hot. In the winter, rain and snow. The spring is mild…
- 📖My workA2 · I am an engineer and I work in an office close to the station. The working day is from…
- 📖A trip by trainA2 · Tomorrow I will go by train to a nearby city. I took a one-way ticket, because I am…
- 📖A day at the seaA2 · In the summer we go to the sea. The beach is close to the house, and the water is warm.…
- 📖The new jacketA2 · The old jacket is too small for me, and I go to the shop. I try on a black jacket, but it…
- 📖A quarrel and reconciliationA2 · Last week my friend and I argued over a trifle. For three days I did not see my friend.…
- 📖Dinner at the restaurantA2 · On Saturday we booked a table for two at a restaurant close to the house. We took the…
- 📖The missed callsA2 · In the morning there are seven calls on my phone. Six from my mother, and one from a new…
- 📖A haircut at the barber'sA2 · On Saturday I booked at the barbershop close to the house. The master cuts very little.…
- 📖A concert in the rainA2 · In the summer my brother and I went to a concert. We bought the tickets in the morning…
- 📖Friday in the old cityA2 · On Friday the father goes to the mosque. In the church there is a bell, and in the mosque…
- 📖The apartment with a yardA2 · We bought an old apartment with a yard. The ceiling is good, but the basement is very…
- 📖The first semesterA2 · This year Maryam began studying history at the university. In the class schedule the…
- 📖The family budgetB1 · Every month we write the budget on a big sheet. First the income from work, then the…
- 📖A week at the hospitalB1 · My uncle fell off the stairs, and we called an ambulance. At the hospital the picture of…
- 📖The first contractB1 · After three interviews Samira was hired at a small furniture factory. The employment…
- 📖The furnishing of the apartmentA2 · We took a new apartment without furniture, so we bought many things. First the bed and…
- 📖In the summer to the seaA2 · In the summer we rented a car and drove to the sea. The speed limit on the road is…
- 📖The sister on the social networkB1 · My sister posts a photograph every day on a social network. She has a hundred comments…
- 📖The bicycle and the reportB1 · On the night to Saturday my bicycle was stolen at the store. I went to the police station…
- 📖A hard decisionB1 · For a month now I have had a job offer in another city. On the one hand, the salary is…
- 📖Documents in orderA2 · First I take a form from the inspection. Then I write the name and the address. After…
- 📖The neighbor by the stairsA2 · In our house lives an elderly neighbor named Amin. The hair is white, the beard is long…
- 📖Ten years of silenceB1 · We have been friends since childhood with Sara, a school friend. We talked every day and…
- 📖Cooking on SundayA2 · On Sunday I cook with my brother in the kitchen. First we clean the vegetables: potatoes…
- 📖A purchase on SaturdayB1 · On Saturday my wife and I went to the mall. In the shop window there was a dress of wool.…
- 📖The washing machine is noisyB1 · The old washing machine is noisy at every wash. First I checked the wires and the socket…
- 📖A summer thunderstormA2 · On a summer day the air was very stuffy. The sky closed over, and a big thunderstorm with…
- 📖A week on wheelsB1 · On Monday I bought a used car, and the technical inspection was on Tuesday. On Tuesday I…
- 📖A year of studyB1 · A year ago I enrolled in an Arabic course a complete beginner. In the first month I…
- 📖Grandmother's childhoodA2 · My grandmother was born in a small old village. In childhood she was with her mother in…
- 📖A talk in the corridorB1 · At the office a colleague came up to me and asked: do you have a minute? He said he was…
- 📖The first year of one's own businessB1 · Two years ago I was a worker at a factory, and then I became an entrepreneur. I opened a…
- 📖An order from the online storeA2 · I ordered shoes from an online store and chose cash on delivery. The delivery cost is…
- 📖Our quarterA2 · In our quarter there are five hundred residents, and the houses of the quarter are old. A…
- 📖An evening at the theaterB1 · For my birthday I took a subscription to five plays at the big theater. The first play…
- 📖The first marathonB1 · A year ago I did no sports and stopped quickly. I began at the gym: first the warm-up…
- 📖A measurement for the cupboardA2 · We wanted a new cupboard for the bedroom. The length of the wall is three meters twenty…
- 📖A week without cigarettesB1 · I smoked for fifteen years, and every morning began with coffee and smoke. Last year the…
- 📖A wedding in the villageA2 · In the summer there was my sister's wedding in the village at my grandfather's and…
- 📖The residents' meetingB1 · At the residents' meeting the manager proposed replacing the old windows. And he said the…
- 📖The exam on the first tryB1 · I took the car exam at twenty-nine, much later than my friends. The instructor said to…
- 📖Grandfather's trunkA2 · In the old house stands a trunk, and it is older than I. The wood is rough to the touch…
- 📖The path around the hillB1 · In the morning we set out with friends on the way to the hill. In the middle of the road…
- 📖The water billB1 · At school we measured the water consumption of a house for a whole week. The total number…
- 📖The business to the endB1 · We planned the kitchen renovation for weeks, but it dragged on for two months. First…
- 📖An experiment with three cupsA2 · At the lesson we did an experiment with water of three kinds. Each group took a sample…
- 📖How the village changedB1 · My grandmother was born in a small village that lived off the land since time immemorial.…
- 📖The river returnsB1 · For ten years the wastewater from the factory went straight into the river below the…
- 📖The first shift in the shopA2 · In our shop the work goes in shifts, and for the first time I am in the morning shift.…
- 📖Help at the stationB1 · Once I was waiting at the station for a train that was very late. Just then an elderly…
- 📖Our silent neighborB1 · Our neighbor is withdrawn; he does not talk much with anyone. At first we thought him…
How to read a text in a language you barely know
First pass — all the way through, without peeking at the translation. The goal is not to understand but to catch familiar words: there will be more of them than you expect, and that feeling matters more than any rule.
Second pass — with the translation beside you. Now it becomes clear what exactly was in the way: an unknown word, a construction you did not get, or just reading speed.
Third pass — all the way through again. The second pass brings noticeably more, and this step is what makes reading useful: it turns analysis into recognition.
Frequently asked
What level do you need to read texts in Arabic?
A1–B1. For the first texts the letters and two or three hundred everyday words are enough; the B1 texts need about three thousand. The translation sits next to it, so an unknown word does not stop the reading.
How many times should you reread the text?
Three times: without the translation, with it, and without it again. The third pass is what all of this is for — the second time you recognize noticeably more.