أحمر الشعر
“أحمر الشعر” (ахмар аш-шамʿ) — redhead in Arabic. Adjective, level A1. Literally "red of hair": a redhead an Arab names by the hair colour, not a separate word. In a live sentence: “جاري أحمر الشعر” — My neighbour is a redhead. Written with the characters أ, ح, م, ر, ا, ل, ش, ع, ر. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | أحمر الشعر |
| Read in Latin letters | ахмар аш-шамʿ |
| Translation | redhead |
| Part of speech | adjective |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "red of hair": a redhead an Arab names by the hair colour, not a separate word
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- جاري أحمر الشعرджари ахмар аш-шамʿMy neighbour is a redhead
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “redhead” in Arabic?
«أحمر الشعر», read “ахмар аш-шамʿ”. In a live sentence: “جاري أحمر الشعر” — My neighbour is a redhead. Adjective, level A1; written with the characters أ, ح, م, ر, ا, ل, ش, ع, ر.
How is “أحمر الشعر” written in Latin letters?
ахмар аш-шамʿ. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally "red of hair": a redhead an Arab names by the hair colour, not a separate word. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.