الكرة الطائرة
“الكرة الطائرة” (аль-кура ат-тааʾира) — volleyball in Arabic. Noun, level A2. Literally "the flying ball": volleyball is named for the ball that hangs in the air. Compare with basketball beside it: there "the basket ball", here "the flying ball" — two sports, two pictures. In a live sentence: “الكرة الطائرة على الشاطئ كل مساء” — Volleyball on the beach every evening. Written with the characters ا, ل, ك, ر, ة, ا, ل, ط, ا, ئ, ر, ة.
In short
| Written in Arabic | الكرة الطائرة |
| Read in Latin letters | аль-кура ат-тааʾира |
| Translation | volleyball |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "the flying ball": volleyball is named for the ball that hangs in the air. Compare with basketball beside it: there "the basket ball", here "the flying ball" — two sports, two pictures
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.
- الكرة الطائرة على الشاطئ كل مساءаль-кура ат-тааʾира ʿаля аш-шаатиʾ куль масааVolleyball on the beach every evening
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 “volleyball” in Arabic?
«الكرة الطائرة», read “аль-кура ат-тааʾира”. In a live sentence: “الكرة الطائرة على الشاطئ كل مساء” — Volleyball on the beach every evening. Noun, level A2; written with the characters ا, ل, ك, ر, ة, ا, ل, ط, ا, ئ, ر, ة.
How is “الكرة الطائرة” written in Latin letters?
аль-кура ат-тааʾира. 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 "the flying ball": volleyball is named for the ball that hangs in the air. Compare with basketball beside it: there "the basket ball", here "the flying ball" — two sports, two pictures. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.