الشمال
“الشمال” (аш-шамааль) — north in Arabic. Noun, level A1. One word means both "north" and "the left hand": on old maps the north was drawn to the left. It sounds in the weather forecast every day. In a live sentence: “الريح من الشمال” — The wind is from the north. Written with the characters ا, ل, ش, م, ا, ل. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | الشمال |
| Read in Latin letters | аш-шамааль |
| Translation | north |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
One word means both "north" and "the left hand": on old maps the north was drawn to the left. It sounds in the weather forecast every day
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.
- الريح من الشمالар-риих мин аш-шамаальThe wind is from the north
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 “north” in Arabic?
«الشمال», read “аш-шамааль”. In a live sentence: “الريح من الشمال” — The wind is from the north. Noun, level A1; written with the characters ا, ل, ش, م, ا, ل.
How is “الشمال” written in Latin letters?
аш-шамааль. 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?
One word means both "north" and "the left hand": on old maps the north was drawn to the left. It sounds in the weather forecast every day. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.