عليّ أن أذهب
“عليّ أن أذهب” (ʿалеййя ан азхаб) — I have to go in Arabic. Phrase, level A2. Literally "on me that I go": what is "it is time" elsewhere Arabic carries on its shoulders — ʿalayya. The same turn as in "it is hard for me": saʿb ʿalayya. In a live sentence: “عفوا، عليّ أن أذهب، الحافلة الأخيرة” — Excuse me, I have to go, the last bus. Written with the characters ع, ل, ي, أ, ن, أ, ذ, ه, ب.
In short
| Written in Arabic | عليّ أن أذهب |
| Read in Latin letters | ʿалеййя ан азхаб |
| Translation | I have to go |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "on me that I go": what is "it is time" elsewhere Arabic carries on its shoulders — ʿalayya. The same turn as in "it is hard for me": saʿb ʿalayya
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.
- عفوا، عليّ أن أذهب، الحافلة الأخيرةафван, ʿалеййя ан азхаб, аль-хаафила аль-ахираExcuse me, I have to go, the last bus
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 “I have to go” in Arabic?
«عليّ أن أذهب», read “ʿалеййя ан азхаб”. In a live sentence: “عفوا، عليّ أن أذهب، الحافلة الأخيرة” — Excuse me, I have to go, the last bus. Phrase, level A2; written with the characters ع, ل, ي, أ, ن, أ, ذ, ه, ب.
How is “عليّ أن أذهب” written in Latin letters?
ʿалеййя ан азхаб. 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 "on me that I go": what is "it is time" elsewhere Arabic carries on its shoulders — ʿalayya. The same turn as in "it is hard for me": saʿb ʿalayya. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.