عشر دقائق على الأقدام
“عشر دقائق على الأقدام” (ʿашар дакааʿик аля аль-акдаам) — ten minutes on foot in Arabic. Phrase, level B1. Literally "ten minutes on the soles": aqdaam are the feet. Arabic does not say "on foot" — it says "on the feet", and this answers "how do I get there?" without a verb. In a live sentence: “إلى المحطة عشر دقائق على الأقدام” — The station is ten minutes on foot. Written with the characters ع, ش, ر, د, ق, ا, ئ, ق, ع, ل, ى, ا…
In short
| Written in Arabic | عشر دقائق على الأقدام |
| Read in Latin letters | ʿашар дакааʿик аля аль-акдаам |
| Translation | ten minutes on foot |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "ten minutes on the soles": aqdaam are the feet. Arabic does not say "on foot" — it says "on the feet", and this answers "how do I get there?" without a verb
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.
- إلى المحطة عشر دقائق على الأقدامиля аль-махатта ʿашар дакааʿик аля аль-акдаамThe station is ten minutes on foot
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 “ten minutes on foot” in Arabic?
«عشر دقائق على الأقدام», read “ʿашар дакааʿик аля аль-акдаам”. In a live sentence: “إلى المحطة عشر دقائق على الأقدام” — The station is ten minutes on foot. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ع, ش, ر, د, ق, ا, ئ, ق, ع, ل, ى, ا…
How is “عشر دقائق على الأقدام” written in Latin letters?
ʿашар дакааʿик аля аль-акдаам. 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 "ten minutes on the soles": aqdaam are the feet. Arabic does not say "on foot" — it says "on the feet", and this answers "how do I get there?" without a verb. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.