برقوق
“برقوق” (баркуук) — plum in Arabic. Noun, level A1, topic — food and drink. The word sailed from Greek the same way the English apricot did. In an Arab shop the plum is more often dried than fresh. In a live sentence: “البرقوق حامض” — The plum is sour. Written with the characters ب, ر, ق, و, ق. One of 177 words in the set “food and drink” in the Arabic course.
In short
| Written in Arabic | برقوق |
| Read in Latin letters | баркуук |
| Translation | plum |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
The word sailed from Greek the same way the English apricot did. In an Arab shop the plum is more often dried than fresh
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.
- البرقوق حامضаль-баркуук хаамидThe plum is sour
Nearby words: food and drink
A menu, a market, a shop sign, the question “what is this?”. Food is the most frequent subject of the first weeks and the safest excuse to start talking.
- قهوةкахваcoffeeCoffee is one of the oldest Arabic loans in English: qahwa left Arabia with the Ottoman caravan and reached the coffeehouses of Europe. In Arabic the word is feminine
- شايшайteaCame from Chinese by way of Persian — the overland cousin of the same word English picked up at sea. In the cafe they will ask: with sugar?
- ماءмаʾwaterThe hamza on the end is a vowel break: maa-ʾ. In a cafe tap water comes free for the asking — you only have to ask
- خبزхубзbreadThe flat round loaf baked for every table. Khubz is bread in general and the shop loaf at once
- طعامтаʿаамfoodThe t is emphatic — the tongue pulled back, the sound heavy. It stands first on the menu and on the shop sign
- حليبхалибmilkThe h is the breathy throat one (ح), not the scraping kh: a breath out of the throat. Tea with milk is shay bi-haliib
- جبنةджибнаcheeseThe ta marbuta on the end reads simply "a". Arab cheese is most often white and salty, from sheep milk
- لحمляхмmeatLahm is meat and muscle: the body is described in the same word as the dinner
- سمكсамакfishRead short and loud: samak. On the coast the fish is fresh every day, and this word is first on the menu
- سلطةсалатаsaladThe root is salt — the same family as the English word, which made its own round trip through Europe. The ta marbuta on the end
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “food and drink”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “plum” in Arabic?
The word sailed from Greek the same way the English apricot did. In an Arab shop the plum is more often dried than fresh
- How do you say “cheese” in Arabic?
The ta marbuta on the end reads simply "a". Arab cheese is most often white and salty, from sheep milk
- How do you say “water” in Arabic?
The hamza on the end is a vowel break: maa-ʾ. In a cafe tap water comes free for the asking — you only have to ask
- How do you say “salad” in Arabic?
The root is salt — the same family as the English word, which made its own round trip through Europe. The ta marbuta on the end
- How do you say “milk” in Arabic?
The h is the breathy throat one (ح), not the scraping kh: a breath out of the throat. Tea with milk is shay bi-haliib
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 “plum” in Arabic?
«برقوق», read “баркуук”. In a live sentence: “البرقوق حامض” — The plum is sour. Noun, level A1, from the set “food and drink”; written with the characters ب, ر, ق, و, ق.
How is “برقوق” written in Latin letters?
баркуук. 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?
The word sailed from Greek the same way the English apricot did. In an Arab shop the plum is more often dried than fresh. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.