بكم هذا؟
“بكم هذا؟” (би-кам хаза؟) — how much is it? in Arabic. Phrase, level A0, topic — shopping and money. Literally "for how much is this?". In the market rows a plain bi-kam? — for how much? — is enough. In a live sentence: “بكم هذا؟ — خمسة يورو.” — How much is it? — Five euros. Written with the characters ب, ك, م, ه, ذ, ا. One of 82 words in the set “shopping and money” in the Arabic course.
In short
| Written in Arabic | بكم هذا؟ |
| Read in Latin letters | би-кам хаза؟ |
| Translation | how much is it? |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "for how much is this?". In the market rows a plain bi-kam? — for how much? — is enough
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.
- بكم هذا؟ — خمسة يورو.би-кам хаза؟ — хамса йуро.How much is it? — Five euros.
Nearby words: shopping and money
How much it costs, whether there is a smaller one, whether cards are accepted. A shop forgives mistakes: miss a word and they will show you the thing with their hands anyway.
- يوروйуроeuroEvery Arab country has its own money: dinar, riyal, dirham, pound. Yuro is for Morocco, Tunisia and the exchange desks
- متجرматджарshopFrom taajir — a merchant: matjar is "the merchant’s place". Shops close for lunch and in the evening — the hours are not printed on the sign
- سوقсуукmarketThe covered bazaars of Baghdad and Damascus are suuqs; the word also names the whole trading quarter of a city
- بسطةбистаcounterLiterally "a spread": at an eastern market the goods lie not on a shelf but on a counter covered with cloth. Both the counter and the market around it live by this word
- بائعбааиʿsellerFrom the verb "to sell", with the ayn in the middle — that squeezed throat. The seller woman is baaʾiʿa, and at the market it is her in nine cases out of ten
- زبونзабуунbuyerThe same word means "customer": in a cafe, a taxi, a shop they are all zabuun. The long uu in the middle stretches
- ميزانмизаанscalesSingular in form, unlike the English plural: al-miizaan is "the scales itself". From the verb "to weigh", and justice is al-miizaan too
- كيلوغرامкилограамkilogramAt the market they say it short — kilo. Half is nisf kilo, and the weigher measures exactly so, with no grams involved
- طازجтазижfreshThe t is emphatic — the tongue pulled back. About fish and bread they ask exactly this: samak taazij? — the buyer’s first question at the counter
- ناضجнаадижripeLooks like taazij (fresh) but is another word: ripe is what has reached its fullness. The same word names a mature person
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “shopping and money”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “how much is it?” in Arabic?
Literally "for how much is this?". In the market rows a plain bi-kam? — for how much? — is enough
- How do you say “scales” in Arabic?
Singular in form, unlike the English plural: al-miizaan is "the scales itself". From the verb "to weigh", and justice is al-miizaan too
- How do you say “market” in Arabic?
The covered bazaars of Baghdad and Damascus are suuqs; the word also names the whole trading quarter of a city
- How do you say “ripe” in Arabic?
Looks like taazij (fresh) but is another word: ripe is what has reached its fullness. The same word names a mature person
- How do you say “buyer” in Arabic?
The same word means "customer": in a cafe, a taxi, a shop they are all zabuun. The long uu in the middle stretches
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 “how much is it?” in Arabic?
«بكم هذا؟», read “би-кам хаза؟”. In a live sentence: “بكم هذا؟ — خمسة يورو.” — How much is it? — Five euros. Phrase, level A0, from the set “shopping and money”; written with the characters ب, ك, م, ه, ذ, ا.
How is “بكم هذا؟” written in Latin letters?
би-кам хаза؟. 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 "for how much is this?". In the market rows a plain bi-kam? — for how much? — is enough. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.