فهمت تقريبا
“فهمت تقريبا” (фахамту такриибан) — I almost understood in Arabic. Phrase, level B1. Taqriiban comes from qarraba, "to come near": "almost" is literally "on the approach". The past fahamtu — understood at that moment; the present afham — understand in general. In a live sentence: “فهمت تقريبا، كرر المثال من فضلك” — I almost understood; repeat the example, please. Written with the characters ف, ه, م, ت, ت, ق, ر, ي, ب, ا. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | فهمت تقريبا |
| Read in Latin letters | фахамту такриибан |
| Translation | I almost understood |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Taqriiban comes from qarraba, "to come near": "almost" is literally "on the approach". The past fahamtu — understood at that moment; the present afham — understand in general
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.
- فهمت تقريبا، كرر المثال من فضلكфахамту такриибан, кяррир аль-мисаль мин фадликI almost understood; repeat the example, please
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 almost understood” in Arabic?
«فهمت تقريبا», read “фахамту такриибан”. In a live sentence: “فهمت تقريبا، كرر المثال من فضلك” — I almost understood; repeat the example, please. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ف, ه, م, ت, ت, ق, ر, ي, ب, ا.
How is “فهمت تقريبا” written in Latin letters?
фахамту такриибан. 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?
Taqriiban comes from qarraba, "to come near": "almost" is literally "on the approach". The past fahamtu — understood at that moment; the present afham — understand in general. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.