هل هو بعيد من هنا؟
“هل هو بعيد من هنا؟” (халь хува баʿиид мин хуна؟) — is it far from here? in Arabic. Phrase, level A2. Baʿiid, "far", shares its root with baʿd, "after": the far is what comes after. The question is built through hal, and the answer is usually short: laa, ten minutes. In a live sentence: “عفوا، هل هو بعيد من هنا؟” — Excuse me, is it far from here? Written with the characters ه, ل, ه, و, ب, ع, ي, د, م, ن, ه, ن…
In short
| Written in Arabic | هل هو بعيد من هنا؟ |
| Read in Latin letters | халь хува баʿиид мин хуна؟ |
| Translation | is it far from here? |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Baʿiid, "far", shares its root with baʿd, "after": the far is what comes after. The question is built through hal, and the answer is usually short: laa, ten minutes
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، هل هو بعيد من هنا؟афван, халь хува баʿиид мин хуна؟Excuse me, is it far from here?
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 “is it far from here?” in Arabic?
«هل هو بعيد من هنا؟», read “халь хува баʿиид мин хуна؟”. In a live sentence: “عفوا، هل هو بعيد من هنا؟” — Excuse me, is it far from here? Phrase, level A2; written with the characters ه, ل, ه, و, ب, ع, ي, د, م, ن, ه, ن…
How is “هل هو بعيد من هنا؟” written in Latin letters?
халь хува баʿиид мин хуна؟. 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?
Baʿiid, "far", shares its root with baʿd, "after": the far is what comes after. The question is built through hal, and the answer is usually short: laa, ten minutes. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.