إيقاع
“إيقاع” (и́кааʿ) — the rhythm in Arabic. Noun, level B1. The rhythm is the "beating", what keeps the music alive. The hamza at the end cuts the word — i-qaaʾ — the way a drumbeat cuts the silence. In a live sentence: “الإيقاع في هذه الأغنية سريع جدا” — The rhythm in this song is very fast. Written with the characters إ, ي, ق, ا, ع. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | إيقاع |
| Read in Latin letters | и́кааʿ |
| Translation | the rhythm |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
The rhythm is the "beating", what keeps the music alive. The hamza at the end cuts the word — i-qaaʾ — the way a drumbeat cuts the silence
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.
- الإيقاع في هذه الأغنية سريع جداаль-и́кааʿ фи хазихи аль-угнийя сариʿ джидданThe rhythm in this song is very fast
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 “the rhythm” in Arabic?
«إيقاع», read “и́кааʿ”. In a live sentence: “الإيقاع في هذه الأغنية سريع جدا” — The rhythm in this song is very fast. Noun, level B1; written with the characters إ, ي, ق, ا, ع.
How is “إيقاع” written in Latin letters?
и́кааʿ. 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 rhythm is the "beating", what keeps the music alive. The hamza at the end cuts the word — i-qaaʾ — the way a drumbeat cuts the silence. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.