اعترف
“اعترف” (иʿтарафа) — to admit in Arabic. Verb, level B1. The ʿayn sits in the middle: "i-ʿta-ra-fa", the throat squeezes on the third sound. In a live sentence: “اعترف بخطئه في النهاية” — In the end he admitted his mistake. Written with the characters ا, ع, ت, ر, ف. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | اعترف |
| Read in Latin letters | иʿтарафа |
| Translation | to admit |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | B1 |
How to pronounce it
The ʿayn sits in the middle: "i-ʿta-ra-fa", the throat squeezes on the third sound
Why it looks that way
From iʿtarafa bi — "to acknowledge to oneself": to admit is "to make true" one's deed, the same root as "right". The confession is iʿtiraaf
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.
- اعترف بخطئه في النهايةиʿтарафа би-хатаихи фи ан-нихаяIn the end he admitted his mistake
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 “to admit” in Arabic?
«اعترف», read “иʿтарафа”. The ʿayn sits in the middle: "i-ʿta-ra-fa", the throat squeezes on the third sound. In a live sentence: “اعترف بخطئه في النهاية” — In the end he admitted his mistake. Verb, level B1; written with the characters ا, ع, ت, ر, ف.
How is “اعترف” written in Latin letters?
иʿтарафа. 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?
From iʿtarafa bi — "to acknowledge to oneself": to admit is "to make true" one's deed, the same root as "right". The confession is iʿtiraaf. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.