كارثة طبيعية
“كارثة طبيعية” (кярииса табиийя) — a natural disaster in Arabic. Phrase, level B1. Literally "a natural catastrophe". What other languages call "act of God" Arabic renders simply with the word "natural". In a live sentence: “الزلزال كارثة طبيعية كبيرة” — The earthquake is a big natural disaster. Written with the characters ك, ا, ر, ث, ة, ط, ب, ي, ع, ي, ة. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | كارثة طبيعية |
| Read in Latin letters | кярииса табиийя |
| Translation | a natural disaster |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "a natural catastrophe". What other languages call "act of God" Arabic renders simply with the word "natural"
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.
- الزلزال كارثة طبيعية كبيرةаз-зилзаль кярииса табиийя кябираThe earthquake is a big natural disaster
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 “a natural disaster” in Arabic?
«كارثة طبيعية», read “кярииса табиийя”. In a live sentence: “الزلزال كارثة طبيعية كبيرة” — The earthquake is a big natural disaster. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ك, ا, ر, ث, ة, ط, ب, ي, ع, ي, ة.
How is “كارثة طبيعية” written in Latin letters?
кярииса табиийя. 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 "a natural catastrophe". What other languages call "act of God" Arabic renders simply with the word "natural". A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.