لحق
“لحق” (лихика) — to make it in time in Arabic. Verb, level B1. The core meaning is "to catch up with": to make the bus is lihiqa al-haafila — literally "overtook the bus". Arabic time is measured not in hours but in whether you caught up. In a live sentence: “لحق بالحافلة الأخيرة بعد العمل” — He caught the last bus after work. Written with the characters ل, ح, ق. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | لحق |
| Read in Latin letters | лихика |
| Translation | to make it in time |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
The core meaning is "to catch up with": to make the bus is lihiqa al-haafila — literally "overtook the bus". Arabic time is measured not in hours but in whether you caught up
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.
- لحق بالحافلة الأخيرة بعد العملлихика би-ль-хаафила аль-ахира баʿд аль-ʿамальHe caught the last bus after work
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 make it in time” in Arabic?
«لحق», read “лихика”. In a live sentence: “لحق بالحافلة الأخيرة بعد العمل” — He caught the last bus after work. Verb, level B1; written with the characters ل, ح, ق.
How is “لحق” written in Latin letters?
лихика. 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 core meaning is "to catch up with": to make the bus is lihiqa al-haafila — literally "overtook the bus". Arabic time is measured not in hours but in whether you caught up. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.