ما اسمك؟
“ما اسمك؟” (ма исмук؟) — what is your name? in Arabic. Phrase, level A0. Literally "what [is] your name?". Ma is "what", the main question word of the language. Politely — ma ismukum? In a live sentence: “ما اسمك؟ — إيوان.” — What is your name? — Ivan. Written with the characters م, ا, ا, س, م, ك. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level A0.
In short
| Written in Arabic | ما اسمك؟ |
| Read in Latin letters | ма исмук؟ |
| Translation | what is your name? |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "what [is] your name?". Ma is "what", the main question word of the language. Politely — ma ismukum?
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.
- ما اسمك؟ — إيوان.ма исмук؟ — иваан.What is your name? — Ivan.
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 “what is your name?” in Arabic?
«ما اسمك؟», read “ма исмук؟”. In a live sentence: “ما اسمك؟ — إيوان.” — What is your name? — Ivan. Phrase, level A0; written with the characters م, ا, ا, س, م, ك.
How is “ما اسمك؟” written in Latin letters?
ма исмук؟. 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 "what [is] your name?". Ma is "what", the main question word of the language. Politely — ma ismukum? A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.