ما كنت لأصدق
“ما كنت لأصدق” (ма кунту ля-усаддик) — I would not have believed it in Arabic. Phrase, level B1. Literally "I was not to believe": I would not have believed it. The construction is the polite "no way". In a live sentence: “رأيته بعيني وما كنت لأصدق” — I saw it with my own eyes and would not have believed it. Written with the characters م, ا, ك, ن, ت, ل, أ, ص, د, ق. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | ما كنت لأصدق |
| Read in Latin letters | ма кунту ля-усаддик |
| Translation | I would not have believed it |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "I was not to believe": I would not have believed it. The construction is the polite "no way"
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.
- رأيته بعيني وما كنت لأصدقраʾайтуху би-ʿайнай ва-ма кунту ля-усаддикI saw it with my own eyes and would not have believed it
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 “I would not have believed it” in Arabic?
«ما كنت لأصدق», read “ма кунту ля-усаддик”. In a live sentence: “رأيته بعيني وما كنت لأصدق” — I saw it with my own eyes and would not have believed it. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters م, ا, ك, ن, ت, ل, أ, ص, د, ق.
How is “ما كنت لأصدق” written in Latin letters?
ма кунту ля-усаддик. 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 "I was not to believe": I would not have believed it. The construction is the polite "no way". A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.