معرض فني
“معرض فني” (маʿрад фанний) — an exhibition in Arabic. Noun, level B1. Literally "an artistic showing": maʿrad, "a fair", was already in the dictionary; the exhibition is the same showing, only people look, not buy. The adjective "artistic" tells them apart. In a live sentence: “معرض فني للرسم العربي في المسرح” — An exhibition of Arab painting at the theatre. Written with the characters م, ع, ر, ض, ف, ن, ي. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | معرض فني |
| Read in Latin letters | маʿрад фанний |
| Translation | an exhibition |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "an artistic showing": maʿrad, "a fair", was already in the dictionary; the exhibition is the same showing, only people look, not buy. The adjective "artistic" tells them apart
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.
- معرض فني للرسم العربي في المسرحмаʿрад фанний ли-р-расм аль-ʿарабий фи аль-масрахAn exhibition of Arab painting at the theatre
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 “an exhibition” in Arabic?
«معرض فني», read “маʿрад фанний”. In a live sentence: “معرض فني للرسم العربي في المسرح” — An exhibition of Arab painting at the theatre. Noun, level B1; written with the characters م, ع, ر, ض, ف, ن, ي.
How is “معرض فني” written in Latin letters?
маʿрад фанний. 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 "an artistic showing": maʿrad, "a fair", was already in the dictionary; the exhibition is the same showing, only people look, not buy. The adjective "artistic" tells them apart. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.