مرّر إصبعك على الشاشة
“مرّر إصبعك على الشاشة” (маррар исбаʿак ʿаля аш-шааша) — to swipe the screen in Arabic. Phrase, level A1. Literally "pass your finger over the screen": the familiar isbaʿ — a finger — and shaasha — a screen. This is how photos and pages are turned. In a live sentence: “مرّر إصبعك على الشاشة” — Swipe the screen with your finger. Written with the characters م, ر, ر, إ, ص, ب, ع, ك, ع, ل, ى, ا… A word from the everyday Arabic course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | مرّر إصبعك على الشاشة |
| Read in Latin letters | маррар исбаʿак ʿаля аш-шааша |
| Translation | to swipe the screen |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "pass your finger over the screen": the familiar isbaʿ — a finger — and shaasha — a screen. This is how photos and pages are turned
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.
- مرّر إصبعك على الشاشةмаррар исбаʿак ʿаля аш-шаашаSwipe the screen with your finger
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 swipe the screen” in Arabic?
«مرّر إصبعك على الشاشة», read “маррар исбаʿак ʿаля аш-шааша”. In a live sentence: “مرّر إصبعك على الشاشة” — Swipe the screen with your finger. Phrase, level A1; written with the characters م, ر, ر, إ, ص, ب, ع, ك, ع, ل, ى, ا…
How is “مرّر إصبعك على الشاشة” written in Latin letters?
маррар исбаʿак ʿаля аш-шааша. 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 "pass your finger over the screen": the familiar isbaʿ — a finger — and shaasha — a screen. This is how photos and pages are turned. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.