منذ أن أعرف نفسي
“منذ أن أعرف نفسي” (минз анн аʿриф нафси) — in my memory in Arabic. Phrase, level B1. Literally "since I have known myself": in my memory. Not "remember" but "know myself" — Arabic counts life from self-knowledge. In a live sentence: “لم يحدث مثل هذا منذ أن أعرف نفسي” — Nothing like it has happened in my memory. Written with the characters م, ن, ذ, أ, ن, أ, ع, ر, ف, ن, ف, س… A word from the everyday Arabic course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | منذ أن أعرف نفسي |
| Read in Latin letters | минз анн аʿриф нафси |
| Translation | in my memory |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "since I have known myself": in my memory. Not "remember" but "know myself" — Arabic counts life from self-knowledge
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.
- لم يحدث مثل هذا منذ أن أعرف نفسيлям йяхдус мисль хаза минз анн аʿриф нафсиNothing like it has happened in my memory
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 “in my memory” in Arabic?
«منذ أن أعرف نفسي», read “минз анн аʿриф нафси”. In a live sentence: “لم يحدث مثل هذا منذ أن أعرف نفسي” — Nothing like it has happened in my memory. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters م, ن, ذ, أ, ن, أ, ع, ر, ف, ن, ف, س…
How is “منذ أن أعرف نفسي” written in Latin letters?
минз анн аʿриф нафси. 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 "since I have known myself": in my memory. Not "remember" but "know myself" — Arabic counts life from self-knowledge. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.