تعطّل
“تعطّل” (таʿатталь) — broke down in Arabic. Phrase, level A2, topic — home and things. A form with a doubled t: ta-ʿat-tal — it went out of order by itself. Of a person it is not said: the verb is only about machines and plans. In a live sentence: “المصعد تعطّل” — The lift broke down. Written with the characters ت, ع, ط, ل. One of 197 words in the set “home and things” in the Arabic course.
In short
| Written in Arabic | تعطّل |
| Read in Latin letters | таʿатталь |
| Translation | broke down |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
A form with a doubled t: ta-ʿat-tal — it went out of order by itself. Of a person it is not said: the verb is only about machines and plans
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.
- المصعد تعطّلаль-мисʿад таʿаттальThe lift broke down
Nearby words: home and things
Room, key, water, electricity. You will need them on your first day in a rented flat.
- بيتбейтhouseThe house as one’s own home; a free-standing building is mabna. Bayt is also a line of verse: poetry is an Arab’s second home
- شقةшаккаapartmentThe shadda qq is held long: shaq-qa. The word lives in every rental listing
- سخّنсахханаto warmThe doubled khkh — the word warms itself: sakh-kha-na. "I warm" is usakhkhinu, and tea is reheated with exactly it
- مسكنмасканhousingFrom the verb "to live" — sakana — which you know. A word of listings and documents; in conversation one says bayt or shaqqa
- غرفةгурфаroomThe gh is the gargled one (غ), as in ghaadan — tomorrow. A two-room apartment is shaqqa bi-ghurfatayn, literally "with two rooms", in the dual
- مطبخматбахkitchenFrom the verb "to cook": the prefix ma- turns the action into a place. In a rental listing the kitchen stands in the list apart from the rooms
- حمّامхаммаамbathroomThe doubled mm. The hammam of the Turkish baths took its name from this very word. Hammaam is the bath, the bathhouse and the hotel toilet at once
- شرفةшурфаbalconyFrom shuuf — look: from the balcony one looks at the street. They will understand "balcony" too, but in the listings it is shurfa
- طابقтаабикfloor (storey)The t is emphatic. In Egypt the ground floor is taabiq ardii — "of the earth" — and awwal is already the floor above it; elsewhere the count runs as in English
- مصعدмисʿадliftFrom the verb "to rise". They will understand "lift", but the button in the building says miʿsad. The phrase al-miʿsad maksuur — the lift is broken — is heard often
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “home and things”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “broke down” in Arabic?
A form with a doubled t: ta-ʿat-tal — it went out of order by itself. Of a person it is not said: the verb is only about machines and plans
- How do you say “bathroom” in Arabic?
The doubled mm. The hammam of the Turkish baths took its name from this very word. Hammaam is the bath, the bathhouse and the hotel toilet at once
- How do you say “to warm” in Arabic?
The doubled khkh — the word warms itself: sakh-kha-na. "I warm" is usakhkhinu, and tea is reheated with exactly it
- How do you say “lift” in Arabic?
From the verb "to rise". They will understand "lift", but the button in the building says miʿsad. The phrase al-miʿsad maksuur — the lift is broken — is heard often
- How do you say “kitchen” in Arabic?
From the verb "to cook": the prefix ma- turns the action into a place. In a rental listing the kitchen stands in the list apart from the rooms
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 “broke down” in Arabic?
«تعطّل», read “таʿатталь”. In a live sentence: “المصعد تعطّل” — The lift broke down. Phrase, level A2, from the set “home and things”; written with the characters ت, ع, ط, ل.
How is “تعطّل” written in Latin letters?
таʿатталь. 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?
A form with a doubled t: ta-ʿat-tal — it went out of order by itself. Of a person it is not said: the verb is only about machines and plans. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.