ولا واحدة
“ولا واحدة” (валя ваахида) — not a single one in Arabic. Phrase, level A2. Literally "and not one": not one, not a drop, not a crumb. After the past negation the thing departs with "of", and the forbidden count is kept by the second phrase. In a live sentence: “لم يبق من التفاح ولا واحدة” — No apples are left, not a single one. Written with the characters و, ل, ا, و, ا, ح, د, ة. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Arabic | ولا واحدة |
| Read in Latin letters | валя ваахида |
| Translation | not a single one |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "and not one": not one, not a drop, not a crumb. After the past negation the thing departs with "of", and the forbidden count is kept by the second phrase
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 يبق من التفاح ولا واحدةлям йабка мин ат-таффах валя ваахидаNo apples are left, not a single one
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 “not a single one” in Arabic?
«ولا واحدة», read “валя ваахида”. In a live sentence: “لم يبق من التفاح ولا واحدة” — No apples are left, not a single one. Phrase, level A2; written with the characters و, ل, ا, و, ا, ح, د, ة.
How is “ولا واحدة” written in Latin letters?
валя ваахида. 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 "and not one": not one, not a drop, not a crumb. After the past negation the thing departs with "of", and the forbidden count is kept by the second phrase. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.