يقضم
“يقضم” (йякдум) — to nibble in Arabic. Verb, level B1. Yaqdum is to bite a little at a time: the horse — the grass, the mosquito — the arm. Another verb, ʿadda, is for a bite in earnest: the dog "bit" with exactly that. The mosquito in Arabic does not sting — it "nibbles" with the same word. In a live sentence: “الحصان يقضم العشب في الحقل” — The horse nibbles the grass in the field. Written with the characters ي, ق, ض, م.
In short
| Written in Arabic | يقضم |
| Read in Latin letters | йякдум |
| Translation | to nibble |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Yaqdum is to bite a little at a time: the horse — the grass, the mosquito — the arm. Another verb, ʿadda, is for a bite in earnest: the dog "bit" with exactly that. The mosquito in Arabic does not sting — it "nibbles" with the same word
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.
- الحصان يقضم العشب في الحقلаль-хисаан йякдум аль-ушб фи аль-хаульThe horse nibbles the grass in the field
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 nibble” in Arabic?
«يقضم», read “йякдум”. In a live sentence: “الحصان يقضم العشب في الحقل” — The horse nibbles the grass in the field. Verb, level B1; written with the characters ي, ق, ض, م.
How is “يقضم” written in Latin letters?
йякдум. 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?
Yaqdum is to bite a little at a time: the horse — the grass, the mosquito — the arm. Another verb, ʿadda, is for a bite in earnest: the dog "bit" with exactly that. The mosquito in Arabic does not sting — it "nibbles" with the same word. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.