يقود السيارة
“يقود السيارة” (йякууд ас-саййаара) — to drive a car in Arabic. Phrase, level A2. Qawaada, "to lead": the same root as the steering wheel. The driver is saaʾiq, but the verb is one: to lead a car, lead people, lead a business. In a live sentence: “أبي يقود السيارة إلى العمل كل يوم” — Father drives the car to work every day. Written with the characters ي, ق, و, د, ا, ل, س, ي, ا, ر, ة.
In short
| Written in Arabic | يقود السيارة |
| Read in Latin letters | йякууд ас-саййаара |
| Translation | to drive a car |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Qawaada, "to lead": the same root as the steering wheel. The driver is saaʾiq, but the verb is one: to lead a car, lead people, lead a business
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.
- أبي يقود السيارة إلى العمل كل يومабий йякууд ас-саййаара иля аль-ʿамаль куль йаумFather drives the car to work every day
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 drive a car” in Arabic?
«يقود السيارة», read “йякууд ас-саййаара”. In a live sentence: “أبي يقود السيارة إلى العمل كل يوم” — Father drives the car to work every day. Phrase, level A2; written with the characters ي, ق, و, د, ا, ل, س, ي, ا, ر, ة.
How is “يقود السيارة” written in Latin letters?
йякууд ас-саййаара. 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?
Qawaada, "to lead": the same root as the steering wheel. The driver is saaʾiq, but the verb is one: to lead a car, lead people, lead a business. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.