يعرف كيف
“يعرف كيف” (йаʿриф кейф) — to know how in Arabic. Verb, level A2, topic — verbs. Where English says "I can", Arabic says "I know how": aʿrif kayf. Nearby stand the occupied yumkin — it is possible — and yastatiiʿ — to manage. In a live sentence: “أعرف كيف أطبخ” — I know how to cook. Written with the characters ي, ع, ر, ف, ك, ي, ف. One of 111 words in the set “verbs” in the Arabic course.
In short
| Written in Arabic | يعرف كيف |
| Read in Latin letters | йаʿриф кейф |
| Translation | to know how |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Where English says "I can", Arabic says "I know how": aʿrif kayf. Nearby stand the occupied yumkin — it is possible — and yastatiiʿ — to manage
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.
- أعرف كيف أطبخаʿриф кейф атбухI know how to cook
Nearby words: verbs
I want, I can, I am going, I know. The verb holds a sentence together: a few of the most frequent ones cover more everyday talk than a long list of nouns.
- أريدуридI wantAfter it the noun comes with no preposition: urid qahwa — I want coffee. The polite request is built like this: urid… min fadlik
- أحبухиббI loveThe shadda bb is a long b. After it the noun takes the article: uhibb al-qahwa — I love coffee
- ذهبзахабаto goIn the dictionary the verb stands in the past: dhahaba — he went. "To go" and "to ride" are one verb; the manner comes from the setting
- أكلакалаto eatThe past again in the dictionary: akala — he ate. "I eat" is aakul, and the first a in it is long
- شربшарибаto drink"I drink" is ashrab. The same verb covers smoking: one "drinks a cigarette", word for word
- قرأкараʾаto read"I read" is aqraʾu, and the hamza on the end holds: the vowel is not swallowed. Quran — the same root: "a reading aloud"
- تكلمтакалламаto speak"I speak" is atakallamu. A language takes the article: atakallamu al-ʿarabiyya — I speak Arabic, with no preposition in sight
- عَمِلَʿамилаto workBegins with the ayn. "I work" is aʿmal, and the same word means "to do": "what do you do?" asks both the job and the action
- يجبяджибI mustAn impersonal "one must": there is no subject pronoun with it. "One must work" is yajib an aʿmal
- سكنсаканаto live"I live" is askunu. The same root in sukkaan — residents, population — and in maskiin — residential
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “verbs”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “to know how” in Arabic?
Where English says "I can", Arabic says "I know how": aʿrif kayf. Nearby stand the occupied yumkin — it is possible — and yastatiiʿ — to manage
- How do you say “to speak” in Arabic?
"I speak" is atakallamu. A language takes the article: atakallamu al-ʿarabiyya — I speak Arabic, with no preposition in sight
- How do you say “to go” in Arabic?
In the dictionary the verb stands in the past: dhahaba — he went. "To go" and "to ride" are one verb; the manner comes from the setting
- How do you say “to live” in Arabic?
"I live" is askunu. The same root in sukkaan — residents, population — and in maskiin — residential
- How do you say “to read” in Arabic?
"I read" is aqraʾu, and the hamza on the end holds: the vowel is not swallowed. Quran — the same root: "a reading aloud"
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 know how” in Arabic?
«يعرف كيف», read “йаʿриф кейф”. In a live sentence: “أعرف كيف أطبخ” — I know how to cook. Verb, level A2, from the set “verbs”; written with the characters ي, ع, ر, ف, ك, ي, ف.
How is “يعرف كيف” written in Latin letters?
йаʿриф кейф. 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?
Where English says "I can", Arabic says "I know how": aʿrif kayf. Nearby stand the occupied yumkin — it is possible — and yastatiiʿ — to manage. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.