يشغل مكانا
“يشغل مكانا” (йяшгаль макаанан) — to take up space in Arabic. Phrase, level B1. Literally "fills the place": the cupboard that ate the room's corner. "No room" Arabic says as "no place" — space here is almost a physical thing. In a live sentence: “الخزانة تشغل مكانا كبيرا” — The cupboard takes up a lot of space. Written with the characters ي, ش, غ, ل, م, ك, ا, ن, ا. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | يشغل مكانا |
| Read in Latin letters | йяшгаль макаанан |
| Translation | to take up space |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "fills the place": the cupboard that ate the room's corner. "No room" Arabic says as "no place" — space here is almost a physical thing
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.
- الخزانة تشغل مكانا كبيراаль-хизаана ташгаль макаанан кябииранThe cupboard takes up a lot of space
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 take up space” in Arabic?
«يشغل مكانا», read “йяшгаль макаанан”. In a live sentence: “الخزانة تشغل مكانا كبيرا” — The cupboard takes up a lot of space. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ي, ش, غ, ل, م, ك, ا, ن, ا.
How is “يشغل مكانا” written in Latin letters?
йяшгаль макаанан. 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 "fills the place": the cupboard that ate the room's corner. "No room" Arabic says as "no place" — space here is almost a physical thing. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.