يزيّت المفصلات
“يزيّت المفصلات” (йюзаййит аль-мафсылят) — to oil the hinges in Arabic. Phrase, level A1. Oil is the familiar zayt from the motor: to oil is literally "to oil". Mafṣala — a hinge — is a kin of the familiarmafṣil — a joint: both are places of bending. In a live sentence: “هو يزيّت مفصلات الباب” — He oils the hinges of the door. Written with the characters ي, ز, ي, ت, ا, ل, م, ف, ص, ل, ا, ت.
In short
| Written in Arabic | يزيّت المفصلات |
| Read in Latin letters | йюзаййит аль-мафсылят |
| Translation | to oil the hinges |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Oil is the familiar zayt from the motor: to oil is literally "to oil". Mafṣala — a hinge — is a kin of the familiarmafṣil — a joint: both are places of bending
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.
- هو يزيّت مفصلات البابхува йюзаййит мафсылят аль-баабHe oils the hinges of the door
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 oil the hinges” in Arabic?
«يزيّت المفصلات», read “йюзаййит аль-мафсылят”. In a live sentence: “هو يزيّت مفصلات الباب” — He oils the hinges of the door. Phrase, level A1; written with the characters ي, ز, ي, ت, ا, ل, م, ف, ص, ل, ا, ت.
How is “يزيّت المفصلات” written in Latin letters?
йюзаййит аль-мафсылят. 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?
Oil is the familiar zayt from the motor: to oil is literally "to oil". Mafṣala — a hinge — is a kin of the familiarmafṣil — a joint: both are places of bending. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.