Arabic Vocabulary Lists > Arabic Flashcards
These free Arabic flashcards run in your browser. Pick a deck, read the Arabic, show the answer, then grade yourself Again, Good or Easy, and the card comes back on a spaced-repetition schedule. There are seven decks with 138 cards, all copied from our own reference pages, and each deck downloads as a CSV file for Anki.
The flashcards need JavaScript. Every word in these decks is on the page it came from, linked in the table below.
See every card in this deck
The seven decks and where each card comes from
Every card is copied word for word from a table on one of our reference pages, so its spelling matches the page. The back adds the transliteration, the meaning and a note from the same table row.
| Deck | Cards | Front and back | Copied from | Anki file |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The alphabet | 28 | Letter, then its name, its sound and how to say it | Arabic alphabet chart | Alphabet deck CSV |
| Numbers 0 to 10 and the tens | 20 | Number word, then transliteration, digit and Eastern numeral | Arabic numbers 1 to 100 | Numbers deck CSV |
| Days of the week | 11 | Sunday to Saturday plus yesterday, today, tomorrow and the day after, in Modern Standard Arabic | Arabic days of the week | Days deck CSV |
| Colors | 19 | Masculine form, then meaning and the feminine form | Arabic colors | Colors deck CSV |
| Family | 24 | Relative, then meaning and usage notes | Arabic family words | Family deck CSV |
| Islamic (Hijri) months | 12 | Month name, then its place in the year and what the name means | Arabic months | Hijri months deck CSV |
| Months of the year | 24 | January to December under both naming systems, Levant and Iraq or Egypt, Sudan and the Gulf | Arabic months | Months deck CSV |
The Arabic has no vowel marks because the source pages print it that way; the vowels are in the transliteration. The numbers deck keeps its page's scheme: doubled vowels are long (waaḥid) and an apostrophe stands for ع, ʿayn ('ashara). The other six use a macron for long vowels (aḥmar) and ʿ for ʿayn, as their pages do. When the alphabet deck feels easy, test letter shapes with our quiz on all 28 letters and their forms.
How the review schedule works
Again repeats a card later in the same round. Good waits one day and then doubles the wait, and Easy waits four days and then multiplies it by four, up to 365 days. We kept the schedule simple on purpose: each button shows the wait it will set before you press it. Each time you open a deck it shows the cards that are new or due, in deck order.
| Button (key) | New or missed card | Card you already know |
|---|---|---|
| Again (1) | Back after three more cards, or last if fewer are left | Wait resets to zero; back after three more cards, or last |
| Good (2) | Due tomorrow | Wait doubles: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 days |
| Easy (3) | Due in 4 days | Wait times four: 4, 16, 64, 256 days |
With the tool focused, Space shows the answer and 1, 2, 3 grade it. Progress stays in this browser, and nothing is sent anywhere. "Review every card now" reruns the whole deck, and those grades count.
How to import the Arabic decks into Anki
Download a CSV from the table above and open it from Anki's File menu. The desktop version of Anki is free.
- In Anki, click File, then Import, and choose the CSV file.
- Check that Front and Back go to your note type's first two fields, choose a deck, and click Import.
- Find the cards later by tag: each carries
openarabic::plus its source page, such asopenarabic::arabic-colors.
The files are UTF-8, which the Anki manual on importing text files says Anki expects for non-Latin text, and their header lines set the separator and tags column for Anki 2.1.54 and later. After import, Anki's own scheduler takes over.
The site's owner wrote that "My tutor introduced me to the concept of spaced repetition," and the owner's account of learning Arabic adds: "To this day I still use Anki software to learn new Arabic words and phrases."
Apps that come with their own decks are compared in the best apps to learn Arabic. For more word lists, see our Arabic vocabulary resources and the full list of Arabic learning resources.
Frequently asked questions
How do I import Arabic flashcards into Anki?
Download a deck's CSV file from the table on this page. In Anki on your computer, click the File menu, then Import, and choose the file. Each file starts with header lines that Anki 2.1.54 and later read, so the comma separator and the tags column are set for you. Check that Front and Back land in your note type's first two fields, pick a deck, and import.
Is Anki good for learning Arabic?
It is the tool the site's owner wrote about: 'To this day I still use Anki software to learn new Arabic words and phrases.' Anki is free on Windows, Mac and Linux. On phones, AnkiDroid for Android is free and AnkiMobile for iPhone is paid. Our CSV files give you ready-made Arabic decks so you can skip typing the cards yourself.
Why do the flashcards have no vowel marks?
Each card is copied from one of our reference pages, and those pages print Arabic unvocalized, the way it appears on a calendar, a form or a shop sign. Adding vowel marks to the cards would make them disagree with the pages they came from. The vowels are in the transliteration on the back of each card.
Where is my flashcard progress saved?
In your own browser only, using its local storage. Nothing is sent to us or anyone else. Clearing this site's data, or switching browser or device, starts you from zero. If your browser blocks storage, the flashcards still work, but your progress lasts only until you leave the page.
How does the spaced repetition schedule work?
Again brings the card back after three more cards in the same round. Good sends a new or missed card away for one day and doubles the wait after that: 1, 2, 4, 8 days. Easy starts at four days and multiplies the wait by four. No wait is longer than 365 days. Each visit shows the cards that are new or due.