fi sa3a mutaakhkhira
lateThe word, broken down.
في ساعة مُتَأَخِّرة reads right to left. Below, each letter in reading order, with its sound and the keys that type it.
A plain 'f'. One dot above a small loop.
A 'y', or a long 'i' vowel when it carries no vowel of its own.
A plain 's'. Three small teeth in a row.
A long 'a' vowel. A single upright stroke, and the first letter of the alphabet.
A voiced sound from deep in the throat. Arabizi writes it '3'.
The 'tied tāʾ'. It marks a feminine ending, sounded as a soft 'a'.
A plain 'm'. A small round head with a tail.
A short 'u', written as a small loop above the letter.
A plain 't'. The same body as bāʾ, but with two dots above.
A short 'a', written as a small stroke above the letter.
A glottal stop carried on an alif.
A short 'a', written as a small stroke above the letter.
The throaty 'kh', like the 'ch' in Bach or the Scottish 'loch'.
Doubles the letter it sits on; hold the consonant a beat longer.
A short 'i', written as a small stroke below the letter.
A rolled 'r', closer to Spanish than English.
The 'tied tāʾ'. It marks a feminine ending, sounded as a soft 'a'.
What does fi sa3a mutaakhkhira mean in Arabizi?
fi sa3a mutaakhkhira is how you write في ساعة مُتَأَخِّرة in Arabizi, the Arabic chat alphabet. It means “late”.
The 3 stands for ع (ayn): a throaty sound. No clean English equivalent. 3 is a mirrored ع.
For the rest of the chat alphabet, see the Arabizi → Arabic guide. Got it the other way round, with Arabic script to convert? That is the Arabic to Arabizi converter.
The keystrokes, in order.
On a standard Arabic 101 / Arabic-PC layout — 19 key presses. Diacritics sit on the Shift keys. The on-screen keyboard on this site highlights each key as you go.
It sits in the daily routine lesson of our Arabic typing practice course, if you would rather drill it next to the words it turns up with.
Practice typing this word →- 01T→ف
- 02D→ي
- 03Space→
- 04S→س
- 05H→ا
- 06U→ع
- 07M→ة
- 08Space→
- 09L→م
- 10Shift+E→ـُḍamma
- 11J→ت
- 12Shift+Q→ـَfatḥa
- 13Shift+H→أ
- 14Shift+Q→ـَfatḥa
- 15O→خ
- 16Shift+`→ـّshadda
- 17Shift+A→ـِkasra
- 18V→ر
- 19M→ة
This page shows the written standard. In everyday Palestinian speech, “late” is mit'akhkhir (مِتْأَخِّر). Our sister site Tfaddalu teaches the spoken dialect, with audio and example sentences. Hear mit'akhkhir on Tfaddalu →
In Cairo, “late” is met'akhkhar (مِتْأَخَّر). Our sister app Bel Masri teaches the Egyptian dialect, with audio and example sentences. Hear met'akhkhar on Bel Masri →