Vocabulary Cards — Session 16: Fruits

Print this page. Cut along the dotted lines. Each card is index-card sized. Carry them in your pocket. Look at one card at the fruit bowl, at the market, after lunch.

Card 1

Say it: TUF-faah Means: Apples

🎨 Picture: A bowl of red and green apples on a kitchen counter, one with a bite taken out.

Use it when: You pack an apple for school. You see apples at the grocery store. Teta slices one for you with a little salt.

Card 2

Say it: MAWZ Means: Bananas

🎨 Picture: A bunch of bananas hanging in a kitchen, with one pulled off and half-peeled.

Use it when: You want a quick snack. Mama puts one in your lunchbox. You mash one into yogurt.

Card 3

Say it: bur-tu-AAL Means: Oranges

🎨 Picture: A pile of bright oranges on a balcony table, with a glass of fresh juice next to them.

Use it when: You smell oranges being peeled. You drink fresh juice in the morning. You see the orange trees in a Lebanese village.

Card 4

Say it: 'I-nab Means: Grapes

🎨 Picture: A cluster of green and purple grapes on a vine, with a child reaching up.

Use it when: You wash grapes for the table. You see them growing on a trellis in summer. You pop one in your mouth straight from the bunch.

Card 5

Say it: TEEN Means: Figs

🎨 Picture: Two split-open figs on a small plate, pink inside, next to a knife.

Use it when: It's late summer. Jiddo brings figs from the tree. You taste one for the first time — soft, sweet, full of little seeds.

Card 6

Say it: rum-MAAN Means: Pomegranate

🎨 Picture: A pomegranate cut open on a wooden board, the red seeds spilling out like jewels.

Use it when: Mama sprinkles the seeds on salad. You see them at the market in fall. You stain your fingers pink trying to get every seed.

This is the fruit of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Jordan. Big, heavy, full of little red seeds. You'll see it everywhere in the fall.

A bonus card — for the letter of the day

Card 7 (bonus)

Say it: za-BEEB Means: Raisins

🎨 Picture: A small handful of dark raisins in a child's palm, with a bunch of grapes behind them.

Use it when: You snack on a small box of raisins. Sitto puts them in rice with pine nuts. You learn that raisins are just dried grapes — عِنَب that got sunny and small.

This word starts with our letter of the day — ز (zay). Listen for the z sound at the start: za-BEEB.

How to use these cards

1. Use them at the fruit bowl. Pick up a fruit, say the word, hand it to your kid.
2. Practice 30 seconds a day. One card at snack time. Say it. Eat it. Done.
3. Take them to the market. Let your kid find the tuffah, the mawz, the burtuqal.
4. Don't drill. Just name what's already on the table. The words stick because the fruit is real.

On the letter of the day

Today's letter is ز (zay). It makes the z sound, like in zabib (raisins) and mawz (bananas — listen at the end!).

It looks like this:

A small curve with a single dot on top. Almost the same shape as ر (ra) from a few sessions ago — but ر has no dot, and ز has one dot. One little dot changes everything.

Find the ز in:

A note for grown-ups

These six fruits are the heart of a Levantine fruit bowl. In Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Jordan, fruit is how you welcome a guest — a plate of tuffah, 'inab, and rumman comes out before anything else. If you have a heritage kid, they probably already know mawz and tuffah by ear. If you have a total beginner, start with those two — they're the easiest to hear and say.

And if fig season hits and you find fresh tin at the market — buy them. Eat them with your kid. Say the word together. That's the whole lesson.

Yalla Arabic · Vocabulary Cards · Session 16