Lesson one · A1
Greeting without a verb
Eighteen greetings and the eight pronouns. Plus the thing English speakers find hardest to believe: in the present tense, Darija has no verb “to be” at all.
- Greet and take your leave at the three times of day.
- Ask and answer “how are you?” the way it is really done.
- Say your name and where you are from.
- Build a complete sentence with no verb in it.
1. How to read this
Before you start
The Arabic in this lesson is vowelled: it carries small marks above and below the letters telling you which vowel sounds. Out in the street they are not there — Arabic is written without them and readers supply them from memory — but here they all are, because they are the difference between reading and guessing.
The five marks
Three are vowels, one says “no vowel here”, and the last doubles the consonant. With these five you can already read all eighteen words below.
- بَ fatḥa ba stroke above — sounds a
- بِ kasra bi stroke below — sounds i
- بُ ḍamma bu curl above — sounds u
- بْ sukūn b small circle above — no vowel: the consonant stands bare
- بّ shadda bb the “w” above — the consonant doubles
The sukūn is the one you will meet most in Darija and the one that looks wrong at first. Moroccan Arabic stacks consonants where English would slip a vowel in: صْبَاحْ opens with sb- and nothing between them. That is not a typo.
One word, taken apart
Read right to left. Each consonant carries whatever mark sits on or under it:
صْsبَbaاāحْ7
صْبَاحْ · sba7
Six sounds that will cost you — or not
This is where your language sets your homework. English gives you the thinnest hand of the three languages this site is written for, and it is better to know that now.
Not your h — new
7 · مَرْحْبَا mar7ba
ح is a breath pushed through a tightened throat, with no scrape to it. Think of fogging a window but bearing down. Your ordinary h is ه, a different letter, and swapping them changes the word.
The one nobody is given — the hard one
3 · سْعِيدَة s3ida
ع exists in no European language. It is a squeeze at the very bottom of the throat — the start of a mild gag — and it comes out as a strangled vowel. There is no shortcut; you get it by listening. For now, just do not turn it into a plain a.
The ch in “loch” — new
kh · الْخِيرْ l-khir
خ is the rasp at the end of Scottish “loch” or German “Bach” — a sound English abandoned centuries ago and only keeps in borrowed names. A Spanish speaker gets this one free: it is their ordinary j. You will have to build it.
The sh in “ship” — you have it
sh · شْنُو shnu
ش is exactly your sh. Nothing to fix, nothing to learn. Worth banking, because a Spanish speaker does not have this sound and reaches for ch instead.
An s with a hollow mouth — new
s · صْبَاحْ sba7
ص is an ordinary s said with the tongue dropped and the throat opened, as if your mouth were full. And it spreads: the vowel beside it darkens. Say sbah with your usual s and you will be understood, and you will sound foreign from the first syllable.
A g that scrapes — new
gh · مَغْرِبِي maghribi
غ is near the g of “go” but with friction — and it is the French r of “Paris”, voiced. A French speaker is handed this one outright. You are starting from nothing on it.
The digits in the transcription are not a gimmick: 7 is ح and 3 is ع because each digit looks like the letter. It is what the whole of Morocco has typed since mobile phones arrived, and what you will see in any message.
2. Eighteen words
plate i
Grouped by family, not alphabetically: you learn them in the order you use them. The transcription uses digits because that is what you will meet on every phone in Morocco: 7 is ح, 3 is ع, kh is خ.
Arriving
-
السَّلَامُ عْلِيكُمْ
s-salamu 3likum
peace be upon you
The universal greeting. Any hour, anyone. It is not answered with anything except the matching formula.
-
وْعْلِيكُمُ السَّلَامْ
w 3likumu s-salam
and upon you peace
The obligatory reply. Answer that greeting with “hi” and you have cut something short.
- أَهْلًا ahlan hello
-
صْبَاحْ الْخِيرْ
sba7 l-khir
good morning
Literally “morning of the good”. The article glues on: l-khir.
-
مْسَا الْخِيرْ
msa l-khir
good afternoon, good evening
Covers everything from mid-afternoon on. Darija does not split afternoon from evening the way English does.
-
مَرْحْبَا
mar7ba
welcome, hello
The word on this lesson's sign. Also works as a plain “hello”.
“How are you?”
-
لَابَاسْ
labas
fine; how are you?
The best value in the lesson: it is both the question and the answer. Labas? — Labas. Literally “no harm”.
- كِي دَايْرْ ki dayr how are you? (to a man)
-
كِي دَايْرَة
ki dayra
how are you? (to a woman)
Same word plus the feminine -a. English “you” does not split like this; Darija's does, and it will keep doing so.
- بِخِيرْ bikhir well
-
الْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهْ
l-7amdu lillah
praise be to God
The ordinary answer to “how are you?”, whoever says it and whatever they believe. It works like “can't complain”: a formula, not a statement of faith. The first letter is not your h.
- وْنْتَ w nta and you?
Introductions
-
سْمِيتِي
smiti
my name is
Literally “my name”. No verb again: smiti Karim is “my name Karim”.
-
شْنُو سْمِيتَكْ
shnu smitek
what is your name? (to a man)
To a woman it sounds the same but is written سْمِيتْكِ.
-
مْتْشَرّْفِينْ
mtsharrfin
pleased to meet you
One form for one person or several, man or woman. Nothing to choose.
Leaving
-
بِسْلَامَة
bslama
goodbye
Literally “with peace”. The everyday goodbye, not a solemn one.
-
تْهَلَّا فْرَاسَكْ
thella f-rasek
take care
Literally “look after your head”. Said constantly, and warm.
-
لِيلَة سْعِيدَة
lila s3ida
good night
Only on leaving, never on arriving.
Grammar
3. The sentence with no verb
These four sentences are correct and complete. Read them and work out what is missing.
- أَنَا مَغْرِبِيana maghribi
- نْتَ لَابَاسْ؟nta labas?
- هِيَ مْنْ فَاسْhiya mn Fas
- حْنَا هْنَا7na hna
What is missing from all four?
The rule
There is no verb. None at all.
In the present tense Darija has no “to be”. You put the pronoun, you put what you want to say, and the sentence is finished. ana maghribi is “I Moroccan”, and it means “I am Moroccan”. 7na hna is “we here”, and it means “we are here”.
The verb does exist in the past and the future, and there it is a real word — كَانْ, kan. In the present there is simply no slot to fill.
The eight pronouns
| Pronoun | Say | Means |
|---|---|---|
| أَنَا | ana | I |
| نْتَ | nta | you (to a man) |
| نْتِ | nti | you (to a woman) |
| هُوَ | huwa | he |
| هِيَ | hiya | she |
| حْنَا | 7na | we |
| نْتُومَا | ntuma | you (plural) |
| هُومَا | huma | they |
Two things to notice. Singular “you” splits by gender — nta to a man, nti to a woman — which English never does, so it is genuinely new work. But the plural does not split at all: huma is they, full stop. A French speaker has to unlearn ils/elles there; you have nothing to unlearn.
What English hands you, and what it charges you
Free: you already say the pronoun every single time. “Am Moroccan” is not English. A Spanish speaker has to fight a lifelong habit of dropping it, because Spanish verbs carry the person. You never learned that habit, so there is nothing to break.
Free: no polite “you”. Darija says nta to everybody, exactly as English says “you” to everybody. French and Spanish speakers both have a formality reflex to suppress here.
Charged: dropping the verb. English cannot form a sentence without one, and your hand will keep reaching for the missing word.
Your mistake, not someone else's
When the “to be” slot feels empty, English speakers go looking for a word to fill it — and the word they find is كَانْ, kan. It is a real verb and it is in the dictionary. It is also the past tense.
× أَنَا كَانْ مَغْرِبِي
“I was Moroccan.” Grammatical, and not what you meant.
✓ أَنَا مَغْرِبِي
“I am Moroccan.”
And the one people hear first: الْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهْ does not start with your h. ح is made further back, a tight breath with the throat narrowed — English has nothing like it, and neither does French. Say it with the h of “house” and you have produced ه, a different letter. A Spanish speaker is at least handed خ for free; you get neither.
4. A sign and a card
Real text
No prose yet — street text. These two are what you meet on arriving at a riad in Fez, and between them they use five words from this lesson. Notice that neither line contains a verb.
مَرْحْبَا بِيكُمْ
رِيَاضْ الزِّيتُونَة
كَرِيمْ بَنَّانِي
رِيَاضْ الزِّيتُونَة
الْمْدِينَة الْقْدِيمَة · فَاسْ
صْبَاحْ الْخِيرْ · مْسَا الْخِيرْ
Did you follow it?
Which word on the sign means “welcome”?
مَرْحْبَا — mar7ba. Number six on the list.
How many verbs are there on the sign?
None, and the sentence is complete. “Welcome to you at Riad Zituna”.
The card says فَاسْ. What is it?
Fez. City names are written as they are, with no article.
Why does the card carry two greetings rather than one?
Because sba7 l-khir is for the morning and msa l-khir for the afternoon on. Darija has no short neutral greeting except السَّلَامُ عْلِيكُمْ.
Five exercises
5. Check
Not for discovering anything — you have seen the rule already. These are for finding out whether you actually have it.
1Match
Pair each line with the thing said back to it.
| 1 | السَّلَامُ عْلِيكُمْ | a | سْمِيتِي كَرِيمْ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | كِي دَايْرْ؟ | b | وْعْلِيكُمُ السَّلَامْ |
| 3 | شْنُو سْمِيتَكْ؟ | c | تْهَلَّا فْرَاسَكْ |
| 4 | بِسْلَامَة | d | الْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهْ |
2Pick the right one
Only one of the three is correct Darija.
-
- أَنَا مَغْرِبِي
- أَنَا كَانْ مَغْرِبِي
- مَغْرِبِي
-
- نْتُومَا لَابَاسْ؟
- نْتِ لَابَاسْ؟
- هُوَ لَابَاسْ؟
-
- هُومَا مْنْ فَاسْ
- هِيَ مْنْ فَاسْ
- حْنَا مْنْ فَاسْ
3Supply the pronoun
Fill in with أَنَا, نْتِ, هُوَ or حْنَا. Each is used once.
أَنَا · نْتِ · هُوَ · حْنَا
- ___ سْمِيتِي كَرِيمْ
- ___ مْنْ فَاسْ
- ___ لَابَاسْ؟
- ___ هْنَا
4Switch the gender
Rewrite each one addressed to a woman, or about a woman.
- نْتَ لَابَاسْ؟
- هُوَ مْنْ فَاسْ
- كِي دَايْرْ؟
5Write
Introduce yourself in three lines: greet, give your name, say where you are from. Without a single verb, which you will not need.
أَنَا · سْمِيتِي · مْنْ · لَابَاسْ · مْتْشَرّْفِينْ
A model
السَّلَامُ عْلِيكُمْ. سْمِيتِي دَافِيدْ. أَنَا مْنْ إِسْبَانْيَا. مْتْشَرّْفِينْ.
Show answers
| 1. Match | 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c |
|---|---|
| 2. Pick the right one | 1-a, 2-b, 3-c |
| 3. Supply the pronoun | أَنَا · هُوَ · نْتِ · حْنَا |
| 4. Switch the gender | نْتِ لَابَاسْ؟ · هِيَ مْنْ فَاسْ · كِي دَايْرَة؟ |
I can now
- Greet in the morning, in the afternoon, and on leaving.
- Answer “how are you?” without stopping to think.
- Give my name and where I am from.
- Build a whole sentence with no verb, and say why none is needed.
- Tell ح apart from the English h.