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Learning Darijaالدارجة

Lesson 10 · A1

The bag of mine

Eighteen things you carry, lose and find, and dyal, the word that says whose they are. It turns your order round and asks for an article you would never put there.

  • Name what is in your bag and your pockets.
  • Say “my bag”, “her phone”, “my sister's money”.
  • Ask whose something is.
  • Report something lost at a desk.
1

Eighteen words

What you carry, what you wear, the word for whose, and four chunks for the lost-property desk. Several come from French or Spanish; they have been Moroccan for a century.

What you carry

  • صَاكْ sak bag

    From French sac, but with ص, the hollow s of lesson 1.

  • بْزْطَامْ bztam wallet

    A purely Moroccan word. Three consonants before the first vowel: b-z-t, then am.

  • فْلُوسْ flus money

    Plural in form. “My money” is l-flus dyali.

  • سَارُوتْ sarut key

    Plural swaret. The house word, not the technical one.

  • بْطَاقَة btaqa card; ID card

    On its own, l-btaqa usually means the national identity card.

  • تِيلِيفُونْ tilifun phone

    You will also hear portable, straight from French.

What you wear

  • سَاعَة sa3a watch; hour

    Feminine, and yet s-sa3a dyali: dyal does not change. Also the word for “hour” and “clock”.

  • صَبَّاطْ sebbat shoes

    From Spanish zapato. One word for the pair.

  • كَاسْكِيطَة kaskita cap

    From French casquette.

  • حْوَايْجْ 7wayej clothes; things

    Plural of 7aja. Most often it means clothes: l-7wayej dyali, my clothes.

Whose

  • دْيَالْ dyal of, belonging to

    The key word. It never changes for gender or number.

  • دْيَالِي dyali my, mine

    dyal + the -i of lesson 9. Goes after the noun: s-sak dyali.

  • دْيَالَكْ dyalek your, yours

    Same sound for a man and a woman.

  • دْيَالْ شْكُونْ؟ dyal shkun? whose?

    shkun from lesson 7 after dyal: had s-sak dyal shkun?, whose is this bag?

Lost and found

  • حَاجَة 7aja thing

    The all-purpose word. shi 7aja, something.

  • ضَاعْ لِيَا da3 liya I've lost

    Literally “it got lost on me”. The thing lost comes after: da3 liya s-sarut, I've lost the key. A fixed chunk for now.

  • لْقِيتْ lqit I found

    A past verb, used here as a chunk: lqit s-sak dyalek, I found your bag.

  • لْقِينَا lqina we found

    The word at the top of this lesson's lost-property sign.

2

The thing, then dyal, then the owner

Four phrases about who owns what. Look at the first word of each and at what never changes.

  1. الصَّاكْ دْيَالِيs-sak dyali
  2. السَّاعَة دْيَالِيs-sa3a dyali
  3. الْفْلُوسْ دْيَالْ خْتِيl-flus dyal khti
  4. هَادْ التِّيلِيفُونْ دْيَالْ شْكُونْ؟had t-tilifun dyal shkun?

What does every owned thing carry, and what does dyal never do?

The rule

The thing comes first, with its article. Then dyal. Then the owner: an ending for a pronoun, a name or noun for anyone else. s-sak dyali, my bag. l-flus dyal khti, my sister's money.

dyal does not agree. A feminine watch, a plural of money, a masculine bag: always dyal.

Family words are the exception. Lesson 9's endings go straight on them: khti, not l-khet dyali. For things, use dyal.

dyal with its endings

FormSayMeans
دْيَالِيdyalimy, mine
دْيَالَكْdyalekyour, yours
دْيَالُوdyaluhis
دْيَالْهَاdyalhaher, hers
دْيَالْنَاdyalnaour, ours
دْيَالْكُمْdyalkumyour, yours (plural)
دْيَالْهُمْdyalhumtheir, theirs

The endings are the ones from lesson 9, in the same order. If you know 3endha, you know dyalha.

What English hands you, and what it charges you

Free: no agreement. English “my” is the same for a bag, a watch and a pile of money, and so is dyali. A Spanish speaker has to stop saying “mía”; a French speaker has to stop choosing between “le mien” and “la mienne”. You have nothing to stop.

Charged: the order. “My bag” and “Karim's bag” put the owner first. Darija puts it last: “the bag of Karim”. English does have this shape, in “a friend of mine”, but you never use it for everyday things.

Charged: the article. “My bag” has none, and you will leave it out.

Your mistake, not someone else's

“My bag” has no “the”, so you translate it without one. In Darija the owned thing needs its article, even with an owner after it.

×صَاكْ دْيَالِيWithout the article it sounds like “a bag, mine”, or like you stopped halfway.

✓الصَّاكْ دْيَالِي“My bag.” The s- at the start is the article, assimilated to the sun letter ص, as in lesson 2.

Also watch the order when the owner is a name. “Karim's phone” is t-tilifun dyal Karim: phone first, Karim last.

3

A luggage tag and a lost-property sign

A tag tied to a bag, and the sign on a lost-property desk. Both are invented, and so is the number. k7la is the feminine of k7el, black, from lesson 4; shi is “any”.

الصَّاكْ دْيَالْ:

كَرِيمْ بَنَّانِي · فَاسْ

التِّيلِيفُونْ دْيَالِي: 0600 000 000

Luggage tag

لْقِينَا:

سَارُوتْ · بْزْطَامْ · سَاعَة كَحْلَة

شِي حَاجَة دْيَالَكْ؟

Lost-property sign

Did you follow it?

  1. Whose bag is it, and where is he from?

    Show answers

    Karim Bennani's, from Fez. The tag reads s-sak dyal, “the bag of”.

  2. The tag says t-tilifun dyali. Whose phone?

    Show answers

    Karim's own: he wrote the tag, so it is “my phone”.

  3. What has been found?

    Show answers

    A key, a wallet and a black watch.

  4. What does the last line of the sign ask?

    Show answers

    shi 7aja dyalek? Is any of it yours?

4

Check

The rule is on the page above. These show whether you can use it without looking.

Exercises 1 and 2 are here, with answers. Exercises 3 to 5 are in the A1 book, the PDF this site lives on: you can see the first item of each below.

1Hand it over

Each thing is yours. Make it hers.

  1. الصَّاكْ دْيَالِي
  2. السَّاعَة دْيَالِي
  3. الْفْلُوسْ دْيَالِي
  4. التِّيلِيفُونْ دْيَالِي

2True or false

Read the Arabic and decide whether the sentence about it is true.

  1. السَّاعَة دْيَالِي This is correct, even though sa3a is feminine.
  2. صَاكْ دْيَالِي This is correct Darija for “my bag”.
  3. الْفْلُوسْ دْيَالْ خْتِي This means “my sister's money”.
  4. دْيَالْ شْكُونْ؟ This asks “where is it?”.

3Fill the gap

Fill in with دْيَالِي, دْيَالْهَا, دْيَالْنَا or دْيَالْ شْكُونْ. Each is used once.

دْيَالِيدْيَالْهَادْيَالْنَادْيَالْ شْكُونْ

  1. أَنَا عَنْدِي صَاكْ. الصَّاكْ ___ كْحَلْ.

The rest is in the A1 book

3 more items, with the answers.

The A1 book

4Pick the right one

Only one of the three is correct Darija.

    1. صَاكْ دْيَالِي
    2. الصَّاكْ دْيَالِي
    3. دْيَالِي الصَّاكْ

The rest is in the A1 book

2 more items, with the answers.

The A1 book

5Write

You have lost your bag. At the desk, say what you lost, describe it, and leave your name and number.

ضَاعْ لِيَادْيَالِيكْحَلْالتِّيلِيفُونْ

The rest is in the A1 book

The A1 book
Show answers
1. Hand it overالصَّاكْ دْيَالْهَا · السَّاعَة دْيَالْهَا · الْفْلُوسْ دْيَالْهَا · التِّيلِيفُونْ دْيَالْهَا
2. True or false1-True, 2-False, 3-True, 4-False

The A1 book: In preparation

Write and I will tell you the day it is out. One email, no list.

Tell me when it is out

I can now

  • Name the things in my bag and pockets.
  • Say whose something is with dyal, article first.
  • Ask “whose is this?”.
  • Report a lost bag and describe it.