Darija lesson 17: numbers to 100, prices and age

1

Eighteen words

Money, price, paying and age. The numbers themselves are in the grammar table below: they are a system, not a list.

Money

فْلُوسْ flus money
Plural in form, like “funds”. You never count it: you count dirhams.
دَرْهَمْ derhem dirham
The Moroccan currency. After 11 and above it stays like this, singular: khamsin derhem, “fifty dirham”.
دْرَاهَمْ drahem dirhams; money
The plural, used with 3 to 10. On its own it also just means “money”, as in “I have no money”.
رْيَالْ ryal ryal (5 centimes)
No coin says it, and many Moroccans still count in it, above all older people and in markets. Twenty ryal make one dirham. If you hear mya ryal, “a hundred ryal”, divide by twenty: five dirhams.
الصَّرْفْ s-sarf small change
The coins and small notes a seller needs to give you your change. Taxi drivers ask for it.

The price

بْشْحَالْ؟ b sh7al? how much? (price)
Literally “for how much?”. The b- is the “for” of “I bought it for fifty”. Without it, sh7al asks about a quantity.
التَّمَنْ t-taman the price
غَالِي ghali expensive
An adjective, so it agrees: ghalya for a feminine noun, as in the dialogue below.
رْخِيصْ rkhis cheap
بْزَّافْ bzzaf a lot; too
After an adjective it does the work of English “too”: ghali bzzaf, “too expensive”.
نْقَّصْ شْوِيَّة nqqes shwiya lower it a bit
A fixed phrase for now. The verb form behind it comes with the imperative, in A2.
آخِرْ تَمَنْ akhir taman final price
What the seller says when the haggling is supposed to be over. It rarely is on the first try.
صَافِي safi OK; done; that's it
Closes a deal, a conversation, a queue. You will hear it fifty times a day.

Paying

كَنْخَلَّصْ kankhelles I pay
The ka- present from lesson 16.
الْحْسَابْ l-7sab the bill
In a café: l-7sab, 3afak. No verb needed.
الْفَاتُورَة l-fatura the invoice; the receipt
From French facture. Most of Morocco's paperwork vocabulary arrived this way.

Age

شْحَالْ فْعْمْرَكْ؟ sh7al f 3merek? how old are you?
Literally “how much in your age?”. Not “how old are you”, and not built with “to be”.
عَامْ 3am year
Singular after 11 and up: tlatin 3am, “thirty year”.

2

Units first

Four sentences about ages, a price and a family. Look at the order of the numbers, and at the noun after them.

عَنْدِي تْلَاتِينْ عَامْ3endi tlatin 3am
خُويَا عَنْدُو خَمْسَة وْعَشْرِينْ عَامْkhuya 3endu khamsa u 3eshrin 3am
هَادْ الْكْتَابْ بْخَمْسِينْ دَرْهَمْhad l-ktab b khamsin derhem
عَنْدِي تْلَاتَة دْ الْخُوتْ3endi tlata d l-khut

In “twenty-five”, which part comes first in Darija? And what happens to “year” after thirty?

The rule

Eleven to nineteen are single words ending in -tash, much as English ends in -teen. Learn them as words.

The tens end in -in: 3eshrin, tlatin, reb3in. Seventy, eighty and ninety are as regular as the rest.

In between, the unit goes first, joined by u, “and”: khamsa u 3eshrin is “five and twenty”. Always, for every number from 21 to 99.

From eleven up, the noun stays singular: tlatin 3am, khamsin derhem. From three to ten it goes plural, with d: tlata d l-khut.

Price takes b-: b khamsin derhem. Age takes 3end, the “have” of lesson 9: 3endi tlatin 3am.

Eleven to a hundred

Number	Say	Value
حْضَاشْ	7dash	11
طْنَاشْ	tnash	12
تْلَطَّاشْ	tlettash	13
رْبَعْطَاشْ	rbe3tash	14
خْمَسْطَاشْ	khmestash	15
سْطَّاشْ	settash	16
سْبَعْطَاشْ	sbe3tash	17
تْمَنْطَاشْ	tmentash	18
تْسَعْطَاشْ	tse3tash	19
عَشْرِينْ	3eshrin	20
وَاحْدْ وْعَشْرِينْ	wa7ed u 3eshrin	21
تْلَاتِينْ	tlatin	30
رْبْعِينْ	reb3in	40
خَمْسِينْ	khamsin	50
سْتِّينْ	settin	60
سَبْعِينْ	seb3in	70
تْمَانِينْ	tmanin	80
تَسْعِينْ	tes3in	90
مْيَة	mya	100

Under each ten you can hear its unit: tlata in tlatin, khamsa in khamsin. Once you have one to ten from lesson 8, the tens cost you almost nothing. Twenty is the odd one out: it comes from ten, 3ashra.

What English hands you, and what it charges you

Free, almost: the order. English said “four and twenty blackbirds” and “five-and-twenty” for centuries; you have heard it in nursery rhymes and old novels. Darija never stopped. Think of that rhyme when you build 25.

Charged: age. English says “I am thirty”. Darija has no “to be” in the present (lesson 1) and does not treat age as a state. It says “I have thirty year”: 3endi tlatin 3am.

Charged: the singular. “Thirty year” sounds broken to you. In Darija “thirty years”, tlatin 3wam, is the broken one.

Your mistake, not someone else's

Under time pressure, at a till or a stall, you will say the tens first, because “twenty-five” is how your mouth has always done it. Darija speakers will usually understand. It still sounds like a foreigner reading digits.

×عَنْدِي عَشْرِينْ وْخَمْسَة عَامْ“I am twenty and five.” Tens first, the English order.

✓عَنْدِي خَمْسَة وْعَشْرِينْ عَامْ“I am twenty-five.” Five, and twenty.

And the age one: أَنَا تْلَاتِينْ عَامْ, ana tlatin 3am, is your “I am thirty” put straight into Darija. It is not a sentence. Start with عَنْدِي and it is.

3

A receipt and a haggle

Two short pieces written for this lesson: a corner-shop receipt and a haggle over a pair of slippers. The prices are plausible, not taken from any real shop.

حَانُوتْ السَّعَادَة

أَتَايْ: تْلَاتِينْ دَرْهَمْ

سُكَّرْ: خَمْسَة وْعَشْرِينْ دَرْهَمْ

زِيتْ: خَمْسَة وْرْبْعِينْ دَرْهَمْ

الْمَجْمُوعْ: مْيَة

Corner-shop receipt

بْشْحَالْ هَادْ الْبَلْغَة؟

بْتْمَانِينْ دَرْهَمْ.

غَالْيَة بْزَّافْ. نْقَّصْ شْوِيَّة.

سْتِّينْ، آخِرْ تَمَنْ.

خَمْسِينْ؟

صَافِي، خَمْسَة وْخَمْسِينْ.

Haggling over babouches

Did you follow it?

On the receipt, what costs forty-five dirhams?
Show answers
زِيتْ, zit: oil.
Do the three lines add up to the total?
Show answers
Yes. Thirty, twenty-five and forty-five make a hundred, mya.
Why does the buyer say ghalya and not ghali?
Show answers
Because belgha, slipper, is feminine. The adjective agrees, as in lesson 4.
How much does the seller come down, from first price to last?
Show answers
Twenty-five dirhams: from tmanin to khamsa u khamsin.

4

Check

Two here, three more in the A1 book. Say every number out loud before you check it.

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.

1Match

Pair each question with its answer.

1	بْشْحَالْ هَادْ الْكْتَابْ؟	a	لَّا، مَا عَنْدِيشْ
2	شْحَالْ فْعْمْرَكْ؟	b	بْعَشْرِينْ دَرْهَمْ
3	عَنْدَكْ الصَّرْفْ؟	c	خَمْسَة وْسَبْعِينْ دَرْهَمْ
4	الْحْسَابْ، عَافَاكْ	d	عَنْدِي تْلَاتِينْ عَامْ

2Pick the right one

Only one of the three is correct Darija: 45, “I am thirty”, and a fifty-dirham book.

1. خَمْسَة وْرْبْعِينْ
2. رْبْعِينْ وْخَمْسَة
3. خْمَسْطَاشْ وْرْبْعِينْ
1. أَنَا تْلَاتِينْ عَامْ
2. عَنْدِي تْلَاتِينْ عَامْ
3. عَنْدِي تْلَاتِينْ عْوَامْ
1. هَادْ الْكْتَابْ خَمْسِينْ بْدَرْهَمْ
2. هَادْ الْكْتَابْ بْخَمْسِينْ دْرَاهَمْ
3. هَادْ الْكْتَابْ بْخَمْسِينْ دَرْهَمْ