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Learning Darijaالدارجة

Lesson 4 · A1

The house the white

Six colors, ten everyday adjectives and two things to wear. Plus one small word that decides whether you have said “the big house” or “the house is big”.

  • Describe a thing or a person with a color or a quality.
  • Put the adjective in the right place and the right gender.
  • Tell “the big house” from “the house is big”.
  • Read a shop label.
1

One new sound

It is written in this course as q, and it is not your k.

ق
New

A k from the back of the throat

q · قْدِيمْ qdim

ق is made further back than k, where the back of your tongue meets the soft end of the palate, near the uvula. Say “k”, then slide the contact back as far as it goes. No puff of air after it either: English k has one, ق has none. qdim said with your k sounds like a different word.

2

Eighteen words for what things are like

Adjectives are given in the masculine. The feminine is in the note when it is not simply the masculine plus -a.

Colors

  • حْمَرْ 7mer red

    Feminine 7amra. The other colors do the same, except white: the vowel moves and -a is added.

  • كْحَلْ k7el black

    Feminine ke7la.

  • بْيَضْ byed white

    Feminine bida, the one that breaks the pattern. You know it already: it is the second half of Casablanca's Arabic name.

  • خْضَرْ khder green

    Feminine khedra.

  • زْرَقْ zreq blue

    Feminine zerqa.

  • صْفَرْ sfer yellow

    Feminine sefra.

Size and age

  • كْبِيرْ kbir big; old (of a person)

    For a person, kbir means older, not taller.

  • صْغِيرْ sghir small; young
  • جْدِيدْ jdid new
  • قْدِيمْ qdim old (of a thing)

    For things and places. A person's age is kbir, not qdim. You met it in lesson 1: l-mdina l-qdima, the old town.

Good, nice, and what it costs

  • زْوِينْ zwin nice, pretty, good-looking

    The everyday word for anything you like the look of.

  • مْزْيَانْ mzyan good, fine

    Good in quality. zwin is about looks; mzyan about whether it works.

  • غَالِي ghali expensive

    Feminine ghalya: the -i becomes -ya.

  • رْخِيصْ rkhis cheap

Hot and cold

  • سْخُونْ skhun hot
  • بَارْدْ bared cold

    Feminine barda: the e drops, like sa7eb, sa7ba in lesson 3.

Two things to wear

  • قَفْطَانْ qeftan caftan

    Masculine.

  • جَلَّابَة jellaba djellaba

    Feminine: it ends in -a.

3

After the noun, and with its own “the”

Four phrases with “big” and “small”. Look at the order of the words, the ends of the words, and above all the articles.

  1. دَارْ كْبِيرَةdar kbira
  2. الدَّارْ الْكْبِيرَةd-dar l-kbira
  3. الدَّارْ كْبِيرَةd-dar kbira
  4. الْبِيتْ الصّْغِيرْl-bit s-sghir

The second and third differ by one article. One is a phrase and one is a sentence. Which is which?

The rule

Three things happen to an adjective in Darija, and English does none of them.

It goes after the noun. dar kbira, “house big”.

It follows the noun's gender. dar is feminine, so kbira. bit is masculine, so kbir. This is why lesson 3 made you learn the gender of things.

It copies the article. If the noun has “the”, the adjective takes one too: d-dar l-kbira, “the house the big”. If the adjective has no article, it is not describing the noun any more. It is saying something about it: d-dar kbira, “the house is big”. That is lesson 1 again, the sentence with no verb.

Masculine, then feminine

PhraseSayMeans
الْبَابْ الْكْبِيرْl-bab l-kbirthe big door
الدَّارْ الْكْبِيرَةd-dar l-kbirathe big house
بِيتْ صْغِيرْbit sghira small room
كُوزِينَة صْغِيرَةkuzina sghiraa small kitchen
قَفْطَانْ حْمَرْqeftan 7mera red caftan
جَلَّابَة حَمْرَاjellaba 7amraa red djellaba
الدَّارْ الْبِيضَاd-dar l-bidaCasablanca — “the white house”

The last line is the Arabic name of Casablanca. Casablanca is Spanish for “white house”, and the Moroccan name is the same phrase, built exactly by this lesson's rule: feminine dar, feminine bida, an article on each.

What English hands you, and what it charges you

Charged: the order. English puts every adjective in front: “a red door”. Darija puts it behind. You will get this right when you think about it and wrong when you are in a hurry.

Charged: the gender. English adjectives never change. Here, every time, you need to know if the noun is he or she.

Charged, and hardest to notice: the second article. “The big house” has one “the” in English. Darija needs two, and without the second one you have made a statement instead of a description.

Free: once you know the gender of the noun, there is only one ending to add, -a. No plural yet, and no cases.

Your mistake, not someone else's

You want “the big house”. English gives you one “the”, so you put one: on the house. What you have said is correct Darija, and it is a different sentence.

×الدَّارْ كْبِيرَة“The house is big.” A full sentence, not what you meant.

✓الدَّارْ الْكْبِيرَة“The big house.” Now you can go on: d-dar l-kbira f Fas, the big house is in Fez.

And before any of that, the order. kbira dar, with the adjective in front, is not a Darija phrase at all. Say the noun first, always, and let the adjective follow.

4

Two shop labels

Tags from a clothes shop in Casablanca. The shop is invented; the labels are the kind you see hanging from any caftan. Each gives the garment, then its color and one more quality, then the city.

قَفْطَانْ

حْمَرْ · جْدِيدْ

الدَّارْ الْبِيضَا

Label on a caftan

جَلَّابَة

خَضْرَا · صْغِيرَة

الدَّارْ الْبِيضَا

Label on a djellaba

Did you follow it?

  1. What color is the caftan, and what color is the djellaba?

    Show answers

    Red, 7mer; and green, khedra. Same kind of word, two genders.

  2. Why does the djellaba label say sghira and not sghir?

    Show answers

    Because jellaba is feminine. On a label, sghira is the size: small.

  3. Is the caftan new or old?

    Show answers

    New, jdid. Masculine, because qeftan is.

  4. The last line is the same on both labels. Why is it l-bida and not l-byed?

    Show answers

    Because dar is feminine, even though it does not end in -a. You saw that in lesson 3.

5

Check

For each adjective ask two questions: is the noun he or she, and does it have “the”?

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.

1Pick the right one

Only one of the three is correct. The first means “a big house”, the second “the black door”, the third “the flat is new”.

    1. دَارْ كْبِيرْ
    2. دَارْ كْبِيرَة
    3. كْبِيرَة دَارْ
    1. الْبَابْ الْكْحَلْ
    2. الْبَابْ الْكَحْلَة
    3. الْكْحَلْ الْبَابْ
    1. الشَّقَّة جْدِيدْ
    2. جْدِيدَة الشَّقَّة
    3. الشَّقَّة جْدِيدَة

2Which “big”?

Fill each gap with one of the four forms. Each is used once.

كْبِيرْكْبِيرَةالْكْبِيرْالْكْبِيرَة

  1. دَارْ ___
  2. بِيتْ ___
  3. الْبِيتْ ___ هْنَا
  4. الْكُوزِينَة ___ تْمَّا

3Put it in order

Rebuild each phrase. The noun goes first.

  1. فْ فَاسْالْكْبِيرَةالدَّارْ

The rest is in the A1 book

2 more items, with the answers.

The A1 book

4Now a woman

Change the person to a woman. The adjective has to follow.

  1. طْبِيبْ مْزْيَانْ

The rest is in the A1 book

3 more items, with the answers.

The A1 book

5Write

Describe your home in four short sentences, each with an adjective. Remember: no article on the adjective when you are saying what something is like.

كْبِيرْصْغِيرَةزْوِينَةجْدِيدَةزْرَقْ

The rest is in the A1 book

The A1 book
Show answers
1. Pick the right one1-b, 2-a, 3-c
2. Which “big”?كْبِيرَة · كْبِيرْ · الْكْبِيرْ · الْكْبِيرَة

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 six colors and say them in the feminine.
  • Put an adjective after its noun, in the noun's gender.
  • Say “the big house” and “the house is big”, and hear the difference.
  • Read the label on a garment in a shop.
  • Say ق further back than my k.