I have come to realize that I really like synonyms. I think it’s the fact that I can use one word for many different usages, which means there is less vocabulary to learn. This is why I really enjoy writing these types of articles.  With a small amount of vocabulary you can build many different sentences. So let’s get into the word bla.

I first heard this word as a response to thank you. The phrase was bla jmil which literally translates to without honor and is used as your welcome. So my assumption was that bla was simply a negation word. Upon researching, I found this word is much much more.

The word bla is also a verb, the verb has many meanings which are listed below:

to get old (objects, not people)
to become used
to wear out
to teach
to show
to cause
to allow (someone to take up bad habits)
to corrupt

Here are a few examples of using this verb.

  • Mellii ybla 7wayji nshri 7wayej jdad – When my clothes get old I buy new clothes
  • lli bla ya3fu – may he who has allowed this corruption have mercy

(to understand the verb conjugation please visit the post on verb conjugation in the members section, to access the post click here)

Just like the verb, bla has a number of different meanings as well

Calamity
Misfortune
Catastrophe
trouble maker
Without
  • 3ndu wa7d lweld bla – He has a son that’s a trouble maker
  • safet lbra bla tinber – He sent the letter without me.

When bla is followed with ma (bla + ma) it means without staying or without sitting.

  • bla
    ma y3ml 7ta shi haja – he sat there without doing a thing.

When bla is appended with sh it means for nothing, free or without (it)

  • wash bghiti n3tih lik blash – Do you want me to give you it for free?

In summary bla can be used to express a number of different things including old objects, to show someone, to describe a bad habit, or bad character,  some sort of bad event, and of course it can be used to express the word without. Usually I try to find a similarity of all the words, unfortunately I can’t find any common elements with these words. But on the bright side, this one word is translated to 16 different English words (that’s 16 less Darija words you need to learn) ? 

Word list

khls to pay
l3b to play
slla to pray
fddl to prefer
wjjd to prepare
wa3d to promise
9ra to read
9ra to study
ndm to regret
39l to remember
shbh to resemble
9awm to resist
rj3 to return
jra to run
9al to say
ghwwt to scream
shaf to see
ba3 to sell
seeft to send
khiyyt to sew
wrra to show
sna to sign
n3s to sleep

If you are interesting in learning Arabic, there is a free 6 day course that will teach you everything you need to know to get started. Arabic has helped me a lot with my darija journey. If you’re serious about learning just click on the laptop and begin your journey.

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