Words so nice you say them twice

Words that are used twice is not something you would think is common however, I was listening to a conversation the other day and heard a phrase I haven’t heard in a long time. The phrase was ‘so-so’. For those of you who haven’t heard this expression before, it means neither good or bad. These …

Darija word ras – what does it really mean

Of all the words I have seen in darija, the darija word ras is one that I have seen used in more expressions than any other word. The word means head so coming from an English-speaking background, it makes sense that the word would have so many expressions. I’m sure we all of heard some …

Translations of 7ta what does it really mean

When I started learning Darija one of the first phrases I learned was me too. When I think back this seems to be a strange a thing to learn at first. I think that the reason I learned this first was because I wanted to know how to agree with someone. Just to let you …

Ghadi the word of the future

In Darija when speaking in the future tense, the sentence is formed differently. You see in English, you would use a verb like “will’ or “going” to indicate a future tense. In Darija the contruction works a bit differently. When wanting to speak about future events in Darija, there is a special word that is …

How much vocabulary do you need to know?

A long time ago when I decided that I would become fluent Arabic (and no, I’m still not fluent) I spoke to someone I knew who learned the Arabic language and was not an Arabic speaker. I asked him how many words did you have to know to be able to speak in Arabic. He …

Update on progress Aug 2017

  So another month (closer to a month and a half ) has passed. I’ve looked over my progress from the previous month and I have to say, I feel I have made improvements. Expressing myself is becoming easier now. Although I can’t understand everything I listen to, I am able to pick out more …

Fluent in French, is it really needed?

If you ever visit Morocco, you will almost immediately see the French influence on this country. Although Morocco is an Arab country and the official language is Arabic you will see French everywhere. What I mean is that you will see signs everywhere in French. When I first visited Morocco I was surprised at how …