By the way, Tukha, what does your signature line mean? I tried to take French at least three times, but dropped it each time as I was flummoxed by the spelling/pronunciation… I was only able to learn Arabic by breaking my head, over and over, in studying and memorization… the first two years were impossibly difficult. I had no passive knowledge of the language whatsoever, since my parents don’t speak any Arabic. But, al hamdu lillah, the studying paid off.
Let’s see if I can pull another proverb out of my hat… “ma tdir khir ma ytrah ba’s.” Now, I want you, Tukha, to tell me what you think it means, min fadliki.
everytime you do good, “ytrah” bad?? no idea!! i don’t know what “ytrah” means, maybe it’s like “follows it”? and i’m not sure if i got the correct meaning for the other words, eg “ba’s”, and also, is “ma” like “every time”? like in arabic we would say “kol ma”?
machallah, i see the studying has! so, you are not originally a darija speaker? i always thought you were! so you learnt it like the rest of us are doing? machallah! where do you live?
and my signature is from a song by zaho (the algerian french singer :hap: love her!) and it means “i fight all alone in my bed”; i love the way she says it in the song, so i had it up that is after SM noticed my previous signature “je ne suis qu’un étranger” (i’m only a stranger) and reminded me that nobody is a stranger in maroc
Thank you for all of your kind words. You became a moderator, now? Ma shaa Allah 3alyki!
As for the proverb, you are on the right track. It means the same thing that our English proverb, “No good deed goes unpunished” does, basically. It is not the same ‘ma’ that you find in ‘kul ma’; it is the ma of negation, and it is a conditional phrase, by which I mean the second part only comes about when the first part does… so, as literally as I can render it, it says, “no you-do good; no it-happens bad” see?
There is a French with moroccan roots who wrote a dictionary for moroccan proverbs: Michel Quitout. I haven’t had yet the chance to look the dictionary but there are some in “Parlons l’arabe dialectal marocain”.
Well, please do share them with us, Nuwwara! I love seeing idioms, and how phrases can sometimes contain fossilized words which are no longer in use in the language itself, like in, “kith and kin”. Both words mean family members, but “kith” only exists as part of this proverb, while “kin” is a common word to this day… My kinfolks are German, for instance.
um maryam thanks so much! i understand, you’re gooood at explaining!
and yeahhhh, i’m a mod now, so watch what you say :fouet: jokeee xD
and wow, texas! i live in manchester :hap:
Oh no, Tukha… My mistake. I should have written it, 'jml", I guess. It means, “The son of the Camel is a Camel” i.e., A camel can only bring forth another camel, not a chicken, or a cow. See?
Words for Camel in Arabic…that should be its own “20”!..I know jamal, ibl, naqa, jaza’er, b3aer… that’s all I can come up with, now. OH, and the English semi-equivalent for that saying would be, “The apple never falls far from the tree.”
that is after SM noticed my previous signature “je ne suis qu’un étranger” (i’m only a stranger) and reminded me that nobody is a stranger in maroc 
sbaqtini