Good afternoon peeps 
Hope your all good - or should I say nta/nti mezyan/a!!! Ohhh dont laugh im trying!!! :yuck:
I notice that are alot of numbers in darija words like 3!!!
How is that pronounced??
For exampled - 4=rb3a…as far as I know you say it like arba so wheres the 3???
Or is it silent???
ummmm am i making sense!!!
4 is pronounced reb3a or rb3a … or ARBA in the north of morocco
what kinda darija do u speak ??? thats gonna help us giving u the right words 
My gf tells me that numbers are a totally lazy way of writing it and are not at all linguistic. She besides the lazy part has no idea why they’re used. I also had the same problem with 3 being pronounced 4 different ways. I’m like there has to be some standardisation to this. 7 I discovered is more of an H sound. 3 is more of an A, a short 'a sound as if you have no aaaaaayyyyyy. more like A! then there’s an E sound, and an AE sound… Weird!
Actually, the use of numbers to transcribe Arabic (not just Darija) was creative rather than lazy.
This practice comes from the early days of technology when phones did not have Arabic keyboards. And since latin letters do not cover the entire Arabic alphabet, Arabs had to be creative and come up with ways to include Arabic sounds while texting.
The used numbers are not at all random.
3 looks like an inverted ع
7 looks like ح
These are the only two numbers I personally approve of. Other people use:
3’ for غ (others use “gh”)
7’ for خ (others use “kh”)
Don’t get me started on the use of 6 and 9 though, as these differ from country to country, and can mean ص or ق or whatever.
With that being said, I think it was fine back in the day when Arabic keyboards were not accessible. But to have people today still write Arabic with Latin letters, then yes, your gf is right, it’s just plain laziness.
I hope this clears it up.
You can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_chat_alphabet
Several people who have taught me Darija are of the opinion that there is no ortography - no right or wrong way to spell the language. I think that’s a very interesting stance and I’ve never encountered that in other languages. It does make it a little difficult when you’re a beginner, though. Especially if the teachers instruct using the latin alphabet. You miss out on a lot of useful information that the arabic spellings contain.
What is your opinion on Darija ortography, @MoroccanTranslator?
that link i find it useful for you
