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Darija, Moroccan Arabic Forums - Forums de darija, Moroccan Arabic Translation - Traduction de l'arab
#1

Salam!

Tomorrow I’ll have my first maroccan-arabic-class (adult evening classes ;-)).
I will be in an advanced group as I have some basic knowledge, knowing, that I will have to catch up a lot. For my first presentation I have have prepared a small text.
Could somebody be so kind to correct it and help me with the missing words, so that at least I will not be sent home already the first day? Thanks a lot!!!

Here’s the text and what I want to say with it:

“S-salamu 3alikum”
“Welcome - Peace with you”.
“Herzlich willkommen”

“Smîtî Xsara. Ânâ wâ7id u urba3în 3am w ânâ mzuwja.”
I’m Xsara. I’m 41 years old and I’m not married.
Ich bin Xsara. Ich bin 41 Jahre alt und ledig.

"xddma ma3 XXX (name of my company) … [HERE I WOULD LIKE TO SAY: “in the IT-department” or “as information scientist” / en francais: “comme informaticien(ne)” or “as software developer”. CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME WITH THESE WORDS? Thanks!]"
I’m working for XXX as software developer / in the IT-department.
Ich arbeite für die Firma XXX als Software-Entwicklerin/in der IT-Abteilung.

“Kunt jûj l’mrrât f l’maghrîb w 7abbêtu bzzf.”
I’ve been to Marocco twice and I loved it very much.
Ich war zweimal in Marokko und es gefiel mir sehr.

“Âna hn bash ndres/nt3llam d-darija l’maghribîya, li’änna
bghit n3raf/nqdar ntkallem ma3 l’nas dyal l’bled/f l’bled/f l’maghrîb w nfhemhum.”
I’m here to learn the maroccan dialect as I would like to be able to speak to the people in the country/in Morocco and to understand them.
Ich bin hier, um Marrokanisch-Arabisch zu lernen, weil ich mit den Leuten im Land reden und sie verstehen können möchte.

Options seperated with “/” means: I don’t know which option would be ok, if any :wink:

I hope it is not too horrible.

Thanks a lot, mercy beaucoup.
The German was for SM :slight_smile:
By the way, in German it’s very bad style to start every phrase with “I” - but I’ve no idea how I could change the word order in marrocain.

Shukran w bsslama, Xsara

#2

Salam ! Hallo :).

Thank you for the German part, I appreciate it :).

Let’s see now with your sentence. Inshallah you’ll not be sent home nor anything.

[quote]“S-salamu 3alikum”
“Welcome - Peace with you”.
“Herzlich willkommen”[/quote]
Wa 3alikom ssalâm :). Perfect!

[quote]“Smîtî Xsara. Ânâ wâ7id u urba3în 3am w ânâ mzuwja.”
I’m Xsara. I’m 41 years old and I’m not married.
Ich bin Xsara. Ich bin 41 Jahre alt und ledig.[/quote]
This is a common mistake! In Darija, we don’t say “I am X years old”, we say “I have X years”.
3ndî wâ7d u rb3în 3âm.

[quote]"xddma ma3 XXX (name of my company) … [HERE I WOULD LIKE TO SAY: “in the IT-department” or “as information scientist” / en francais: “comme informaticien(ne)” or “as software developer”. CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME WITH THESE WORDS? Thanks!]"
I’m working for XXX as software developer / in the IT-department.
Ich arbeite für die Firma XXX als Software-Entwicklerin/in der IT-Abteilung.[/quote]
You can better say “khddâma f” rather than “m3a”: Working “in” a company, rather than “with” a company.
Now for the informatiker part, we normally say -funny way-: Khddâma f dâk sh-shî dyâl l’informatique : Working at those “informatique” related stuff. People normally say “khddâma f service informatique”, or you just say your job title in French. What I suggested is what you’d tell an average person who wouldn’t really know the different between a hardware and a software specialist. But it’s a good expression.

[quote]“Kunt jûj l’mrrât f l’maghrîb w 7abbêtu bzzf.”
I’ve been to Marocco twice and I loved it very much.
Ich war zweimal in Marokko und es gefiel mir sehr.[/quote]
I suggest: Mshît jûj d lmrrât lelmghrîb, w 3jbnî bzzâf.

Mshît (I went) is better than kunt (I was in).
We don’t really say 7bbîto. 3jbnî = I like it.

[quote]“Âna hn bash ndres/nt3llam d-darija l’maghribîya, li’änna
bghit n3raf/nqdar ntkallem ma3 l’nas dyal l’bled/f l’bled/f l’maghrîb w nfhemhum.”
I’m here to learn the maroccan dialect as I would like to be able to speak to the people in the country/in Morocco and to understand them.
Ich bin hier, um Marrokanisch-Arabisch zu lernen, weil ich mit den Leuten im Land reden und sie verstehen können möchte.

Options seperated with “/” means: I don’t know which option would be ok, if any ;-)[/quote]
Nt3llm is better than ndrs. The latter is too MSA.
Replace li2anna with 7ît, that’s the Darija equivalent.
And you go directly with bghît nhdr, no need for know/can, and we use nhdr for ntkllm.
Nâs (people) starts with a sun letter, so its definite form is: nnâs.
Very good options for the last part of your paragraph, you can either say nnâs dyâl lblâd, or nnâs f lblâd, or nnâs f lmghrib.

Over all, you did a very good job. Well done, Xsara. That’s impressive if you learned by yourself!

You can post your paragraph once more after you made all the corrections, if you want to make sure you didn’t forget anything. You can also add other things as well.

#3

Wow!!! Thanks a lot :slight_smile: This was really helpful.

So here is my summary:

“S-salamu 3alikum.
Smîtî Xsara. 3ndî wâ7d u rb3în 3âm w ânâ mzuwja.
Khddâma f XXX f dâk sh-shî dyâl l’informatique/service informatique.
Mshît jûj d lmrrât l-el-mghrîb, w 3jbnî bzzâf.
Âna hn bash nt3llam d-darija l’maghribîya, 7ît bghit nhdr ma3 n-nâs dyâl l’blâd/f l’blâd/f l’maghrîb w nfhemhum.”

I went to see my morrocan collegue to check the pronunciation and by doing so I learned still another expression: “lamgharba” for “n-nâs dyâl l’blâd”.
You say so as well?

When I’ll have more time, I will rewrite it with arabic letters (as I’ve tried it here:
http://www.speakmoroccan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=10940#p10940
I still would be happy if somebody had a look on it)

Ok, and I will add a last thing:

“Mllî wâ7d sîmâna ânâ mrîDa shwîya.”

Means, that like everybody at this period I’ve caught a fu… cold, which is really ennoying me, and I would like so much to be in warmer regions right now … let’s say in Maroc :wink:

And no, I didn’t learn it all by my own but with the help of a great website, it’s address is… what do you guess? … www.speakmoroccan.com :slight_smile:

Thanks a lot again, SM, w shukran bzzâf 3la l-musa3da dyâlik,
gibt Bescheid, wenn ich Dir auch mit etwas helfen kann,

Bsslama, Xsara

#4

Sorry, a bit off topic but where did you find moroccan-arabic class in Germany?

#5

[quote=SimplyMoroccan][quote]“Smîtî Xsara. Ânâ wâ7id u urba3în 3am w ânâ mzuwja.”
I’m Xsara. I’m 41 years old and I’m not married.
Ich bin Xsara. Ich bin 41 Jahre alt und ledig.[/quote]
This is a common mistake! In Darija, we don’t say “I am X years old”, we say “I have X years”.
3ndî wâ7d u rb3în 3âm.

ahah…LOL :mdr: that’s why most of the times it’s easier to think in my native language (italian) i notice more similar grammar things than with english…in fact we also say i have XXX years :mdr:[/quote]

#6

Hi nuwwara,

in Munich. The “Volkshochschule” (adult evening classes) offers dialect courses of Arabic. One is Egypt, the other one “Maghrebian” (should include Tunesian, Algerian and Moroccan dialect, but the teacher is a woman from Rabat). I had my first lesson on friday, and I liked it a lot :slight_smile: Even if nobody asked me to present myself :wink: I’m happy having learnt it by heart anyway.

Have a nice evening, Xsara

#7

Oh, Munich is to far from me. I live in the “Ruhrpott”. Does the teacher have it’s one manual?

#8

Salam again.
Sorry for not being around for your other request. I am glad you class went well. What did you study?
There is a small mistake left in your intro, I forgot to mention it: Here = Hnâ, not hn.

And yes, we do say lmghârba (Moroccans), that’s the plural of mghribî/mghribiyya.

[quote]“Mllî wâ7d sîmâna ânâ mrîDa shwîya.”

Means, that like everybody at this period I’ve caught a fu… cold, which is really ennoying me, and I would like so much to be in warmer regions right now … let’s say in Maroc ;-)[/quote]
Hmm… not sure what you original sentence is, but I suggest:
Hâdî sîmâna wânâ mrîDa shwiyya. = It’s been a week that I am a little bit sick.

For your next class, you can simply ask your teacher to give you the chance to get to know each other ;). “3lâsh mâ n3rrfôsh 3lâ ryôsnâ bâsh nt3rrfô b3Dîyyâtnâ?” = Why don’t we introduce ourselves to get to know about each other?

If you got to write that awesome paragraph by your own with the help of the website, then I should be proud :D. Good job! I must say, it’s mainly thanks to one’s will that a person gets to improve. We have other members who advance real good like you :). What a pride!

#9

Thanks a lot!

But sorry, isn’t “Hnâ” the word for “we” - ???
And “here” should be “hnâ” - ??? (I forgot the â)?
Or are you using another transcription?

Anyway, the problem is not the spelling, but the pronunciation :wink:

"Hâdî sîmâna wânâ "… Yes, that is what I wanted to say.
Yes, now I remember having found this contruction for “Since a week…” in the Peace Corp Manual.
Very interesting :wink:

“3lâsh mâ n3rrfôsh 3lâ ryôsnâ bâsh nt3rrfô b3Dîyyâtnâ?”
Why don’t we introduce ourselves to get to know about each other?"
Warum stellen wir uns nicht selbst vor, um uns gegenseitig kennenzulernen?

I try to split up this sentence:
3lâsh - Why
mâ n3rrfôsh - 3rrf = to inform -> we don’t inform/introduce
3lâ ryôsnâ -> ??? Must mean “ourselves”
bâsh -> in order to
nt3rrfô - t3rrf = to recognize -> we get to know
b3Dîyyâtnâ -> ??? Must mean “each other”

It were great if you could explain these two expressions in doubt more detailled :blink:

Shukran 3la lmusa3da dyalek!

Xsara (I should work more, instead of spending my time here ;-))

#10

Brilliant exercise, Xsara and SM. Shukran bjoj = thank you both. :):slight_smile: 3auni bzzaf = it helped me a lot

#11

Assalamu Alaikum, oh you native speakers! I see that this is an old post, but I have a question regarding one of the phrases used by Xsara… She said, “Ana wa7id wa 3arbaeen 3am wa ana mzuwja.” Okay, I see that you told her to say, “3andi w7id u rb3in 3am,” which totally makes sense to me, but then you guys translated the last part as, “And I am not married”. …Doesn’t, “wa ana mzuwja” mean and I AM married?.. never mind the construct of waw al Hal, and the fact that in MSA the sentence would mean something more like, “I have been married for 41 years.” …Why did everyone translate, "wa ana mzuwja’ as if it said, “wa ana ma mzuwjsh”? Seriously, help me out here; I don’t understand how it could mean that she is not married; please explain this to me. …and forgive me if I come across as a know-it-all; I am fully well aware that I am more of a, “Not-know-much-at-all”.

Thank you, Um Maryam

#12

um maryam a moroccan person wont write it that way m3a she is just a beginner…

so she meant she is 41 years old and she is married

#13

For a hal-sentence that it means “I’m married for 41 years” It doesn’t work to say “ANA wa7id wa 3arbaeen 3am wa ana mzuwja.” That would be: " Hadi wa7id wa 3arbaeen 3am wa ana mzuwja." She was trying to translate directly from German.

#14

ya, i thought the same thing nuwara

#15

…so, it DOES mean that she is Married, but somehow that got confused in the translation?

#16

I look at it again, she wanted to say, that she is not married, but said that she is married.

#17

ok so she made a mistake

#18

Come on Guys! You are making me feel like a snotty little kid, here. I mean, it was spectacular that Xsara put together that intro about herself. I was just confused; really. Can’t you see where I got confused?

#19

Hey, no problem. I also had the advantage to read in German to make sure what she really wanted to say.

#20

…and also, there are a lot of things in Arabic which are counter-intuitive, like the way. “ghyr” is used in North Africa. It has come to mean just about the opposite of what it means in
fus7a as well as in the East, so I thought, maybe there is some construct in the idiom of which I am unaware which negates the need to put a negative 7arf in the phrase. If that is so, I certainly need to know about it, right? And, like we discussed before, some phrases in Arabic mean the opposite of what they mean in English, like, “7ammri lna wjuhana.” In English, if you made someone’s face turn red, it would mean that you did something which embarrassed them, not something which made them feel proud. Also, consider the Maghribi use of, “ma zal”; If you asked someone if so-and-so graduated from University, they might respond with, “ma zal”. Put that through your filter and try to decide if it means ‘yes’ or ‘no’; it depends, right? And there are the “aDDaD”, too, like, ‘ruba"; “ruba rajul” can mean either "many men’ or ‘few men’, right? …I just don’t want to be misunderstood, here; I am not picking on anybody.