bhal بحال
Algerian Darja · preposition
“bhal” (بحال) is a preposition in Algerian Darja meaning like, similar to.
Meanings
- like, similar to
- the same as, similar
Usage
Bhal is used to compare: rah bhal babah (he is like his father). It is very common in the west of the country and widely understood everywhere. In other regions, kima is often preferred. It takes suffixed pronouns: bhali (like me), bhalek (like you), bhalhom (like them). With negation, ma bhal or machi bhal, it means "not like". The expression bhal bhal means "the same, all the same". Pitfall: unlike kima, bhal is hard to use before a conjugated verb to mean "like when"; it is used mainly before a noun or a pronoun.
Example
راه بحال باباه، ما يحبش يهدر بزاف.
rah bhal babah, ma yhabch yahder bezzaf.
“He's like his father, he doesn't like talking much.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “bhal” but also “b7al”, “bhel”, “b7el” and “bhâl”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 7 is ha (ح), a breathy h from the throat.
Type “bhal” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “like, similar to”; “the same, identical (b7al b7al)”: b7al in Moroccan.