khamsa خمسة
Algerian Darja · numeral
“khamsa” (خمسة) is a numeral in Algerian Darja meaning five.
Meanings
- five
- hamsa (hand of Fatima, lucky charm)
Usage
Khamsa is the number "five". Used alone, for counting or for the time (l khamsa, "five o'clock"), it keeps this form. Before a noun you often hear a shortened form such as khamst or khams, but khamsa iyyam is also common. The word also refers to the hand of Fatima, an amulet against the evil eye. The expression khamsa 3lik, sometimes accompanied by an outstretched hand, is used to ward off envy. The tens derive from it: khamsin ("fifty"). In arabizi, the digit 5 often replaces kh: 5amsa.
Example
عندي خمسة أيام عطلة
3andi khamsa iyyam 3otla
“I have five days off.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khamsa” but also “5amsa”, “khamssa”, “khemsa” and “5emsa”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.
Type “khamsa” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “five”; “hand of Fatima (amulet)”: khmsa in Moroccan.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “five”: khamsa in Tunisian.