ma3rifa معرفة

Algerian Darja · noun

“ma3rifa” (معرفة) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning knowledge, awareness.

Meanings

1. knowledge, awareness
2. acquaintance, person one knows
3. connections, string-pulling

Usage

Ma3rifa first means knowing or being aware. It appears in phrases close to Standard Arabic, such as ma3rifat el haqiqa (knowing the truth). In conversation, it also refers to a person one knows: hadi ma3rifa mlih (this is a good acquaintance), or as a polite formula, ma3rifa khir (pleased to meet you). With 3and, it often evokes string-pulling: 3andou ma3rifa fel bladiya, he has connections at the town hall. This social sense is very common and often critical. The plural ma3arif is used mainly in this sense of connections.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ma3rifa” but also “maarifa”, “ma3rfa”, “ma3refa”, “maerifa” and “m3rifa”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Its Arabic spelling is not fixed either: you will find معرفة and معريفة, all the same word.

Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 3 is ayn (ع), a voiced sound from deep in the throat with no English equivalent.

Type “ma3rifa” on the Arabic keyboard

In Moroccan Darija

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “acquaintance (person you know)”; “connections, string-pulling”: m3rifa in Moroccan.