mdahhek مضحك
Algerian Darja · adjective
“mdahhek” (مضحك) is an adjective in Algerian Darja meaning funny, amusing.
Meanings
- funny, amusing
- comical, entertaining (of a person)
Usage
In Darja, mdahhek describes whatever makes people laugh: a film, a video, a scene or a person. It is often used after the noun (film mdahhek, wahed mdahhek) or with rah (rah mdahhek bezzaf). In speech, people also very often say yḍaḥḥak, "he makes people laugh", rather than the adjective. The Arabic spelling can be read as standard Arabic mudhik, but in Algeria the usual pronunciation is mdahhek, with a doubled h. Note: this word does not mean "ridiculous" in a scornful sense. To mock someone, other expressions are used instead.
Example
هاد الفيلم مضحك بزاف
had el film mdahhek bezzaf
“This film is very funny.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “mdahhek” but also “mdahek”, “mod7ik”, “mdh7ek” and “modhik”. 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 “mdahhek” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “funny, comic”; “ridiculous, laughable”: mod7ik in Moroccan.