sbah صباح
Algerian Darja · noun
“sbah” (صباح) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning morning.
Meanings
- morning
- dawn prayer
Usage
Sbah means morning. Common phrases are "fe sbah" (in the morning), "men sbah" (since this morning) and "ghodwa fe sbah" (tomorrow morning). The greeting "sbah lkhir" means "good morning" and is used only in the morning; the reply is "sbah nnour". One also says "sbah bekri" for "early in the morning". The word is used in all registers. The pitfall is to keep saying "sbah lkhir" all day: in the afternoon, switch to "salam", or to "msa lkhir" in the evening.
Example
نوض في الصباح بكري
nnod fe sbah bekri
“I get up early in the morning.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “sbah” but also “sba7”, “sbeh”, “sabah”, “sbe7” and “sobh”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Its Arabic spelling is not fixed either: you will find صباح and صبح, all the same word.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 7 is ha (ح), a breathy h from the throat.
Type “sbah” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “morning”; “tomorrow morning”: sba7 in Moroccan.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “morning”; “in the morning, this morning (essbe7)”: sbe7 in Tunisian.