wa9tach وقتاش
Algerian Darja · adverb
“wa9tach” (وقتاش) is an adverb in Algerian Darja meaning when? (interrogative).
Meanings
- when? (interrogative)
- at what time (indirect question)
Usage
Wa9tach is the common interrogative adverb for asking when an action takes place. It is equivalent to interrogative "when" in English, both in direct questions (wa9tach tji? "when are you coming?") and in indirect questions (ma3labalich wa9tach "I don't know when"). It goes at the start of the question and requires no inversion. Pitfall for an English speaker: it is not used as a non-interrogative temporal conjunction. To say "when I arrived…", use ki or wa9t, never wa9tach. The word is in the everyday informal register and is heard throughout Algeria, with local pronunciation variants.
Example
وقتاش تولّي للدار؟
wa9tach twelli l'dar?
“When are you coming home?”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “wa9tach” but also “we9tech”, “wa9tech”, “wektach” and “waqtach”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 9 is qaf (ق), a k pronounced at the back of the throat.
Type “wa9tach” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “when? (interrogative)”: w9tach in Moroccan.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “when? (interrogative)”; “when, at the time that”: wa9tech in Tunisian.