ysserbi يسربي
Algerian Darja · verb
“ysserbi” (يسربي) is a verb in Algerian Darja meaning to serve (drinks, food).
Meanings
- to serve (drinks, food)
- to pour a drink
Usage
Ysserbi is a well-integrated loanword, conjugated like an Arabic verb: serbi, "serve", nserbi, "I serve". It is used mostly for tea, coffee or a meal served to guests. One says for example serbi latay, "serve the tea". The construction is direct for the thing served. The person served is introduced by l: serbilou, "serve him". The register is common and colloquial. The verb is also pronounced ysarbi. It does not have the figurative sense of "to be useful" that the French verb "servir" has.
Example
سربي لاتاي للضياف
serbi latay ldiaf
“Serve the tea to the guests.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, it is written “ysserbi”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “ysserbi” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “to serve (meals, drinks)”; “to wait on a customer”: ysarbi in Tunisian.