7bes حبس
Moroccan Darija · verb
“7bes” (حبس) is a verb in Moroccan Darija meaning to stop, cease.
Meanings
- to stop, cease
- to stop, prevent, hold back
- prison (l7bes)
Usage
7bes is very common. It can be intransitive: the car or the lift stopped (7bes). It can also be transitive: to stop something or give up a habit, as in 7bes lgaro (stop smoking) or 7bes lma (cut off the water). In football, it means to save a shot. The imperative 7bes! means "stop!" or "halt!". The noun l7bes means prison, hence dkhel l7bes (to go to prison) and t7bes (to be imprisoned). For an English speaker, the pitfall lies in this double value, verb of stopping and noun for prison, which only context can distinguish.
Example
راه حبس بين لطجات.
rah 7bas bin liTajat.
“It stopped between two floors.”
Conjugation
Forms as recorded in DODa and reproduced in its spelling, which often leaves out short vowels.
| Imperfective (present) | Perfective (past) | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ana (I) | kan7bes | 7best | |
| nta (you, m.) | kat7bes | 7besti | 7bes |
| nti (you, f.) | kat7bsi | 7besti | 7bsi |
| howa (he) | kay7bes | 7bes | |
| hiya (she) | kat7bes | 7bsat | |
| 7na (we) | kan7bso | 7besna | |
| ntouma (you, pl.) | kat7bso | 7besto | 7bso |
| homa (they) | kay7bso | 7bso |
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “7bes” but also “7bas”, “hbes”, “7bs”, “hbas” and “7abs”. 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 “7bes” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “to stop, cease”; “to stop, block something”: 7bes in Algerian.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “prison”; “to stop (verb 7bes)”: 7abs in Tunisian.