ajnabi أجنبي
Moroccan Darija · adjective
“ajnabi” (أجنبي) is an adjective in Moroccan Darija meaning foreign, from another country.
Meanings
- foreign, from another country
- a foreigner (person)
Usage
Ajnabi is borrowed from Standard Arabic. It is heard mostly in a formal register: media, administration, educated speech. For example "sharika ajnabiya" (foreign company) or "l-lugha l-ajnabiya" (foreign language). In everyday conversation, to talk about a foreigner, a tourist or someone outside the family, Moroccans more readily say berrani. The feminine is ajnabiya, the plural ajanib. Used as a noun, it refers to a foreign person. Pitfall: berrani can also mean "someone from outside the group", whereas ajnabi refers first of all to nationality.
Example
كاين بزاف ديال السياح الأجانب فمراكش
kayn bzaf dyal sya7 l2ajanib f marrakech
“There are lots of foreign tourists in Marrakech.”
Forms
| feminine | ajnabia |
|---|---|
| plural | ajanib |
| feminine plural | ajnabyyat |
Forms as recorded in DODa, in its spelling.
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ajnabi” but also “2ajnabi”, “ajnbi” and “ajnabiya”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 2 is hamza (ء), a glottal stop.
Type “ajnabi” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “foreign, from another country”; “a foreigner (person)”: ajnabi in Algerian.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “foreign (from another country)”; “a foreigner”: ajnabi in Tunisian.