akhbar أخبار
Moroccan Darija · noun
“akhbar” (أخبار) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning news, information.
Meanings
- news, information
- news broadcast
Usage
Akhbar, often pronounced lakhbar with the article, is the plural of khbar (a piece of news). It refers both to news about someone and to current events. It appears in very common greetings: ach khbarek? (how are you?, literally "what is your news?"), and the reply lkhbar zwina (all is well). In the media register, lakhbar also means the TV or radio news broadcast: chefti lakhbar? (did you see the news?). To ask whether there is any news about a matter, one says kayn chi khbar?
Example
كاين شي أخبار؟
kayn chi akhbar?
“Is there any news?”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “akhbar” but also “a5bar” and “akhbaar”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.
Type “akhbar” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “news (of someone)”; “news, current events”: akhbar in Algerian.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “news, current events”; “how someone is doing”: a5bar in Tunisian.