asasan أساسا
Moroccan Darija · adverb
“asasan” (أساسا) is an adverb in Moroccan Darija meaning actually, basically.
Meanings
- actually, basically
- fundamentally, essentially
Usage
Asasan comes from Standard Arabic, but it is very common in speech, especially among young people and educated speakers. At the start or in the middle of a sentence, it often reframes a point or states the obvious, like "actually" or "anyway" in English: asasan ana ma kantsenna walou. It can also carry a stronger sense, "fundamentally", in a more measured register. The word does not inflect. Watch out: it does not mean "usually". For habit, say dima or ghaliban instead.
Example
أساسا نتا تحت الضغط دابا
asaasan nta t7t DDaghT daba
“Actually, you're under pressure right now.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “asasan” but also “asaasan” and “2asasan”. 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.