bac باك

Moroccan Darija · noun

“bac” (باك) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning baccalaureate, bac.

Meanings

1. baccalaureate, bac
2. your father (ba + -k)

Usage

Lbac, borrowed from French, means the baccalauréat (the high-school leaving exam and diploma). It is almost always used with the article: "dewwez lbac" or "khda lbac" (he passed the bac), "sqet f lbac" (he failed the bac). Important pitfall: the same sequence of sounds, bak, is very often the possessive form of ba ("father") with the suffix -k, and then means "your father", as in "sme3 klam bak" (listen to your father). In practice, the article l- and a school context point to the diploma, while the absence of an article and a family context point to the father.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “bac” but also “bak”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Type “bac” on the Arabic keyboard

In Algerian Darja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “baccalaureate, the bac exam”; “final year of high school”: bac in Algerian.

In Tunisian Derja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “baccalaureate exam”; “final year of high school”: bac in Tunisian.

How to say “baccalaureate” in Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian