bent بنت
Moroccan Darija · noun
“bent” (بنت) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning girl, young woman.
Meanings
- girl, young woman
- daughter
Usage
Bent means both a girl and someone's daughter, like French "fille". Followed by a noun, it marks descent or belonging: bent jiran (the neighbors' daughter), bent lmdina (city girl). It is also used to characterize a woman by her origin or character: bent nass (girl from a good family). The plural is bnat. With a pronoun suffix, you say bnti (my daughter), bentha (her daughter). For "woman", mra is used instead. The word is not used for a little girl in the sense of a young child, who is rather called tfla or bniya.
Example
هيّة بنت زوينة
8iyya bent zwina
“She's a pretty girl.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “bent” but also “bnt”, “bant” and “bint”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “bent” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “girl, young woman”; “daughter”: bent in Algerian.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “daughter (someone's child)”; “girl, young woman”: bent in Tunisian.