hadaf هدف
Moroccan Darija · noun
“hadaf” (هدف) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning goal, objective.
Meanings
- goal, objective
- intention, aim
- goal scored (football)
Usage
Hadaf comes from standard Arabic and has become well integrated into everyday speech. It mainly refers to a personal objective: 3ndi hadaf ("I have a goal"), wsel l lhadaf dyalo ("he reached his objective"). It is often combined with verbs like 7edded ("to set") or 7e99e9 ("to achieve"). In football language, hadaf is also heard for "goal scored". In that sense, however, the colloquial word remains gol, which is more common. The register is neutral, sometimes a little formal, especially in motivational speeches.
Example
كان عندي هدف بسيط
kan 3ndi 8adaf bsiT
“I had a simple goal.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “hadaf” but also “8adaf” and “hadef”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 8 is light ha (ه) or ghayn (غ), depending on the writer.
Type “hadaf” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “goal, objective”; “goal scored (football)”: hadaf in Algerian.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “goal, intended aim”; “goal (football)”: hadaf in Tunisian.