karta كارطا

Moroccan Darija · noun

“karta” (كارطا) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning card game (activity).

Meanings

1. card game (activity)
2. playing card

Usage

The word karTa refers mainly to playing cards and, by extension, to the act of playing cards. It is almost always used with the article: l-karTa, in expressions like l3eb l-karTa (to play cards). It is an adapted loanword, common and colloquial, heard in cafés and at family gatherings. Pitfall: karTa is not used for every kind of "card". For a bank card or an ID card, people say la carte or lakart instead. For a map, a different word is used. The emphatic T is often written as a capital letter in arabizi.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

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

Type “karta” on the Arabic keyboard

In Algerian Darja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “card (ID, bank, phone)”; “playing cards”: karta in Algerian.