khamsmiya خمسمية
Moroccan Darija · numeral
“khamsmiya” (خمسمية) is a numeral in Moroccan Darija meaning five hundred.
Meanings
- five hundred
Usage
Khamsmiya means five hundred. It is used mostly for prices and sums of money: khamsmiya derhem. It goes before the noun, which is singular. When talking about money, many Moroccans also count in rials or centimes, which can be disorienting: the same amount can be expressed with very different numbers depending on the unit used. It is therefore best to specify derhem when in doubt. The word is also heard to refer to a banknote or sum of that value.
Example
هاد التليفون بخمسمية درهم
had ttilifoun b khamsmiya derham
“This phone costs five hundred dirhams.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khamsmiya” but also “khmsmya”, “5amsmiya”, “khemsmia” and “khamsmya”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.