khamstach خمستاش

Moroccan Darija · numeral

“khamstach” (خمستاش) is a numeral in Moroccan Darija meaning fifteen.

Meanings

1. fifteen

Usage

Khamstach is the number fifteen, used for counting, and for giving a price, a duration or an age. Like the other numbers from eleven to nineteen, it goes before the noun, which stays singular: khamstach dqiqa, khamstach derhem. For a duration of a quarter of an hour, people also often say rbe3 sa3a, which is more idiomatic in conversation. This spelling with a plain t coexists with the form written with emphatic ṭ, which is the same word. An English speaker should avoid putting the noun in the plural after this number.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khamstach” but also “khmstach”, “5amstach”, “khemstach” and “5mstach”. 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.

Type “khamstach” on the Arabic keyboard

In Tunisian Derja

The same word also exists in Tunisian Derja, written خمسطاش, where it means “fifteen”: khmestach in Tunisian.

How to say “fifteen” in Moroccan and Tunisian