khass خص
Moroccan Darija · verb
“khass” (خص) is a verb in Moroccan Darija meaning must, have to.
Meanings
- must, have to
- to lack, need
Usage
Khass (or khess) is an impersonal verb expressing obligation. It goes before a conjugated verb: "khass nemchi" (I have to go). Preceded by kan, it expresses regret: "kan khass tgol lia" (you should have told me). With a suffixed pronoun, it means "to be lacking to someone, to need": "khassni lflous" (I need money). The negation is formed with ma…ch: "ma khassekch" (you must not). Watch out for a pitfall: the meaning "lettuce" given by the sources actually belongs to another word, khess, which is written with a single s (خس).
Example
كان خص تڭول ليا قبل
kan khess tgol lia 9bel
“You should have told me before.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khass” but also “khess”, “5ass”, “khas”, “5ess” and “khoss”. 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 “khass” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “must, have to, need”; “to be lacking, to need”: khass in Algerian.