khata2 خطا
Moroccan Darija · noun
“khata2” (خطا) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning error, mistake.
Meanings
- error, mistake
- step (when walking)
Usage
The meaning "error" comes from Standard Arabic and belongs to a somewhat formal register. It is common in set expressions: khaṭa2 maṭba3i (typo), khaṭa2 ṭibbi (medical error). In spontaneous conversation, the native word remains ghalṭa: people more readily say ghleṭt than dert khaṭa2. The form khṭa, without hamza, means a step, with the plural khṭawi. Watch out for arabizi: khta or khtha is also used to write khatha (his/her aunt), which has nothing to do with it.
Example
درت خطأ مطبعي
dart khata2 matba3i
“I made a typo.”
Conjugation
Forms as recorded in DODa and reproduced in its spelling, which often leaves out short vowels.
| Perfective (past) | |
|---|---|
| ana (I) | khTit |
| nta (you, m.) | khTiti |
| nti (you, f.) | khTiti |
| howa (he) | khTa |
| hiya (she) | khTaat |
| 7na (we) | khTina |
| ntouma (you, pl.) | khTito |
| homa (they) | khTao |
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khata2” but also “5ata2”, “khta” and “khatae”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 2 is hamza (ء), a glottal stop; 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.
Type “khata2” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “mistake, error”; “something wrong, incorrect”: khta in Algerian.