khayali خيالي

Moroccan Darija · adjective

“khayali” (خيالي) is an adjective in Moroccan Darija meaning incredible, huge (intensifier).

Meanings

1. incredible, huge (intensifier)
2. imaginary, fictional
3. dreamlike, sumptuous

Usage

In everyday conversation, khayali is used mainly as an intensifier. Placed after a noun, it expresses an extreme degree: jou3 khayali ("a huge hunger"), chi haja khayalia ("something incredible"). It can also be complimentary, describing a place or a landscape as "dreamlike". The literal sense, "imaginary" or "fictional", belongs to a more formal register, close to standard Arabic. The adjective agrees in the feminine (khayalia) and the plural (khayaliyin). It is not used alone as an exclamation.

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khayali” but also “5ayali”, “khayaly”, “khayalia” and “5ayaly”. 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 “khayali” on the Arabic keyboard

In Tunisian Derja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “imaginary, unreal”; “incredible, extraordinary”: khayali in Tunisian.