kla كلا
Moroccan Darija · verb
“kla” (كلا) is a verb in Moroccan Darija meaning to eat.
Meanings
- to eat
- to trick, manipulate someone
- to get (a beating)
Usage
Kla is the third person masculine past form: "he ate". The imperfect is yakul and the imperative is kul "eat". One says klit "I ate", klina "we ate". The verb has several colloquial figurative uses. Kla lih rasso, or kla lih dmagho, means "he messed with his head", "he manipulated him". Kla l3sa means "he got beaten". The figurative sense is given by the context and the complement. For an English speaker, note that the cited form is conjugated, not an infinitive.
Example
كلا قبل مايجي لدار
kla 9bel mayji ldar
“He ate before coming home.”
Conjugation
Forms as recorded in DODa and reproduced in its spelling, which often leaves out short vowels.
| Imperfective (present) | Perfective (past) | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ana (I) | kanakl | klit | |
| nta (you, m.) | katakl | kliti | koul |
| nti (you, f.) | katakli | kliti | kouli |
| howa (he) | kayakol | kla | |
| hiya (she) | katakol | klat | |
| 7na (we) | kanaklo | klina | |
| ntouma (you, pl.) | kataklo | klito | koulou |
| homa (they) | kayaklo | klaw |
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “kla” but also “kela” and “klaa”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.