machi ماشي
Moroccan Darija · particle
“machi” (ماشي) is a particle in Moroccan Darija meaning not (before noun, adjective).
Meanings
- not (before noun, adjective)
- right? isn't it? (sentence-final)
- going, leaving
Usage
Basic negation before a noun, adjective, pronoun, adverb or participle: machi ana (it's not me), machi mezyan (it's not good). It is not used before a conjugated verb, which is negated with ma...ch: ma klitch (I didn't eat). At the end of a sentence with rising intonation, machi? means "right?" or "isn't it?". It is also the participle of the verb mcha (to go): ana machi l dar (I'm going home), machya in the feminine. Only context tells these uses apart.
Example
لا ماشي أنا
la machi ana
“No, it's not me.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “machi” but also “mashi”, “machy” and “machii”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “machi” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “not (before noun, adjective)”; “isn't it?”: machi in Algerian.