mt7af متحف
Moroccan Darija · noun
“mt7af” (متحف) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning museum.
Meanings
- museum
Usage
Mt7ef means "museum", as in English. The word comes from Standard Arabic and has become part of everyday use, especially in cities. The plural is mta7ef. It is used with the article: lmt7ef. The names of specific museums often follow the Standard Arabic pattern, for example mt7ef dyal l3ouloum (science museum). In everyday speech, many people also say "musée" in French, especially in French-speaking circles. This word poses no particular difficulty. Just watch the vowels, which vary by speaker and spelling: mt7af, met7ef or mot7af.
Example
مشا ل متحف
mcha l met7ef
“He went to the museum.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “mt7af” but also “mt7ef”, “met7ef”, “mot7af”, “mat7af” and “mt7f”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 7 is ha (ح), a breathy h from the throat.
Type “mt7af” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “museum”: mat7af in Tunisian.