rb3tach ربعطاش
Moroccan Darija · numeral
“rb3tach” (ربعطاش) is a numeral in Moroccan Darija meaning fourteen.
Meanings
- fourteen
Usage
rb3Tach is the number fourteen. The numbers from eleven to nineteen all end in -ach (7dach, tnach, tlTach…). Before a noun, the noun stays singular and often takes l-: "rb3Tach l-yum" (fourteen days), "rb3Tach l-wa7ed" (fourteen units). Used on its own, it serves for counting, giving an age or a price. The spelling varies between capital T (emphatic t) and plain t, with no difference in meaning. Do not confuse it with rb3in (forty), which sounds similar.
Example
بقاو ربعطاش يوم للعيد
b9aw rb3Tach l-yum l l3id
“There are fourteen days left until the Eid.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “rb3tach” but also “rba3tach”, “rbe3tach”, “reb3tach” and “rb3tache”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Its Arabic spelling is not fixed either: you will find ربعطاش and ربعتاش, all the same word.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 3 is ayn (ع), a voiced sound from deep in the throat with no English equivalent.