sb3a w3chrin سبعة وعشرين
Moroccan Darija · numeral
“sb3a w3chrin” (سبعة وعشرين) is a numeral in Moroccan Darija meaning twenty-seven.
Meanings
- twenty-seven
Usage
The unit comes before the tens: sb3a w 3echrin, literally "seven and twenty". The noun that follows stays singular: "sb3a w 3echrin derham". It is used for age, dates of the month, prices and quantities. The twenty-seventh night of Ramadan, called "lilt sb3a w 3echrin", has strong religious and festive significance in Morocco. For prices, beware of counting in ryal, very common in speech, which does not equal the dirham. The 3 in 3echrin stands for the ʿayn, which must be pronounced.
Example
ليلة سبعة وعشرين كنمشيو للجامع
lilt sb3a w 3echrin kanmchiw l jame3
“On the night of the twenty-seventh we go to the mosque.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, it is written “sb3a w3chrin”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
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.