tetelleb تطلّب
Moroccan Darija · verb
“tetelleb” (تطلّب) is a verb in Moroccan Darija meaning to require, demand.
Meanings
- to require, demand
- to call for (effort, time, means)
Usage
The verb tTelleb takes a thing as its subject: a job, a project, a situation. The register is polished, and it is often found in the present, kat-tTelleb, followed by a noun: kat-tTelleb s-sber (it takes patience), kat-tTelleb l-flouss (it takes money). In everyday speech, people rather say khass (one needs) or bgha, for example bgha lih l-wa9t (he needs time). A frequent pitfall: don't confuse it with ttleb, that is t-tleb, the second person of tleb (to ask), which is written the same way in Arabic.
Example
هاد الخدمة كتطّلب الصبر
had l-khedma kat-tTelleb s-sber
“This job requires patience.”
Conjugation
Forms as recorded in DODa and reproduced in its spelling, which often leaves out short vowels.
| Imperfective (present) | Perfective (past) | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ana (I) | kantTelleb | tTellebt | |
| nta (you, m.) | kattTelleb | tTellebti | tTelleb |
| nti (you, f.) | kattTellbi | tTellebti | tTellbi |
| howa (he) | kaytTelleb | tTelleb | |
| hiya (she) | kattTelleb | tTellbat | |
| 7na (we) | kantTellbo | tTellbna | |
| ntouma (you, pl.) | kattTellbo | tTellbto | tTellbo |
| homa (they) | kaytTellbo | tTellbo |
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, it is written “tetelleb”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “tetelleb” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “to ask for (you ask, she asks)”; “to order (café, restaurant)”: totlob in Tunisian.