ts3tach تسعطاش
Moroccan Darija · numeral
“ts3tach” (تسعطاش) is a numeral in Moroccan Darija meaning nineteen.
Meanings
- nineteen
Usage
Tsa3Tach is the most common spelling of "nineteen." The emphatic t reflects the pronunciation. Like the other numbers from eleven to nineteen, it is linked to the following noun by -l-: tsa3Tach l3am, "nineteen years," tsa3Tach lbit, "nineteen rooms." The noun stays singular, whereas English puts it in the plural. Used alone, for age or a count, it keeps its form: 3ndha tsa3Tach. Not to be confused with ts3a, "nine," or tes3in, "ninety."
Example
عندها تسعطاش العام
3ndha tsa3Tach l3am
“She is nineteen years old.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ts3tach” but also “tsa3tach” and “tse3tach”. 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.
Type “ts3tach” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “nineteen”: tsa3tach in Tunisian.