7wayej حوايج
Tunisian Derja · noun
“7wayej” (حوايج) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning clothes.
Meanings
- clothes
- belongings
- things, stuff
Usage
7wayej is a plural very commonly used for clothes: 7wayej ennoum (pyjamas, nightwear), 7wayej jdod (new clothes, especially for Eid). It is also used more broadly for personal belongings or things to buy: lemm 7wayjek, "gather your things". It is often combined with a possessive suffix: 7wayji, 7wayjek. The singular 7aja means "a thing", not "a garment". It is a word of all registers, with no particular connotation.
Example
انا حوايجي صغارو علييا بعد لولادة
ena 7wayji sgharou 3lia ba3ed louleda
“My clothes have become too small for me since I gave birth.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “7wayej” but also “hwayej”, “7weyej”, “7wayij”, “7aweij” and “7waij”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Its Arabic spelling is not fixed either: you will find حوايج and حاويج, all the same word.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 7 is ha (ح), a breathy h from the throat.
Type “7wayej” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “clothes, garments”; “belongings, things”: 7wayej in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “things”; “belongings, stuff”: hwayej in Algerian.