ach اش
Tunisian Derja · pronoun
“ach” (اش) is a pronoun in Tunisian Derja meaning what (interrogative).
Meanings
- what (interrogative)
- what (in a subordinate clause)
Usage
Ach is the interrogative pronoun "what". It goes at the start of the sentence: ach t7eb ?, "what do you want?". It also appears after a verb in an indirect question: ma na3rafch ach na3mel, "I don't know what to do". It is often reduced to ch-, attached to the next word: chbik, "what's wrong with you?", chnowa, "what". This ch- also appears in other interrogatives such as kifech, "how", and 3lech, "why". In speech, ach is still frequent, but chnowa is the form most used on its own. The pronunciation varies between ach and ech.
Example
آش تحب تاكل؟
ach t7eb tekel ?
“What do you want to eat?”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ach” but also “ech”, “ache”, “esh” and “ich”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “ach” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “what (interrogative)”; “which (before a noun)”: ach in Moroccan.