bel بال
Tunisian Derja · noun
“bel” (بال) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning mind, attention.
Meanings
- mind, attention
- maybe (balek)
Usage
Bel is almost always used with a possessive and appears in many expressions. "Fi bali" means "I know" or "I thought", and "mich fi bali" means "I didn't know". "Rodd belek" means "be careful". Alone at the start of a sentence, balek means "maybe": "balek nji" (I may come). The variant belekchi expresses the same doubt. Be careful not to confuse bel with the preposition b- followed by the article (bel = "with the").
Example
ما كانش في بالي إلّي إنتي تونسية
ma kench fi bali elli enti tounsiya
“I didn't know that you were Tunisian.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “bel” but also “bal”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “bel” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “mind, attention, thought”; “to be aware, in the know”: bal in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “mind, thought”; “attention”: bal in Algerian.