dfa3 دفع
Tunisian Derja · verb
“dfa3” (دفع) is a verb in Tunisian Derja meaning push.
Meanings
- push
- pay (formal)
- urge, encourage
Usage
Dfa3 means above all to push physically: dfa3 el bab (push the door), dfa3 el karhba (push the car). The present tense is yedfa3. The sense "to pay" belongs mostly to Standard Arabic, in administrative expressions such as dfa3 ta3widh. In everyday speech, Tunisians say khallas for "to pay". Figuratively, dfa3 means to push someone to do something, for example dfa3ni nkhdem (he pushed me to work). Do not confuse it with dfin (to bury).
Example
إيجا عاوني ندفعو الكرهبة
ija 3aweni nedf3ou el karhba
“Come help me, let's push the car.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “dfa3” but also “dfe3”, “dfaa” and “defa3”. 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 “dfa3” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “to push”; “to submit (a file), apply”: dfe3 in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “to push, shove”; “to pay (formal register)”: dfa3 in Algerian.