hiya هي
Tunisian Derja · pronoun
“hiya” (هي) is a pronoun in Tunisian Derja meaning she, it (personal pronoun).
Meanings
- she, it (personal pronoun)
- it is (restating the subject)
Usage
Hiya is the third-person feminine singular personal pronoun. It refers to a person or thing of feminine gender. It is often used to pick up and emphasize a subject, like a copula: darek hiya l-kbira, "your house, it's the big one". The pronoun is not required before a conjugated verb, since the verb form already indicates the person. Placing it before the verb therefore adds emphasis. The masculine equivalent is houwa.
Example
هي ماشية للخدمة توّة
hiya mechya lel 5edma tawa
“She's off to work now.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “hiya” but also “hia”, “hya”, “heya” and “hiyya”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Its Arabic spelling is not fixed either: you will find هي and هية, all the same word.
Type “hiya” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “she”; “she, her (emphatic form)”: hiya in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “she”; “it is (emphasis)”: hiya in Algerian.