men من
Tunisian Derja · preposition
“men” (من) is a preposition in Tunisian Derja meaning from (origin, provenance).
Meanings
- from (origin, provenance)
- since, for (time)
- than (comparison)
Usage
Men indicates origin: jit men tounes ("I came from Tunis"). It also marks the starting point in time: men sne ("for a year"). It also introduces the second term of a comparative, translated as "than": akbar menni ("bigger than me"). With pronouns, one says menni, mennek, menno. It appears in expressions such as men wra ("from behind") or men ba3d ("afterwards"). Note that it is not the interrogative pronoun "who?", which is chkoun in Tunisia.
Example
جيت من تونس البارح
jit men tounes lbare7
“I came from Tunis yesterday.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “men” but also “mn”, “min”, “man” and “mena”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “men” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “from (source, origin)”; “of, among (part of a set)”: men in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “from (origin)”; “of, among (part of a set)”: men in Algerian.