mfej2a مفاجاة
Tunisian Derja · noun
“mfej2a” (مفاجاة) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning surprise.
Meanings
- surprise
- surprise gift or party
Usage
Mfej2a means "surprise", whether good or bad. It is used in common phrases: ya3mel mfej2a, "to give a surprise", and ken mfej2a, "it was a surprise". With the exclamatory mela, the sentence mela mfej2a! expresses astonishment. The word is also used for a gift or party prepared in secret. The Arabic spelling varies between مفاجأة and مفاجاة, because the glottal stop is often weakened in speech. In arabizi, this glottal stop is written with the digit 2. The word remains feminine.
Example
حضرنالها مفاجأة نهار عيد ميلادها.
7adharnelha mfej2a nhar 3id miledha.
“We prepared a surprise for her on her birthday.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “mfej2a” but also “mfeja2a”, “mfeja”, “mofaja2a” and “mfaj2a”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 2 is hamza (ء), a glottal stop.
Type “mfej2a” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “surprise (gift, party)”; “surprise, unexpected event”: mofaja2a in Moroccan.