mhatta محطة
Tunisian Derja · noun
“mhatta” (محطة) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning station, stop (transport).
Meanings
- station, stop (transport)
- bus or train station
- petrol station
Usage
A common word for any place where you board a means of transport: mhattet el kiran (bus station), mhattet el train or mhattet el métro. Before a complement, the form becomes mhattet, with the final t pronounced. Without further detail, mhatta often means a city's bus station, the departure point for louages and coaches. It is also used for a petrol station, more often in the expression mhattet bnzine. The usual plural is mhattat. The register is neutral, in speech and in writing alike.
Example
نستنّاك في المحطة متاع الكيران.
nestannek fel mhatta mta3 el kiran.
“I'll wait for you at the bus station.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “mhatta” but also “m7atta”, “ma7atta”, “mhata” and “m7ata”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 7 is ha (ح), a breathy h from the throat.
Type “mhatta” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “bus station”; “train station”: m7atta in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “station, bus station”; “stop, stage”: mahatta in Algerian.