tebki تبكي
Tunisian Derja · verb
“tebki” (تبكي) is a verb in Tunisian Derja meaning you cry / she cries.
Meanings
- you cry / she cries
- to move to tears
Usage
Tebki is an imperfect-tense form of "bka" (to cry). It means "you cry", whether you are speaking to a man or a woman, and "she cries". Context or the pronoun settles which. It often appears in the question "chbik tebki?" (what's wrong, why are you crying?) and, in the negative imperative, in "ma tebkich" (don't cry). The plural is "tebkiw". For "to cry over someone", it is used with "3la".
Example
شبيك تبكي؟ آش صارلك؟
chbik tebki? ach sarlek?
“Why are you crying? What happened to you?”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “tebki” but also “tabki”, “tebky” and “tibki”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.