tesma3 تسمع
Tunisian Derja · verb
“tesma3” (تسمع) is a verb in Tunisian Derja meaning you hear; she hears.
Meanings
- you hear; she hears
- you listen; she listens
Usage
Tesma3 is the imperfect form of the verb sma3, "to hear, to listen," in the second person singular or the third person feminine. The object is often introduced with the preposition fi: tesma3 fi l-mzika, "you are listening to music." In the sense of "to obey," one says sma3 kleem, literally "to listen to the words" of someone. Tesma3ni? ("can you hear me?") is common on the phone. Note that the same verb covers both "hear" and "listen": context decides. The form does not mean "sound," which is sout.
Example
تسمعني ولا لا؟
tesma3ni walla le?
“Can you hear me or not?”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “tesma3” but also “tasma3”, “tesmaa” and “tasmaa”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 3 is ayn (ع), a voiced sound from deep in the throat with no English equivalent.
Type “tesma3” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “to be heard, make oneself heard”; “you hear, you listen”: tsme3 in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “you hear, she hears”; “to listen”: tesma3 in Algerian.