tkhalles تخلص
Tunisian Derja · verb
“tkhalles” (تخلص) is a verb in Tunisian Derja meaning you pay; to pay.
Meanings
- you pay; to pay
- to get paid
- to get rid of
Usage
In Derja, khalles means above all "to pay"; tkhalles is the second-person form, "you pay". You hear it constantly from shopkeepers: tkhalles taw wala nkayyedlek?, "are you paying now or shall I put it on your tab?". It takes 3la for the thing bought: khalles 3la el 9ahwa, "he paid for the coffee". The rarer form tkhallas means "to be paid" or "to get rid of" (tkhallas menou, "he got rid of it"). The pitfall is to understand only "get rid of", the Standard Arabic sense, when "pay" is by far the dominant meaning.
Example
تخلص بالكارطة ولا كاش؟
tkhalles bel karta wala cash?
“Are you paying by card or cash?”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “tkhalles” but also “tkhales”, “t5alles”, “tkhallas” and “tkhaless”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.
Type “tkhalles” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “to get paid, receive one's salary”; “to get rid of”: tkhelles in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “to get paid, receive one's salary”; “to get rid of”: tkhalass in Algerian.