# Algerian Arabic: daar دار (to do)



## sarllou18

Hi all
This is specifically directed at speakers of the Algerian dialect and anyone who has knowledge of it as well.

I would like to know how the verb *'3amala/ya3malo' *is conjugated in Algerian darija into 'i did/am doing' 'you (f/m) did/is doing' etc.  I know the word 'diir' as i have heard it a lot e.g. '_weshn_ _diir'._
Thanks a lot!


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## linguaphile2

Hi,
The Algerian word for "amala" is "dara" as you said.
If you conjugate "dara" it would give you
ana dartoo 
anti darti
anta dart
هو daar
هى dart
antum dartum
هما daaroo

Notice that the dual doesn't exist in the Algerian dialect as well as the distinction between males and females in the second and third person in the plural.

And the in progressive it would be

انا ان diir
anti tdiiri
anta tdiir
هو ii diir
هى tdiir
antum tdiiroo
هما ii diiroo
Mind you, most people you will encounter in Algeria will understand you if you use standard words while speaking their dialect.


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## sarllou18

oh thanks so much for your help!


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## clevermizo

A native will have to respond, but that conjugation doesn't look correct. For starters, the present tense for the first person should start with a n- in these dialects: ndiir ندير. This is true in the singular, and in the plural it would be نديرو ndiiru. Again a native will have to confirm. Furthermore I suspect that the first person past tense doesn't have an "-oo" suffix, but I'm not certain.


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## Bruss04

Clevermizo, you described it precisely the way I've learnt it in the Libyan dialect, in which it would be:
I did - Der't
I do - Ndiir
however, you do and she does is "Iddiir" ... This is what I've been taught, I'm not a native speaker


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## sam16

hello everybody , i'am algerian and i 'd like to give point of view as to  what has already been said , excuse me if my english is weak , i'am rather a french speaker;;;anyway so i confirm what @"cleversimo said ,indeed ana(I)ndir and hna(we)ndiroo.@linguaphile2, we don't say "antum "('you plural) dartum' , but "antooma dartoo" ,at least in algiers ,i don't know for the rest of algeria.Bruss04 for you do and she does , we say" enta tdiir "and hiya tdiir.
j'espére avoir été claire!!!!


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## clevermizo

Bruss04 said:


> however, you do and she does is "Iddiir" ... This is what I've been taught, I'm not a native speaker



Well, _(i)ddiir_ is just تدير, but if you try to say "tdiir" five times fast, the _t_ just assimilates into a _d_.


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## sam16

that's right lol !!! but i had to focus on t when writing ,of course it's another matter when speaking , one is used to swallow somme letters,  and this is true in all languages .à bientôt peut être et merci de votre réponse.


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## sarllou18

ok sam16 so let me get this straight!
Ana: 'dirt/ndiir
inti: dirti/tdiiri
inte: dart/tdiir
hiyya:dart/tdiir
huwwe:daar/diir
thanks so much for your help!


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## sam16

hi sarllou18, it seems correct except for the third male personal pronoun 1 "inta" and not " inte" and for the past tense of to do
            2  hiya (she) "daret" and not "dart".
i was very glad to help you !!!
bonne aprés midi.


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## sarllou18

ok thanks so much!
so if the 3rd person masculine 'did' 'daar' is not correct then what is the correct way to say it?


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## sam16

that's all correct !!!! 
if you have any further questions about algerian dialect , please dont hesitate to ask.
bonne soirée et à bientôt.


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## clevermizo

في الحقيقة تلفظون "إنت دَرت" و "أنا دِرت" بشكل مختلف - يعني "إنت دَرت" مع فتحة على الدال و"أنا دِرت" مع كسرة على الدال؟ أم تلفظون الكلماتين بنفس الطريقة؟


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## sam16

sorry i don't even read arabic , i said in my first post that i'am french speaker cause i did my studies ,solely in french language and my teachers were all french or french speaking algerians , i just talk somme algerian(algérois , from algiers) dialect...


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## clevermizo

Je veux savoir seulement si vous en fait prononcez _ana dirt_ w _inta dart_ comme ça - avec des voyelles différentes dans le mot d_rt - ou si on les prononce de la même façon. Parce que ça serait différent que j'aurais supposé (s'il y avait des voyelles différentes).


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## sam16

ah ok!!!eh bien je vous dirais que "ana dert" , j'ai fait , i did...et "anta dert" , tu as fait , you did. I use "e" instead "a" to better render the real pronunciation.


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## clevermizo

Votre "e" - est-elle près de la "é" ou la "e" (sans accent) française?


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## sarllou18

wait i dont speak french!!
are you saying that 'e' you wrote 'dert' is pronounced as the 'i' in the english word 'did'?
and how is the anta 'dert' pronounced as?


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## clevermizo

My guess is that it's a schwa [ə]. Anyway the forms of أنا and إنت in the past tense should be pronounced the same. This is true across many (most?) Arabic dialects due to loss of the final vowel.

**See Sam16's post below. Apparently the _e_ is pronounced [ε] (like the 'e' in 'pet').


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## sam16

if you know somme french ,then the more appropriate letter would be neither e nor é but è .I wonder if you make difference among the three.


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## clevermizo

Yes, I know what you mean. Thanks.


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## sarllou18

oh ok thanks so much sam16 and clevermizo for translating


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## Xence

clevermizo said:


> **See Sam16's post below. Apparently the _e_ is pronounced [ε] (like the 'e' in 'pet').



In addition, I would precise that it's a short vowel, a bit shorter than in your example. This kind of vowels are caracteristic of Maghrebi, especially in initial position.


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