Vocabulary:

l  “elu:”, the origin of the word comes from the French “Allo”.

l  “shku:n m3a:ye” literally is “who is with me”. Remember that each time the English auxiliary “to be” is conjugated in present; in Tunisian it is not used. “m3a:ye” means “with me”. Here the preposition “m3a:” is followed by a possessive adjective. Right now you should be remembering how to use them. Note also, that the stress falls always on the preposition and never on the preposition, it also falls on the words.

l  Remember, the stress never falls on the possessive adjectives, but on the word (noun or verb) and the prepositions preceding them.

l  “ha:ni”, we have already seen this word before, and we said that this word is made up of “ha:” and an objective pronoun. “ha:” means “here”, but the meaning of “here” is not to indicate a place as here and there. But, in the meaning of “here I am, here you are then, etc…”. this “ha:” shows a change when used the pronoun “he”, and it is “ha:w”.

There is also a form of “there + Pronoun + to be”. But it is only used with (he, she and they).

Tunisians often use this structure. Actually, it does not have any true meaning, it is used, when people ask you about yourself or about someone else, so you can answer using one the “ha:” forms. Example:

A: How is your mother,? I haven’t seen her for long time, I heard she was sick.

B: Ahayke. (although she is not well, but she is fine).

l  (Remember that the object pronoun is the same as the possessive adjective, the exception is only  with the pronoun “I”, its objective pronoun is “ni”, and its possessive adjective is “--i” if the noun preceding it ends with a vowel; and is “ye” if the noun finishes with a vowel).

l  “winti, wi:nk ?”, means “and you, where are you?”, it is a very common expression, used by Tunisians to show that the speaker has been to many places, but he never met his friend.

l  “hell ghi:be ye wildi ?!”, this is another expression, literally is “this absence oh my son!”. “hell ghi:be” can be used separately, it means “long time no see”. As for “ ye wildi” , it has the same meaning as the English “oh man!”, but in Tunisian we say “oh my son”. Be careful this expression is only used among friends, and to people of the same age or younger than the speaker.

l  When you are addressing people:

1.         To a young man: khu:ye (my brother), [buha (her father) this is a very strange expression, and a little bit old, it has been widely used by Tunisians in the 90s, it is still used among young people, but it is too slang. You would better know it, and not use it]. You can also say “sa:7bi”, which is “my friend”.

2.         To a young girl: okhti (my sister), it is a very polite expression, it can also be used when addressing women, but not old woman. You can also say (mad’mwaze:l) it is a French word, when using this expression, it might sound too French, it also shows that you are an educated person. There is also another expression, which is “toffle”, it is “girl”, it can sound good or not depending on how you use it when addressing the aimed person.

3.         To address women: if the woman is not old and not young, you might say “mra” or “mada:m”, their use is relatively the same as the above words when addressing a girl. But, if the woman is older than you, it is better not to use “okhti”, although women might like that, as they do not want to be old.

4.         To address men: you can say “ra:jil”(man), “khu:ye”(my brother), “3ammi” (my uncle), “mösyö” (Sir). (mu7ammid named) [this name is Mahomet, islam’s prophet], Tunisian when they do not know the name of the addressed person, so they call him so. Also, when you are angry with some one, whether you know him or not, you can also call him so, but as a foreigner to the language, it would be better you know the expression and avoid using it, since the name of the prophet of Islam has a great meaning for Moslems, and they might misunderstand you.

5.         To address old people: for old men, you can say “baba” (my father), “7a:jj” (this word means pilgrim), and is used for the people who went to Mecca for pilgrimage. But, nowadays it is used for all old people, whether they went on pilgrimage to Mecca or not. As for old women, you can say “ommi” (my mother), “7a:jje” (pilgrim) but for woman. Their use is exactly the same as with old men.

Remember, that when addressing people, whether you call them by name or you use one of the expressions above, you must always add “ye” which precedes the word. Exple: “ye Michael!”, “ye ra:jil”, “ye khu:ye”etc

l  “kissibbe?” is used when you are facing an unexpected event which made you excited. It is closer to the English “how come?”.

l  “ha:ni khu:k”, this expression is widely used among Tunisian, they use it when they want to express how bored, unsatisfied, tired or when they do not have any thing to say. So the word “ha:ni” has all of these meanings. When you add the word “khu:k” [your brother], it is a kind of intimacy, trying to share one’s feelings or thoughts with the listener, it replaces the pronoun “I”. other useful words are used to replace the pronouns, such as “miski:n” (poor). You can use it to talk about some one else, so it replaces the pronoun “he”. If you are talking about “she”, so you can say “miski:ne”. All these expressions, have cultural effects, Tunisians always try to be familiar and be more intimate with the listener or the absent person.

l  “in-nha:r l-koll, l-khiddme id-da:r, id-da:r l-khiddme.”, “in-nha:r l-koll”, means the whole day, all the day long. Be careful “nha:r” means “day” and is the opposite of “night”. Remember that in-nha:r is the article stuck to the noun. Literally the expression is [the day the all]. Be careful to the words, the articles and the order;

in-nha:r l-koll: all the day.

kol nha:r : everyday, we can also say “kol yu:m”. but we cannot say “l-yu:m l-koll”.

“l-khiddme id-da:r, id-da:r l-khiddme.”, this is a very easy and useful expression, the structure is always:

 “the + departing place + the + arriving place + the + arriving place + the + departing place”.

It is used to show how busy the speaker is, and that he does not have time to meet friends or do anything except the above mentioned two places. So, the places can be (school + home), (stadium + school) etc…..

“e:khi”, has no equivalent in English. It might be like the English question tag. “e:khi l-yu:m 3i:d?”, so it can be “today is a feast, isn’t it?”. But, its is used before the asked question as a way of guessing or being surprised.

Example:

“e:khi in-nha:r l-koll fid-dar?”, being unsatisfied with the fact that the person spends all the day home, “how can you be all the day home?!”

“e:khi inti hne ?!(or hu:ni = here)”, “so, you are here?! I did not expect that”.

But, when “e:khi” is used in a declarative sentence, it means (so, then, after that, etc…)

l  “3i:d mile:d’k”, is “your birthday”, the word birthday in Tunisian is made up of “3i:d” (feast, celebration), and “mile:d”, which is birth. Tunisians also celebrate the day of the birth of the prophet of Islam Mahomet, and this day is called “mu:l’d”, it is used only for this occasion.

l  “me-bhemm’ni”, means “how stupid I am!”. This structure is [m’ + superlative of an adjective + Objective pronoun]. This will be seen later.