Grammar
Moroccan Darija grammar
The rules behind the lessons, explained in plain English. Each topic has examples with transliteration, and you can compare how other dialects do the same thing.
A1 ยท Foundations
Personal pronouns
I, you, he, she, we, they, and the masculine/feminine "you".
This and that
Pointing words, and where they sit in the sentence.
Masculine and feminine nouns
How to tell a noun's gender, and why it matters.
Plurals
Sound plurals with endings, and "broken" plurals that change shape.
The dual: two of something
A special ending for exactly two.
Possessive suffixes (my, your, hisโฆ)
The endings ููุ ููุ ููโฆ for possession, objects and prepositions.
Possession: "of" and "own"
Putting two nouns together (iแธฤfa) and the word for "belonging to".
Adjectives and agreement
Adjectives come after the noun and match it.
Numbers 1 to 10
The numbers themselves, and their short forms before a noun.
Counting things: 11 and up
Why "30 apple" is correct Arabic: which noun form follows each number.
Question words
What, where, when, why, how, who, how much.
The present tense
Person prefixes, plus the dialect's marker for "now" or "usually".
The past tense
One stem, eight endings.
A2 ยท Building sentences
The future
One small prefix or word in front of the present.
Saying "not"
Negating verbs, nouns and adjectives.
Commands (the imperative)
Telling one man, one woman or a group to do something.
Roots and verb forms (Form IโX)
How three root letters and a pattern make a verb.
Verb classes: sound, hollow, defective, doubled
Why some verbs change shape when they conjugate.
B1 ยท Going further
Looking for full verb tables? See the Moroccan Darija verb tables.