A study: “Of” in Tunisian Arabic

By IBL Editorial On Sep 15, 2024

In this article, we will study the translation of the word “Of” in Tunisian Arabic.

The English word “Of” is a preposition that is principally used to:

Express the composition of something — “What’s are these plates made of?”
Describe the quantity of something — “It’s a discount of 20%”
And when used as “Of the”, to refer to something that belongs to something else — “We’re at the back of the building.”

Of translated

“Of” in Tunisian Arabic is men / من when it is the composition of something; B / ب when it is used as a preposition associated to a verb; and mta3 / متاع when it is involved in referring to something that belongs to something or someone else.

Men / من — Composition

Men is used when referring to the composition of something physical. It is based on the same Arabic spelling and meaning in Standard Arabic (Fos7a).

Here are three examples:

“What are these plates made of?”:

Mnech masnou3in el os7na hedhom?

مناش مصنوعين الأصحنة هاذم؟

“These plates are made of ceramic.”

El os7na masnou3in men el fokhar.

.الأحصنة مصنوعين من الفخار

“This chair is made of pine wood.”

El korsi hedha masnou3 men el lou7 mta3 el sanawber.

.الكرسي هذا مصنوع من اللوح متاع الصنوبر

The English word “Of” can also refer to the composition of something that is abstract, such as “It is of great importance.” However, in Tunisian Arabic, men / من is not used to describe the composition of something that isn’t physical. Here are two examples:

(from above) “It’s of great importance.”

(masculine-based noun) Mouhem barcha.

(feminine-based noun) Mouhema barcha.

.مهم برشا (masculine-based noun)

.مهمة برشا (feminine-based noun)

Note too that in the statement above, it can be written, and is likely more colloquial without the word “of”. More commonly, this phrase would be something like, “It is very important.”

B / ب — Preposition

When “Of” is used as a preposition the root word B / ب is used. (In Tunisian Arabic, B / ب can also mean “With“)

For example:

“I’ve never heard of this.”

(masculine-based noun) 3omri masma3t bih.

(feminine-based noun) 3omri masma3t beha.

.عمري ماسمعت بيه (masculine-based noun)

.عمري ماسمعت بيها (feminine-based noun)

(If you’re wondering why there are masculine- and feminine-based translations above, Arabic is a gender-based language. All of its nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. Tunisian Arabic speakers have intrinsically learned the conventional designation of each noun. And knowing the gender of a noun will commonly effect other words in the statement. (E.g., Bih / بيه means “of this” when the noun is masculine and Beha / بيها means “of this” when the noun is feminine. For more information, see the IBL article, “How nouns function in Tunisian Arabic”.)

“I dreamed of you!”

7lemt bik!

!حلمت بيك

By now, you may have also picked up on the suffixes above that are appearing associated to B / ب. In the translations for the two statements above, the words bih (-ih), beha (-ha) and Bik (-ik) have all been used. What is happening is that B / ب conjugates through the seven subjects in Tunisian Arabic. Here is the full list:

(I) Beya / بيّا

(You) Bik / بيك

(You, plural) Bikom / بيكم

(He) Bih / بيه

(She) Beha / بيها

(We) Bina / بينا

(They) Bihom / بيهم

Preposition to refer to quantity

“Everything in the store has a discount of 20%.”

Kol chay fel 7anout hedha fih solde b 20%.

.%20 كل شي في الحانوت هذا فيه سولد ب

“We’re giving you a raise of 10%!”

Bech na3tiwek bonus b 10%!

.%10 باش نعطيوك بونيس ب

Something belonging to something or someone else

When “Of” is used to refer to something that belongs to something or someone else, Mta3 (Mte3) / متاع is used.

Here is three examples:

“What is the translation of this word?”

Chneya el tarjma mta3 el kelma hedhi?

شنيّا الترجمة متاع الكلمة هاذي؟

“The entrance is at the back of the building.”

El beb fel jiha tilaneya mta3 el banya.

.الباب في الجيهة التيلانيّة متاع البنية

“Go to the front of the car.”

(singular) Emchi lel jiha l9odemeya mta3 el karhba.

(plural) Emchiw lel jiha l9odemeya mta3 el karhba.

.امشي للجيهة القدّاميّة متاع الكرهبة (singular)

.امشيو للجيهة القدّاميّة متاع الكرهبة (plural)

Keeping with the thought that Mta3 (Mte3) / متاع is used to refer to something that belongs to something or someone else, it is used in a much wider range of statements in Tunisian Arabic, that when translated in English, wouldn’t use “of”. (But would maintain the same definitional as we’ve described so far)

“That is her purse.”

Hedhika el sac mte3ha.

.هاذيكا الساك متاعها

“That is her kid.”

(m) Hedheka weldha.

(f) Hedhika bentha.

.هذاكا ولدها (m)

.هاذيكا بنتها (f)

In summary

Like in English, the word “of” when translated into Tunisian Arabic is very versatile. And understanding its application (using men / من, b / ب, mte3 / متاع, etc.) is crucial in using a sizeable lexicon to begin constructing technically accurate Tunisian Arabic statements. If you enjoyed the format of this article (in our “Study” series) and want to study more Tunisian Arabic this way, here are three more articles from our “Study” series:

Since 2022, IBL has been documenting Tunisian Arabic. Here is the full list: (over 5,700 principal words & phrases with recordings and over 20,000 statements translated so far) — IBL: Tunisian Arabic.

Enjoy learning the wonderful Arabic dialect of Tunisian Arabic.

As always, we wish you a marvellous journey!