How to Pronounce Darija: The 3, 7 and 9 Sounds Explained

Short answer: in written Darija, 3 stands for the Arabic letter ع, a squeezed sound from the middle of the throat; 7 stands for ح, a strong breathy h; and 9 stands for ق, a k made much further back in the mouth. They are letters, not numbers. Two more sounds need practice, kh and gh, and after that the main challenge is not the letters but saying double consonants and words with very few vowels.

If you have only ever read Darija, 3afak and ch7al may look like typing mistakes. Here is how to read them and how to make the sounds, with word pairs you can use to test yourself.

The Darija sounds at a glance

The rest (b, d, f, k, l, m, n, s, t, w, y, z) are close to English.

Why 3, 7 and 9?

Latin letters have no obvious match for these three sounds, so people writing Arabic on phones and computers borrowed digits that look like the Arabic letters: 3 looks like a mirrored ع, 7 resembles ح, and 9 resembles ق. Moroccans use the same system in everyday messages, so learning it also helps you read a WhatsApp from a Moroccan friend. Our Easy Darija books use it for the same reason.

7: the breathy h

Imagine fogging up a cold window with your breath, then narrow your throat a little so that the air comes out with more force. That is 7. Your voice stays off, and nothing should scrape or rattle: if it scrapes, you are making kh.

The best test is this pair:

Say 7na hna, "we are here", and make the two sounds clearly different. Then practise with ch7al? (how much?), wa7ed (one), l-7lib (milk) and sme7 li (sorry).

3: the sound with no English match

3 uses the same narrow throat as 7, but your voice is on. Say a long 7, keep the throat in that position and start to hum. You will feel a tightening in the middle of the throat, a bit like the start of a gag. Do it gently: it should not hurt.

Many learners simply leave it out. That is understandable, but it can change the word:

Those two come from our guide to family words in Darija, which is full of good practice. Try also 3afak (please), n3na3 (mint) and sb3a (seven).

9: a k further back

Say k as in cool, then move the contact point further back, until the back of your tongue touches near the little hanging uvula at the end of your mouth. Open your mouth a bit more and try 9a, 9a, 9a. The sound is a clean stop, without any scraping.

Two pairs show why it matters:

Practise with l-9ahwa (coffee), n9es chwiya (lower the price a bit) and l-mdina l-9dima (the old town).

9 or g? It depends where you are

Many words with ق are said with a plain g in some regions. "He said" is gal in Casablanca and much of Morocco, but 9al (قال) in the north and in traditional city speech such as that of Fes. Both are correct Moroccan forms. Researchers also find the two alternating word by word in southern Morocco, so the best guide is to copy the people around you.

kh and gh: the two scrapes

kh is the soft scrape of loch and Bach: no voice, plenty of air. gh is the same scrape with your voice on. If you can say a French r, you already have it. A useful pair for shopping:

You will want the first one in the souk: our guide to bargaining in Morocco uses ghali bezzaf ("too expensive") all the time.

Heavy consonants: the sounds you cannot see

Darija has "heavy" (emphatic) versions of some consonants: the Arabic letters ط, ص and ض. The tongue pulls back, the mouth feels fuller and the vowel next to it sounds darker. Our Latin spelling doesn't mark them, so tbib (طبيب, doctor) and sba7 l-khir (صباح الخير, good morning) look like they contain ordinary t and s.

Don't worry about these on day one. Learn them by ear, one word at a time. They also appear in many loanwords: it is one reason tobis (bus) and tomobil (car) sound so different from their French originals. For many speakers r can be heavy too.

Double letters: hold them

A doubled consonant in Darija is really longer, and it can change the meaning. Hold it for a moment before you move on:

This matters at the start of words as well. Mmi starts with a long m, and in s-salam, d-dar (the house) and t-tobis, the article l- has turned into the next consonant, so you say a long ss, dd or tt. Doubling the r also changes it: a single r is a quick tap, a double rr as in 9erra is a real trill.

Where did the vowels go?

Darija drops many short vowels. MSA says kitāb (كتاب) for "book"; Darija says ktab. Numbers are the classic example: rb3a (four) and sb3a (seven), which you can practise in our article on Darija numbers.

Three tips make these words manageable:

• Don't add a full vowel. Sb3a is not "saba3a". At first, a tiny "uh" between consonants is fine, then make it shorter and shorter.
• Build from the end. Say 3a, then b3a, then sb3a.
• Read e as a short "uh". The e in 3emmi and bezzaf is short and neutral, like the a of English about.

A short dialogue to read aloud

This café exchange has nearly every sound in this article:

Customer: Salam o3alikom. Bghit wa7ed l-9ahwa b l-7lib, 3afak. (Hello. I'd like a coffee with milk, please.)

Waiter: Wakha. Chi 7aja khra? (OK. Anything else?)

Customer: La, chokran. B ch7al? (No, thank you. How much?)

Waiter: Tmenya d d-drahem. (Eight dirhams.)

Customer: Hak. Chokran bezzaf. (Here you go. Thanks a lot.)

Waiter: Bse77tek! (Enjoy!)

Test yourself

Say these aloud, then record yourself and listen back:

1. we / here
2. dog / heart
3. expensive / my uncle (mother's brother)
4. he studied / he taught

Answers: 1. 7na / hna. 2. kelb / 9elb. 3. ghali / khali. 4. 9ra / 9erra.

The takeaway

You don't need a perfect accent to be understood: in context, Moroccans will usually work out what you mean. Start with 7 and 3, because you need them from your first polite words (3afak, ch7al?), then move on to 9, and keep holding your double letters. Five minutes of word pairs a day does more than an hour of reading.

Your ears come first, so listen to the free Darija audio lessons and copy what you hear. Since it is hard to judge your own sounds, the quickest fix is someone listening to you: you can practise Darija with a tutor who corrects each sound as you say it.