Demonstrative Adjectives

Lesson objective

In this lesson, you will learn how to place this, that, these, and those directly before nouns.

Demonstrative adjective forms

English	Darija
This / these	had
That — masculine	dak
That — feminine	dik
Those — plural	duk

The form had is used with masculine singular nouns, feminine singular nouns, and plural nouns alike.

Using the definite article

A noun that follows a demonstrative adjective must have the definite article, which may appear as l- before some words, or as a doubled first consonant before others.

Examples

English	Darija
This man	had r-rajl
This woman	had l-mra
These men	had r-rjal
These women	had l-3yalat

had l-mdina kbira. — This city is big.

dik ḍ-ḍar kbira. — That house is big.

Talking about a general situation

Sometimes this and that refer to a complete situation instead of one specific object — for example: “Some students are always late for class. I do not like that.” In Darija, special expressions are used for this meaning.

English	Darija
This situation or matter	had š-ši
That situation or matter	dak š-ši

Comparing objects and situations

English	Darija
What is this? — an object	aš hada?
What is this? — a situation or matter	aš had š-ši?
I want that — a specific object	bġit hadak.
That is what I want — a situation or result	dak š-ši l-li bġit.

After hearing native speakers regularly, learners become more familiar with when to use the normal demonstrative forms and when to use had š-ši or dak š-ši.