Expressing ideas and opinions in Algerian Darija

This page is for the conversation after the facts have run out: agreeing, doubting, contradicting, justifying. It is small, twenty eight entries, and it is aimed at a specific problem that advanced learners have.

The problem is this. Plenty of people reach the point where they understand almost everything and can order food, ask directions and describe their day, and then find they cannot take part in an actual discussion. The vocabulary of thinking out loud is missing, and it is not the vocabulary any beginner course teaches.

Contradiction and justification

تناقض and مبرّر are the two words this page is built around. There is a contradiction in what you are saying. I have no justification, I was wrong. These are not decorative. They are the moves people make in a real argument, and having them means you can do more than agree.

Sit next to the educated register page

The sentences page on speaking at an educated register is the companion to this one, and it is where you see these words doing their work in full sentences rather than standing alone. Read the two together. This page gives you the pieces and that one shows you the shape they go in.

Say less, more precisely

The temptation at this level is to reach for long constructions. The opposite works better. A short, exact sentence with the right word in it sounds far more competent than a long one that is groping. صحّ، غلطت, true, I was wrong, is three words and it is a completely adult contribution to a conversation. Aim for that rather than for complexity.

What to do with this page

Learn six of these and then, deliberately, disagree with somebody about something small and safe. Football, a film, whether the coffee was good. You cannot practise disagreement alone and it is the one part of speaking that only comes with doing it. Six words and one small argument will move you further than a month of quiet study.

3 mots pour commencer