Money, prices and paying in Algerian Darija

Money is where foreigners lose most often, and almost never because they were cheated. It is because Algerians very frequently give prices in a unit that is not the one written on the note, so the number you hear and the number you pay are not the same number.

A hundred and twenty six sentences, and this page states the conversion plainly with real prices, which is why it is worth reading in full before your first market rather than working it out afterwards.

Read the entries with two numbers on them

You will see lines here where the same price appears twice, once as it is written and once as it is said. That is the whole difficulty of this page in one line, and it is not a quirk of a few sellers, it is the ordinary way prices are given. Until it clicks, every price you hear will sound either absurdly high or suspiciously low.

Have the number confirmed

The safest habit for a learner is to hear the price, say it back, and watch the face. It takes two seconds, it removes the ambiguity, and it is completely normal behaviour rather than an insult. Combine it with the numbers page and with بشحال, how much, and you have covered the transaction.

Complaining about prices is a national conversation

Prices went up, it is not what it used to be: these are on this page because they are said constantly and are one of the easiest ways into a conversation with almost anybody. Learning two of them gives you something to say back when the subject comes up, which it will.

What to do with this page

Read the whole page once, slowly, paying particular attention to how the larger numbers are said aloud. Then practise with real prices: look at something, decide what it costs, and say the price the way an Algerian would say it. Do that twenty times and the confusion goes away permanently, which is not true of any amount of reading about it.

10 phrases pour commencer