Learn with Aymen
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الشرا
Sentences

Shopping and buying in Algerian Darija

In the shop and at the stall. Asking for a thing, asking for more, and settling up.

Buying something is the most repeatable conversation available to you. Same script, several times a day, with somebody who wants it to succeed. If you want speaking practice and you are nervous about it, this is where to start.

Ninety six sentences: asking whether they have a thing, what is available today, when it comes in, and settling up. عندك حليب, do you have milk. كاين شي خبز, is there any bread. تفضّل. صحّة, here you are, thanks.

Two openings cover almost everything

عندك, do you have, and كاين, is there. Between them they will start almost any request in any shop in the country. Learn both, then swap the noun. That is one evening of work for a pattern you will use for the rest of your life in this language.

The exchange has a shape

Greeting, request, answer, quantity, price, thanks, goodbye. Every one of those steps is short and predictable, which means you can rehearse the whole thing in advance. Learners get stuck because they prepare a single sentence and then have nothing for step four. Prepare the sequence and you will get through the door and out again.

Small shops are better practice than big ones

A supermarket needs no language at all. A small shop needs all of it, and the person behind the counter will happily repeat things, because you will be back tomorrow. Deliberately choosing the harder shop is the cheapest daily lesson available and it costs you nothing extra.

What to do with this page

Pick three things you buy regularly. Build the full exchange for each, greeting to goodbye, using the lines on this page. Say each one out loud twice. Then go and buy those three things. You will get one of them slightly wrong, you will be understood anyway, and tomorrow you will get it right.

10 sentences to start with

عندك حليب ؟
3andek 7lib ?
Do you have milk?
ووقتاش يجي ؟
w wo9tash yji ?
And when does it come in?
واش كاين اليوم ؟
wesh kayen lyoum ?
what's on today?
كاين شي خبز ؟
kayen shi khobz ?
is there any bread?
تفضّل. صحّة
tfaddal. sa77a
Here you are. Thanks
بلا مزيّة. بسلامة
bla mziya. b slama
You're welcome. Go safely
عطيني زوج
3tini zouj
Give me two
الحانوت
el7anout
the corner shop
المخبزة
elmakhbaza
the bakery
لتر حليب
litr 7lib
a litre of milk

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