Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
ta'. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
ta', but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
ta' in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
ta' you have here. The definition of the word
ta' will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
ta', as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Danish
Verb
ta'
- Eye dialect spelling of tage.
Maltese
Alternative forms
Etymology
From older Maltese bita, mita, from Arabic مَتَاع (matāʕ, “thing, possession”). Compare Tunisian Arabic متاع (mtāʕ), Moroccan Arabic تاع (tāʕ), نتاع (ntāʕ), North Levantine Arabic تاع (tāʕ), Egyptian Arabic بتاع (bitāʕ), all used as possessive markers.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /taː/
- Usually unstressed and then automatically shortened to /ta/.
- Homophone: ta
Preposition
ta’
- Expresses the possessive or genitive: of, 's
- il-qabar ta’ Xmun ― Simon’s grave
- il-fehma tiegħu ― his opinion (literally, “the opinion of him”)
- il-parti kbira tan-nies ― the majority of people
- stejjer tal-waħx ― horror stories (literally, “stories of horror”)
- Used to connect an attributive adverb with its noun.
- it-temp ta’ għada ― tomorrow’s weather
- il-ħajja ta’ kuljum ― everyday life (literally, “the life of everyday”)
- Used to connect an attributive prepositional phrase with its noun (in this case more idiomatically restricted).
- id-dinja ta’ madwarek ― the world around you (literally, “the world of around you”)
- ir-rabta ta’ bejnietna ― the bond between us (literally, “the bond of between us”)
- nisa ta’ taħt il-21 sena ― women under 21 years (literally, “women of under 21 years”)
- it-tlieta ta’ filgħodu ― three a.m. (literally, “three of in the morning”)
- Used to form occupational nouns
- tal-ħanut ― grocer
- tal-ħalib ― milkman
- tal-ġobon ― cheesemonger
- tal-baħar ― seaman
- tax-xema’ ― candlemaker
- taċ-ċiċri ― roasted chickpeas seller
- tal-biljetti ― bus conductor
- tal-kagħak ― kagħak seller
- tal-karawett ― peanut seller
Usage notes
- Pronominal inflections of ta’ are used as possessive determiners in Maltese. Alternatively, as in other Semitic languages, the pronominal suffixes may be added directly to the noun:
- The use of ta’ is rare in cases of inalienable possession, especially with body parts and relatives; thus usually rasi (“my head”), ruħek (“your soul”), ommu (“his mother”). This is true even for most borrowed words in these semantic fields such as spallti (“my shoulder”), missierna (“our father”). Some forms are common, however, e.g. il-ħajja tagħha (“her life”) alongside ħajjitha.
- For the bulk of the vocabulary, both ways are equally possible. Overall the construction with ta’ is preferred, but this is not true of all words, not even all borrowings; for example, pajjiżna (“our country”) is preferred over il-pajjiż tagħna. The use of pronominal suffixes remains at any rate much commoner in Maltese than in Modern Hebrew. That said, many words have no common pronominal form and only ta’ is used with them. This is true especially of infrequent words, recent borrowings, words in vowels other than -a, etc.
Inflection
Derived terms
Noun
ta’ m
- family
- tagħha ― her family