Tarnib, Tarneeb, طرنيب — One Game, Three Alphabets
However you romanise it, it is the Levant's favourite partnership game.
Why the spelling wobbles
The game's real name is written طرنيب, and Arabic does not transliterate into Latin letters one way. The long vowel in the middle comes out as ee for some writers and i for others, so the same game appears as tarneeb, tarnib, tarnīb in academic hands, and occasionally taranib. Search any of them and you should end up at the same table. We spell it tarneeb, and we answer to all of it.
What the word means
Tarnib is simply the Arabic word for the trump suit. Naming the game after the trump is a habit this family shares across languages — Iranians call their cousin Hokm, "the command", and in Pakistan the parallel game answers to Rung, "the colour". The trump is the drama, so the trump is the name.
The rules in one minute
Four players, two fixed partnerships, a full 52-card pack dealt out entirely — thirteen each. An auction decides who names the trump: bids run from 7 to 13, the number of tricks your team promises, and each bid must beat the one standing. The winner of the auction names the tarnib and leads the first trick, and play runs counter-clockwise — to the right. Follow the led suit if you can; when you cannot, trump or discard freely — trumping is never forced. Make your bid and your team scores the tricks it actually won; fall short and the bid is scored against you while the defenders keep their tricks. The full rules — kaboot included — live on our How to Play Tarneeb page.
Playing to 41 — or 61
The classic match plays to 41 points; many Levantine tables prefer the longer 61-point game. We cover exactly how the two targets change strategy on our 41 vs 61 page.
بالعربية أيضاً
If you would rather read the rules in Arabic, we keep a full Arabic rules page — قواعد لعبة الطرنيب — and an Arabic strategy guide, written right-to-left, not machine-translated.
Tarnib — common questions
Is tarnib the same as tarneeb?
Yes — the same Arabic word طرنيب romanised two ways. The game does not change with the spelling.
What does tarnib mean?
The trump suit. The auction winner names the tarnib for the hand, and the game takes its name from that moment.
Where is tarneeb played?
Across the Levant — Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine — and wherever those communities have settled. Related games under other names stretch from Iran to South Asia.
Is tarneeb like Spades?
They share trick-taking bones, but tarneeb's auction names any suit as trump and it is a fixed-partnership game with its own scoring. Our Tarneeb vs Spades page walks the differences.
Can I read the rules in Arabic?
Yes — see our Arabic rules and strategy pages, linked below.
Can I play tarnib online free?
Right here in the browser — bots or a private room with friends, no download, no sign-up.
Keep reading
- How to Play Tarneeb — complete rules of the classic game.
- Tarneeb 41 vs 61 — what the numbers after the name mean.
- Tarneeb vs Spades — cousins compared.
- Tarneeb Scoring — bids, kaboot, and worked examples.
- قواعد الطرنيب بالعربية — the rules in Arabic.
- استراتيجية الطرنيب — strategy in Arabic.