9ares قارص
Algerian Darja · adjective
“9ares” (قارص) is an adjective in Algerian Darja meaning sour, tart (taste).
Meanings
- sour, tart (taste)
- lemon
- biting, bitter (cold)
Usage
9ares first describes a sour or tart taste: an unripe fruit, a juice, yoghurt. Used as a noun, it also means the lemon in much of Algeria, alongside lim and citron. It is heard in cooking: n'3assar chwiya 9ares ("I squeeze a little lemon"). For cold weather, the expression el-berd 9ares means "a biting cold." The derived noun 9rousiya means sourness. The feminine is 9arsa and the plural is 9arsin. Depending on context, the word therefore means the sourness or the fruit itself.
Example
هاد العصير قارص بزاف
had l3assir 9ares bezzaf
“This juice is very sour.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “9ares” but also “9aress”, “qares”, “gares” and “9aras”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 9 is qaf (ق), a k pronounced at the back of the throat.