formaj فرماج
Algerian Darja · noun
“formaj” (فرماج) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning cheese.
Meanings
- cheese
Usage
Formaj is the everyday word for "cheese". It is a borrowing from French, fully integrated into Darja, and is used much more often than Standard Arabic jobn. It covers portion cheese as well as grated cheese or camembert. It appears in cooking expressions such as omlette formaj or maqarouna bel formaj. The word is neutral and is used in all everyday registers. It is pronounced without the first French r, as "for-maj".
Example
ديرلي شوية فرماج في الكسكروت
dirli chwiya formaj fel casse-croûte
“Put a bit of cheese in my sandwich.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “formaj” but also “formadj”, “fromaj” and “fourmaj”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “formaj” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “cheese”: frmaj in Moroccan.