souma سومة
Algerian Darja · noun
“souma” (سومة) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning price of an item.
Meanings
- price of an item
- value, cost
Usage
Souma is the usual word for the price of goods, at the market as well as online. To ask a price, you say "chhal souma?" or "chhal essouma ta3ou?" (how much does it cost?). With an adjective, you say "essouma ghalya" (it's expensive) or "essouma rkhissa" (it's cheap). The expression "tla3 essouma" means that prices have gone up. The word is widely used in commerce and on social media. It is feminine: adjectives agree in the feminine. More colloquial than the standard ثمن, it is still understood throughout Algeria.
Example
السومة غالية بزاف هاد العام
essouma ghalya bezzaf had el3am
“Prices are very high this year.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “souma” but also “sooma”, “suma” and “soma”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “souma” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “price (asked or negotiated)”; “good price, discount”: souma in Tunisian.