3chrin عشرين
Moroccan Darija · numeral
“3chrin” (عشرين) is a numeral in Moroccan Darija meaning twenty.
Meanings
- twenty
Usage
3chrin means "twenty". Unlike ten, it keeps the same form before a noun, which stays singular: 3chrin 3am, 3chrin wa7ed. Preceded by chi or wa7ed, it expresses an approximation: chi 3chrin, "about twenty". For compound tens, the unit comes first: wa7ed w 3chrin (twenty-one), khamsa w 3chrin (twenty-five). For prices, a reminder: people often count in rials, so 3chrin ryal makes one dirham.
Example
كنّا شي عشرين واحد
knna chi 3chrin wa7d
“There were about twenty of us.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “3chrin” but also “3echrin”, “3achrin”, “3ochrin” and “aachrin”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 3 is ayn (ع), a voiced sound from deep in the throat with no English equivalent.
Type “3chrin” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “twenty”: 3echrine in Algerian.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “twenty”: 3echrin in Tunisian.