9itar قطار
Moroccan Darija · noun
“9itar” (قطار) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning train.
Meanings
- train
Usage
9itar means the train. It is heard mostly with the article, l9itar, in a somewhat formal register, or under the influence of announcements and the media. In everyday conversation, many Moroccans say tran or tren just as readily, borrowed from French. The usual verb for "to take the train" is khda. The spelling 9atar is a frequent trap online: it is also how the country name Qatar is written, which explains the confusion in corpora. Context generally clears up the ambiguity.
Example
خديت القطار لكازا
khdit l9itar l casa
“I took the train to Casablanca.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “9itar” but also “9tar”, “qitar” and “9atar”. 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.