ch3er شعر
Moroccan Darija · noun
“ch3er” (شعر) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning hair, body hair.
Meanings
- hair, body hair
- poetry
Usage
Ch3er is a collective noun meaning hair, on the head or body, as a whole. It takes singular agreement: ch3er k7el means "black hair". For a single hair, you say ch3ra. The most common adjectives that go with it are rteb (straight), mje33ed (curly), twil (long) and 9sir (short). The meaning "poetry" also exists, but it is pronounced more like chi3r and belongs to a more formal register, close to Standard Arabic. In everyday conversation, the word almost always refers to hair.
Example
عندو شعر كحل
3ndo ch3er K7el
“He has black hair.”
Forms
| plural | ch3orat |
|---|
Forms as recorded in DODa, in its spelling.
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ch3er” but also “ch3ar”, “ch3r”, “sh3er” and “chi3r”. 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 “ch3er” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “hair, body hair”; “poetry”: ch3er in Algerian.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “hair, head of hair”; “poetry”: cha3r in Tunisian.