frmaj فرماج
Moroccan Darija · noun
“frmaj” (فرماج) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning cheese.
Meanings
- cheese
Usage
Frmaj is the adapted loan from French "fromage", fully integrated into darija. It is used for all types of cheese, whether industrial portions, spreadable cheese or grated cheese. It takes the article l-: l-frmaj. To specify a kind, add a complement: frmaj dyal l-m3iz (goat cheese). Traditional fresh cheese is more often called jben, which is not the same as frmaj. The word is uncountable in everyday use: people say chwiya d l-frmaj or a portion, rather than a plural.
Example
أشناهوا أحسن نوع ديال فرماج عندك؟
achnahowa a7ssen new3 dial fermaj 3endek ?
“What's the best type of cheese you have?”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “frmaj” but also “fromaj”, “fermaj”, “formaj” and “frmage”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “frmaj” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “cheese”: formaj in Algerian.