ghla غلا
Moroccan Darija · verb
“ghla” (غلا) is a verb in Moroccan Darija meaning to become expensive, rise (prices).
Meanings
- to become expensive, rise (prices)
- to boil
- to seethe with anger
Usage
Ghla has two very common uses. For a price, it means "to become expensive": koulchi ghla, "everything has gone up". The person affected is specified with 3la (ghla 3lina). For a liquid, it means "to boil": lma ghla, "the water is boiling". The present is kayghli. The adjective ghali means "expensive", and the noun ghla "the high cost of living". To say that one boils something, the causative form ghella is used.
Example
كولشي غلا علينا
koulchi ghla 3lina
“Everything has become expensive for us.”
Conjugation
Forms as recorded in DODa and reproduced in its spelling, which often leaves out short vowels.
| Imperfective (present) | Perfective (past) | Imperative | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ana (I) | kanghli | ghlit | |
| nta (you, m.) | katghli | ghliti | ghli |
| nti (you, f.) | katghli | ghliti | ghli |
| howa (he) | kayghli | ghla | |
| hiya (she) | katghli | ghlat | |
| 7na (we) | kanghliw | ghlina | |
| ntouma (you, pl.) | katghliw | ghlito | ghliw |
| homa (they) | kayghliw | ghlaw |
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ghla” but also “ghla2”, “ghlaa”, “ghlat”, “rla” and “ghala”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Its Arabic spelling is not fixed either: you will find غلا and غلى, all the same word.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 2 is hamza (ء), a glottal stop.
Type “ghla” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “to boil”; “to become expensive”: ghla in Tunisian.